Switcheroos and Baking Soda

I am so lazy! I've been having a hard time finding the desire to write anything. Really, all I'd like to do at the moment is a whole fat lot of nothing. Or sleep. My dark circles have bags. Even when I get enough sleep, I look exhausted.

I haven't done anything more with that essay about abortion that I talked about - I've been busy ignoring it in favor of things that require much less brainpower. In fact, I'm pretty sure that my brain has just completely deteriorated to a point where I'll never be able to think deeply again. That's kind of a scary thought, so maybe now I need to work on that essay and post it.

I'm listening to my favorite song by M at the moment, which is making it hard to sit and type everything out because it's so beautiful that I want to sit with my eyes closed and just listen to it.

Last night, I switched from my poor Frankenstein of a computer (which I never posted any photos of) to S's old XPS that used to be J's a few years ago. S inherited M's XPS (they're actually almost the exact same computer, except M's old computer has a better processor and RAM but a smaller hard drive than the other XPS), so I get a computer that I can actually keep most of my crap on, but now I can't play the Sims, unless I turn this one off and put it somewhere safe and hook the other one up with its eight thousand cables, because the optical drive on this one is broken from J dropping it so much. However, this computer has a much better, and less broken, keyboard. It's also faster, has Windows 7 instead of XP, and it's prettier. Not to mention, I could theoretically take it places with me that allow me to use the electricity, since the battery does not work at all. And I can close it if I need to, which is nice and something I've definitely missed. Anyway, I was intending on formatting this computer before using it, but then discovered that because the optical drive only works sporadically, it can't reinstall Windows (or run the Sims, since you need the disc to play if you don't want to play pirated copies), so what I've done instead is delete all of S's old files, reconfigure all of her settings and basically change absolutely everything to suit me. It's almost like having it be mine, except that it says Users>S-- instead of Users>L--, which just bothers the hell out of me, but honestly, if that's all I've got to complain about, I'll take what I can get.

Anyway, so lots of excitement surrounding the transference of computers - I'm keeping the Frankenstein as a way to play the Sims until I manage to acquire one with a functioning optical drive and other good parts, and this also means transferring my music library over - that's almost 18 gigs of music! And I have to completely resort it and delete all the stuff that I only deleted out of iTunes last time, because it's all back now since I never deleted the source files. (Over 1,000 songs, actually, that I'm going to have to go and find and delete. Oh joy.) Then I have to readd my audiobooks and fix all of them as well, probably, knowing my luck. Maybe it'll let me fix the chapter titles so they don't suck anymore, though, because a lack of formatting makes my head want to explode. And I need to find a better copy of Order of the Phoenix, as the one I've got is missing the end of the chapter The Woes of Mrs. Weasley.

Well, that's probably enough bitching about how disorganized I am and how much work I'm going to have to do in iTunes before I can even attempt to sync my iPod, so in other news, S and I are going to be trying out this "No 'Poo" thing that I found on a blog, which sounds completely awesome - basically, we won't be using store-bought shampoo or conditioner on our hair anymore, but a mixture of baking soda and water (and after J gets paid, we'll also be adding essential oils to give it a scent) for shampoo every few days and apple cider vinegar with water for conditioner, though just on the ends at first. Funnily enough, I found this not by searching for ways to stop using shampoo, but to find ways to make my hair healthier with food items, out of a combination of curiousity and frustration at how pathetic and weird my hair is. And because I just joined a long hair forum, hoping for some information that I might find helpful in growing my hair out. Anyway, I found this blog after a bit of googling, and it sounds like an absolutely terrific idea, especially after I got a load of her before and after pictures - her before picture had her hair looking dry and weird and poofy with this weird wave, and in the after picture, her hair was tame and soft and silky-looking, and it had darkened, too, to a shade of brown that she apparently was in love with.

Anyway, I've devised a schedule of how often I'm going to use the baking soda mixture on my hair, and I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to use the ACV every time I wash my hair or every other time. The way I've drawn up the schedule looks as if I'll be washing my hair on Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Monday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, and then back to Saturday again, in a nice little cycle, so there'll be two days between each washing. I don't know if I'm going to need to move them closer or not - you're supposed to just rinse your hair with warm water in the shower on the days you don't wash it. It's going to be an interesting first week, though - the first 10 days or so apparently involve some truly horrific hair days while the scalp stops being all weird and re-regulates the natural oil production, which is basically the purpose of this experiment. I'm going to give it about a month and see how I like it by the end of August, and if it ends up looking okay, that's just how I'm going to wash my hair from now on. Hopefully, I'll never need to use a styling product again.

I'm really excited about this! I've read one account of someone's hair falling out in clumps, but 90% of them say that after the natural oils of the scalp regulated, they were so happy with it that they'd never go back. Also, some people discovered that they had curly hair, or straight hair, or another entirely different hair type than they previously thought, and it cuts out frizz almost completely. Also, if this works and we keep at it, we're going to save SO much money in the long run - we use a lot of shampoo and conditioner right now, and it'll be nice to only have to buy a box of nice, cheap baking soda instead of shampoo and conditioner for every person in the house, if J and Girl Child switch to it as well. Actually, I'm doubtful that Girl Child will make the switch, since it's so close to the start of the school year, but J probably will, if it does good things for our hair. I'm hoping M will make the switch, too, from what I've read, it does amazing things for people with very curly hair, and I think he'd be very happy.

Today, we went on errands involving the Kansas Department of Revenue - specifically getting the car registered and going to get Girl Child her first state ID and to get my instruction permit so I can work on driving and get my license. Unfortunately, I'm listed as having suspended driving privileges, so I couldn't get my permit today, or take the test, or do anything but be hung up on by customer service in Topeka. So I'm calling tomorrow morning, after I call the other relevant places to get more information on why this happened. Hopefully, it'll be quickly resolved with little effort on my part and I'll get my permit on Tuesday or something. If I'm lucky and it doesn't turn out that my driving privileges are suspended for life or something ridiculous.

In D&D news, we're starting another new game what W is going to run, and I'm going to try out being a rogue.  Basically, I'm a fancy beat-stick, but it's still a slight departure from the norm, and since I'm not all that good at the roleplay aspect as of yet, that's the best I can do right now.  I decided to name my new rogue Zoe, and S told me that I'd damn well better live up to the name and be a Big Damn Hero.  It should be interesting with W running - I've never actually played a game with him running, because LW was born right as he was about to start running the last game that I was going to participate with him as DM, and we basically had to give that campaign up after one session.  So, yeah, I'm a little nervous, as from what S has said, W's games are usually something that turns into a Lovecraftian horror.  Anyway, because J's work schedule is changing, we're moving game from Saturdays to Mondays, which is handy, because that is the day I'll be watching LW every week, so we'll be able to get started sooner since they won't have to drive all the way out to Raytown to pick him up before even getting here.

I applied for a job with the county a day or two ago, I can't remember for what position right now (it's in my email, so it's not like I'll be totally clueless if they actually called me), and I'm intending on applying to be an election worker, so maybe that'll help me get a normal job.  The permit thing is going to cause me problems, though, but maybe not too many.

I don't really have anything further to add, so I'm going to go and be very frustrated with iTunes now.

Also, thanks to The Bloggess, I now want a scary metal chicken sculpture.

The Longest Week That Ever Was

So we're officially not going to be playing the D&D campaign we've been playing anymore, because W and A haven't been able to consistently show up on time in weeks.  I know they're busy, but ...

I'm just really disappointed.  I was really excited about this campaign and interested in seeing how the story would play out, and I'm upset that I may never get to find out what happens next, especially as I was actually starting to get sort of good at playing.

Anyway.  Today has been kind of a bad day - the car broke, and they're having to have that fixed this weekend in anticipation of J going to work on Tuesday.  He's got Sunday and Monday off, though, for Father's Day and J and S's wedding anniversary.  I'm going to be taking the kids on a long walk/trip to the park, and texting to see if the coast is clear before we return.  Lots of water we will need.  Yes.

I'm still in a lot of pain from the whole "let's risk my life for Sunshine thing" - I damaged the plantar fascia tendon in both feet because of sprinting in untied shoes without arch support.  I didn't do near as much damage as S did to her foot in May, but it's quite enough to be going on with, especially with all the muscle pain and the other tendon pain I'm experiencing from that.  At least I know I can still sprint when I need to, I guess.  Oh, and for extra fun, I've finally started menstruating again after three months.  (I know, squick, sorry.)  I'm worried there's something wrong with me, but it could also be my weight or how stressful the last three years have been, or maybe something got broken when I had the miscarriage in 2009.  I don't know.  I hope it's just being all funky for no reason, though.  That'd be nice.

Sunshine seems to be doing a little better.  She's still being much more timid than usual, and she can't wag her whole butt at all right now (though she wags just the end of her tail a little bit when we pet her right after giving her her meds), but she's been a bit less stiff today, which I'm going to take as a good sign.  Also, I've discovered that since she can't scratch her own itches at all right now, if I scratch her ears, I can make her moan, which is hilarious.  I love those damn dogs so much.  Shadow's just been himself, though I think he's being a bit more gentle with Sunshine now than he was on Thursday - he tried to play with her and flipped her onto her back and she screamed, it was scary.  Anytime someone happens to say "where is it" about anything at all, he comes running, thinking we've got the laser out.

Today was pretty boring, actually, beyond the whole car thing.  It feels like that didn't even happen today because today has been such a long day, even though nothing really happened today at all.  I've been particularly tired all day (espresso didn't even help), and rather moody as well.  I'm sure I'm just a barrel of laughs right now.

W and A were here for a couple of hours without LW because he's actually visiting his mother for once this weekend, and we just hung out because J couldn't even remember what he wanted to do for the dungeon we were about to go into.  I don't know why he didn't write it all down like he did the last one, but whatever floats his boat, I guess.

I'm worried about C.

I haven't been sleeping well at all the last few weeks.  I'm always tired, but I can't seem to fall asleep, and once I manage to get to sleep, I sleep so lightly that everything wakes me up, so I'm barely getting any sleep at all, and that's not helping my mood, so I've been probably a bit unnecessarily cranky lately.

This week feels like it's been about three weeks long.

Nothing to See Here

Sorry sorry sorry.

I meant to post periodically this week, but I am full of fail and keep putting it off or finding something else to do.  I don't really remember what happened in the last week, nothing special.  I have been acquiring a lot of obscure, badly made disaster movies made by people who don't understand science, which S and I have been watching with relish.  Why do the made-for-TV ones always have horrible effects at the beginning?

Nothing of note has been happening lately.  Just the usual boring stuff.  The only excitement lately has been with Girl Child, who went to a water park with her best friend and got a sunburn over most of her body, resulting in sunsickness, so we've all been taking care of her (mostly S and J, but I've been helping her out when necessary).  Poor kid is miserable, I hope she gets better soon.  We even had to end our D&D session early on Saturday night because she fainted, it was scary.  She's doing a lot better now, though.

My sleep schedule has been screwed lately.  However, I figured out how to sleep much more deeply and not be woken up randomly for no reason - Benadryl.  I was having some issues with being allergic to something last night, so I took three, and I ended up sleeping hard until 10:00 this morning.  I actually feel rested for once, unlike yesterday, when I slept for 10 hours and still felt like poop.  I got about eight hours last night (it took forever for me to fall asleep until I took the Benadryl), and I feel like something approaching normal.

I talked to E via texting last night and I may be getting the rest of my stuff back from her dad's storage soonish, depending on what S and J say about it after we rearrange bedrooms.

I sorted some of my files that are on J's computer (because my external broke and I don't have room on this computer) and deleted a lot - almost 2,000 files.  I have more work to do, but things are a bit more organized than they were, even though there's a folder that decided to be broken on there that I can't delete.  I hate that; not being able to do whatever I want with my files drives me nuts.  If I want to delete it, just fucking let me, Windows!  I deleted almost all of the pictures of the ex that I had on there, I'm finally at the point where it's not heartwrenching for me to go through them and delete the ones I don't care about.  I don't want to delete everything, there's no point erasing the memories, but I don't need his baby pictures, for instance.  And things were good in the beginning, before it all fell apart.  Most of the files on there are actually Sims-related - I have about 35,000 individual files in my folder, and most of them pertain to custom content for Sims 2.  I do love custom content, as long as it doesn't break the game.  (Which is why I stopped using Inteenimater - it will sometimes cause fatal errors in the game and force you to uninstall it and thus lose the entire save file and all the work involved.)

S and I were trying to watch Category 6: Day of Destruction (having watched 10.5 and 10.5: Apocalypse over the last few days), but the Toddler is being a butt and stealing stuff from Girl Child's spot in her chair and generally being a normal toddler.  All toddlers are obnoxious.  It's a fact of life.  So no, I'm not mad, he's just being what he is, and it wouldn't be fair to him to be mad at him for that.  Yeah, it's irritating, but he'll outgrow it eventually.  I'll be really happy when he gets out of the grabbing everything stage, though.  And the screaming louder than the TV thing so we can't watch stuff thing.  Heh.  Really, though, I love him and I don't mind much, because it's so cool to watch him grow up and develop and learn and stuff.

Anyway, I don't have anything special to say, nothing interesting is going on, as I've said.

Ringtones and Other Drivel

So I didn’t post yesterday because it’s really irritating to type on this computer (that’s part of why I haven’t been posting as often), but I really did mean to!  Baby-sitting was excellent, TD was the most placid baby ever.  He didn’t cry when AD and MD said goodbye and left, he was totally cool about having his diaper changed, he was totally cool with laying down for a nap, he let me feed him without making a mess at all, he was perfectly content to sit in my lap and watch a documentary with me, and he was just generally the easiest baby to take care of ever.  The most difficult part of taking care of him was washing out his bottle, because it’s a Dr. Brown’s bottle, but even that was easy, as I’ve dealt with those before.  Also, it turns out that they only live about a mile away from me, so it’ll be really easy to baby-sit him in the future.

Seriously, that was the most awesome baby-sitting job I’ve ever had.

We ended up not being able to have game on Saturday night, because J never went to bed on Saturday as there was so much to do.  He mowed the lawn after S and the Toddler woke up, and then he just stayed up.  While I was baby-sitting, the entire clan was over at J's parents' house hanging out, and Girl Child picked out a cell phone she likes because she's being put on the plan this summer.  By the time I got home, J was having what was supposed to be a nap in the giant chair in the living room, but he wouldn't wake up.  We didn't get him conscious until after 9:00, and we were supposed to go to W and A's apartment for game this time, but by the time we got J up, the Toddler had had to go to bed because we just couldn't keep him up anymore, he was simply too tired.  So W and A came over to hang out (and LW too, of course), and we had some fun chatting with them.  W discovered this blog and realized I am not nearly as stupid as I come across.  (S says that I only seem stupid because I am perpetually happy in my demeanor and since I am also rather spastic and tend to forget words and replace them with 'thingy', people tend to think I am not nearly as smart as I am.)  Apparently I actually make sense when I write.

Yesterday was mostly spent listening to music with Girl Child and turning some songs into ringtones and making a bunch of wallpapers for my phone, too.  Here’s a list of (all) the songs I have turned into ringtones:

Psychostick - Do You Want a Taco? (custom ringtone for S when she calls me)
Jimmy Buffett - Cheeseburger in Paradise (currently the custom ringtone for J, but I may change it)
Cowboy Troy - I Play Chicken With a Train (Simlish) (because I find it hilarious)
Jonathan Coulton - Code Monkey (because it’s one of my favorite songs with vocals)
Jonathan Coulton - Chiron Beta Prime (this will be my main ringtone around Christmastime)
Jolly Rogers - All For Me Grog (I may change J’s ringtone to this)
Hakuna Matata (Girl Child’s custom ringtone)
Adele - Rolling in the Deep (I don’t actually like this, but it’s H’s custom ringtone because she likes it)
They Might Be Giants - Why Does The Sun Shine? (another one that I have because it’s really awesome)
Hedwig’s Theme from the first Harry Potter movie (because I’m a nerd)
Canon Rock, arranged by GTRMAN (ringtone for the house phone)
Backstreet Boys - As Long As You Love Me (ringtone for E)
Final Fantasy X Victory Fanfare (my text message tone)

And that’s all I have so far, though I think I might make Still Alive a ringtone as well, just because I may as well round out the dorkyness.  I also made Re: Your Brains into a ringtone, but I had to lower the bitrate so much to make my phone like it that it ended up sounding like poop, so I deleted it off my phone and will have to try again later.

Last night, I told M that I really wanted my favorite song by him as a ringtone, but wasn’t sure what part I would use because I love the whole thing so much (I love it so much it sometimes nearly makes me cry), and he asked me to play the part of it that I loved the most, and about ten minutes later, he sent me a file transfer on MSN.  With the most beautiful part of the song turned into a ringtone.  He even gave it a fade-out at the end.  He is so awesome.  He made me want to cry.

Today we have a few errands to run, mostly along the lines of groceries and a library trip.  I haven’t done any work on my afghan since Sunday morning, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to get some done today, though with as tired as I’m feeling right now, I’m rather doubtful that that will happen.

I exercised some of my creativity last night and created a rather strange picture with my Sharpies (I have a very large set of Sharpies) on some of the drawing paper Mom got me for my birthday.  S said it reminds her of the ocean.  I’ll try to scan it later so I can put it on DeviantArt and I’ll post a little copy here (or a link to my DA page), and if that doesn’t work, I’ll just take a picture of it.

My earbuds are officially broken - they have to be held at a certain angle for the left one to make any noise at all, so at the moment, my ashtray is holding the cord in place where it’s plugged into my computer so I can hear my music without wanting to scream.

I checked out a buttload of crocheting books from the library awhile ago, and almost all of them are rubbish, of course.  I’ll be taking them back today, once S is awake enough that she’s willing to go.  I’ve got more waiting to be picked up, oh boy!  I’ve managed to renew the books I have out for S a second time, so I don’t have to worry about fines on them, and hopefully I’ll be able to renew them a few more times since she’s still on the first one.

I think I must be being particularly annoying lately or something, because it feels like everyone is being really cranky and impatient with me.  Perhaps I should be less talkative or something, I don’t know.

The laundry still isn’t folded.  I don’t want to do it because I want to get the rest of the dirty clothes washed, but I think I’m going to do that today or tomorrow.  I’m sick of the clean clothes being knocked onto the floor anytime anyone but me or S goes through them, and I’d really like to know what clothes we actually have clean at the moment, because we are all convinced that none of us have anything clean, but we must, because there’s about 10 loads sitting in the living room that say otherwise.  Ha.

The Toddler has completely covered his face in a thin layer of applesauce.  I’m very amused.

I just discovered another song of M’s that makes me want to cry.

I don’t have anything else to say, really.  I hope today turns out to be a good day, though.

Afghans, Baby-Sitting, and Friends

I really need to get better about posting regularly again.  Most of my time lately has been spent working on my afghan.  I’ll post a picture at the end, after I take one and get J to help me get it onto my computer.  (My computer won’t recognize my camera, but if I plug it into his USB hub, I can transfer pictures from my camera to my computer via the home network.  I’m not even kidding, that’s how I have to do it.)  Though he’s just gone outside to mow the lawn, so I’ll just do it myself, haha.

I ended up staying up all night, until after 11:00 on Thursday morning, due to some sleeping complications.  I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep before I was awoken, and then I went out with E.

Hanging out with E was fantastic.  We had a blast.  We went to Waxy O’Shea’s, talked about her marriage (she finally called a lawyer and is starting the divorce proceedings soon), then came back home and played around in the driveway for awhile.  I got a hilarious video of her freaking out over mosquitoes, and we took a bunch of pictures.  We also ran around with her crazy little dog for awhile.  He’s so tiny.  I’m so used to Shadow and Sunshine that Buddy seems abnormally small and delicate; I’m afraid to pet him like I would normally pet a dog, and end up treating him more like a cat.

Nothing special happened on Friday, except that I got a text message from someone I’m friends with on Facebook asking if I’d baby-sit her adorable baby for a few hours today, so I’ll be going off to do that for four hours and then going to game and W and A’s apartment.  I’m going to have to completely repack a purse with everything I’ll need for game just in case I wind up going straight from baby-sitting to game.  I’m pretty stoked about baby-sitting, though, this particular baby is 11 months old, and it’s been forever since I played with anyone under 1 year.  I’m looking forward to placid baby-ness and a lack of toddler-style behavior.  As much as I love the Toddler, he does make me want to tear my hair out sometimes.

Speaking of the Toddler, he stayed up almost all night because he does not like it when the bedroom door lets light in, so he woke up at about 1:30 when S tried to go to bed, and stayed up until about 6:30, when J managed to get him back to bed, and then he woke up at almost 10:00.  Woo-hoo for broken sleep!

We’ve got D&D tonight, as previously stated, and we’re going to try to do it at W and A’s apartment, which should be interesting, since I’m not entirely sure the Toddler will cooperate and sleep.  Should be interesting to try, though.

Anyway, here’s a picture of what I have completed of the afghan so far:

These are the top two rows of squares.  I have five more rows to go, then a border to get it even all the way around, and then an edging to make it pretty!

And that, as they say, is that.

A Tornado Outbreak Makes For a Crazy Week

This has been one hell of a week. 

Last Sunday evening, an F5 tornado hit the city of Joplin, Missouri.  This is the town that one of my friends, CG, lives in with her husband and daughter, and several of my friends have friends and family there.  There are 139 confirmed dead already, and they haven’t even found everyone yet.  Joplin isn’t exactly a small town, its population numbers somewhere around 50,000, and there’s a six-block section of the city, cut from west to east, that is just flattened.  CG was barely missed, she lives two blocks north of where the really bad damage starts, and they came out of it with just some trees that needed to be removed, not even any broken windows.  I know she’s lost at least three coworkers and some friends, I’m not too sure how many because it’s not like she’s got a counter up on her Facebook profile, and she’s been pretty quiet about it.  I feel really terrible for her, I can’t imagine what that’s like, to lose so many people at once, to see your entire hometown ripped to shreds - I’ve been in a few close calls and one small tornado, which I think was an F2, when I was a toddler, but I’ve never witnessed firsthand that kind of destruction on that scale, or known I’d lost everything, that almost everyone I know has as well.  Today is CG’s daughter’s second birthday.  I was invited to the birthday party, but there’s no way I could get down there now, and I don’t think she could have made it all the way up here to pick me up, now that all this has happened.

I don’t really remember what happened on Monday.  I think there was probably some stuff that happened, but damned if I can remember what occurred.  It obviously wasn’t important.  Apparently Monday was a void.

We bought a weather radio on Tuesday (the 24th), and got it all set up in time for us to have some lovely severe thunderstorms come in while I was babysitting the kids.  I kept The Weather Channel on the whole night and watched as tornado after tornado hit Texas and Oklahoma and Arkansas, and another one just scraped by Joplin.  The weather radio freaked out regularly about every 10 minutes or so because S didn’t get it programmed for our county until the next morning.

On Wednesday, there was an F0 tornado that went straight through the middle of Overland Park.  It was actually a very large, wedge-shaped tornado, but it just didn’t have any oomph behind it, which was why there was almost no damage (some light tree damage was the extent, I believe), because it was large and slow-moving... We got so lucky.  If it had had more power behind it, it would have completely destroyed Overland Park, more than likely.  It passed by less than two miles from home, and S and I had to get J out of bed and downstairs and woke M up in the process and spent a good twenty minutes in the basement, and then stayed upstairs for the second set of sirens because it wasn’t going to pass remotely close to the house, or at least not close enough to worry about.  (S could seriously be a meteorologist.)

Thursday was Girl Child’s last day of school.  She did fantastically, as always, though her hair was... special.  She and S teased it up that morning and made it crazy and … well, crazy, because she wanted to make a statement for the last day of school.

J brought AB home with him from work Thursday night, so she was there Friday when we all woke up.  She’s a nice enough girl, but after awhile she’s a bit grating.  Probably because she’s consistently a teenager in her behavior.  She actually ended up irritating the crap out of me just by being there all day.  I can see why S gets so sick of me sometimes.  Anyway, we ended up taking her with us on our errands, most of which involved them staying in the car while I took the Toddler in with me wherever I was going because he cried when I left him in the car.  I got the yarn I needed to finish my afghan, and pillow inserts for the matching pillows I’m making, and made a stop at Micro Center, and Wal-Mart - we were out of the house for about five hours and did not stop all day.  Friday was exhausting.

Friday night, we started to start a new game of D&D, but it was taking forever for character creation because J was too busy playing Minecraft to remember that he was supposed to be explaining all this to AB, so S and I ended up going to bed once we got too tired to stay up any longer.  I’m pretty sure AB isn’t smart enough to play D&D anyway, she can’t even spell charisma.  I have generally found that most people who play D&D and are good at it are ridiculously smart.  I hope I become a good player, though I have no illusions about my intelligence.  I am not as smart as I was when I was in high school.  I mean, I could still out-think most of the people I had the misfortune of attending high school with, but a potato could out-think some of those people.  Anyway, W, S, and J are all ridiculously smart, and they are all good at D&D.  I’m not sure AB will even be able to figure out what J is talking about half the time, unless he dumbs his explanation down a lot.

Yesterday was okay, W and A showed up on time, but then W went back to their apartment for an hour to look for A’s dice, so we still didn’t start until after 10:00, but we got the story advanced a little bit, at least.  I’m finally starting to consistently remember how to do everything and am needing less and less help knowing what kind of die I need for a roll (though I have enough dice at this point that it is difficult to find the right kind just by them being camouflaged by all the other ones), and I’m getting pretty good at levelling my character up without any help.  I imagine other stuff besides game-related stuff happened, but once again, the rest of the day is a blank. 

Today hasn’t been very eventful.  I was woken up by S asking me where the hell I put the Wheat Thins, but they were under J’s window for unknown reasons, which I knew but had no part in causing.  Anyway, nothing important has happened today.  I made cornbread so J could have lunch at work, I acquired some new music that I’m sorting through, and I baby-sat the Toddler for awhile this evening for about an hour and a half.  He cried the entire time until I stripped him naked and let him lay on me and eat peaches.  Toddlers are so freaking strange.  The morning of the Overland Park tornado, he rubbed an entire handful of cottage cheese into his eye.

I’ve been incredibly cranky for most of the day, though apparently you wouldn’t know it.  I am short on patience and I just want to bite off the head of whoever is foolhardy enough to bother me.  I don’t even know why I feel this way.  Probably a combination of not having any coffee this morning and we ran out of cigarettes this morning and because J has an e-cig, they’ve decided to stop buying them altogether, which leaves me quitting cold turkey and I am very unhappy about this because I don’t currently want to quit at all.  I know it’s not really my choice - it’s not my money, if they don’t want to buy them, I can’t change that.  Anyway, I’m irrationally and disproportionately angry about the whole thing in addition to feeling rubbed completely raw by being completely without cigarettes for almost the whole day.  I’m actually really glad Girl Child is staying over at a friend’s house tonight, so I won’t randomly start yelling at her for absolutely no reason.  That would suck, and she wouldn’t deserve it.  At least I recognize this, which is why I've put in the earbuds and am not talking to anyone, because anytime I talk to anybody, I don't sound very nice.

I think another part of my problem is that I abstractly stopped writing this week, and I probably shouldn’t have.  I don’t really have another outlet to just get some of this stuff out of my head, I don’t talk to anyone, ever, so it just gets internalized if I don’t write about it.  Fun.

Anyway, tomorrow is Monday, we’ll see what happens then.  Probably nothing.  Tonight, my plans are to finish off this bag I’m making to keep my scrap yarn in and then move on to working on the squares for the afghan as soon as possible.  I’m going to see if I can watch Orphan while crocheting, but I’ve never seen it, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to.  I don’t generally do horror very well.

Tornadoes, Graduation(s), and New People

Things have been a little hectic here lately, which is why I haven't posted.  Mom's graduation went well, except for the fact that my camera refuses to take good pictures in gigantic rooms from large distances, so I have almost no good pictures of her graduating, but I did get a very funny video of her waving her diploma at us (I was there with my aunt and uncle), and we got some group pictures, which unfortunately have the color balance messed up on them.  When I put them on the computer, I'm going to edit them and hopefully fix them.

Friday was Girl Child's sixth grade graduation, and everyone in the house except the dogs and M went to see it.  I got some pictures of her getting her certificates, but unfortunately missed out on getting some good pictures because the Toddler was screaming and had to be removed.  Friday was a nothing-special kind of day beyond that.

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  J let S and me sleep in and took care of the Toddler for awhile until we got up, partly because the Toddler woke up at midnight and didn't go back to sleep until like 5:30 and then woke up at 7:00.  Nobody got much sleep, even with me going to bed at 7:30, so it was a fucked kind of morning.  Then we had errands, and then S had an errand that she had to go on and I needed to get the house at least partially cleaned up because we were having a new person over, and I was having a hard time getting J out of bed, so there was a bit of a meltdown on my part because I couldn't get everything done and felt like an epic failure.  The only upside of the afternoon was that the Toddler actually napped, unlike Friday when he fell asleep in the car for a few minutes and then absolutely refused to nap at home.

J's new friend from work came to visit yesterday, which was why I was cleaning so frantically.  I managed to get the hallway completely clear of laundry and J took it all to the basement in trash bags for me, and J got the toys and other stuff picked up off the floor, and then we collapsed onto the furniture until J's new friend arrived.  I'm not sure what to call her, her name also starts with an A, so I think I'll call her AB, which are her initials.  (Thirty seconds of Facebook sleuthing to find that out.  Whee.)  Anyway, she was a completely new entity to me, so I was a bit shy/aloof at first, because that's just how I am with new people sometimes.  It wasn't until S got home awhile later that I loosened up and got a bit more comfortable.  J grilled pork chops and steaks and we had a team effort on the veggies, and then the Toddler needed a second bath because he was completely covered in food goop.

As a side note, while I was clearing out the laundry, a fat black spider fell on my chest from the inside of some clothes, and managed to bite me on my collarbone before being flung to the floor, where J killed it while I flailed hysterically and held the Toddler behind me.  With a bottle of Wet.  Yes.  It's funny now, but at the time it was horrible.  Anyway, my collarbone is itchy.

W and A didn't arrive until after 10:00, with LW, so we started game very late, and just as we were really starting to get involved in it, I heard tornado sirens.  A went to the door and said that the air felt stagnant and completely still, and S jumped up and leaped across the room to her computer to check the weather radar because we don't have a weather radio right now, said that there was a tornado that looked like it was heading straight for us, and we all mobilized and started grabbing stuff.  I went and scared the living hell out of Girl Child by bursting into her room and yelling the essentials at her, then grabbed the Toddler out of bed (he didn't even wake up) and ran downstairs with him.  A started crying with LW in her arms because their dogs and cat were alone in their apartment and she was scared they'd die, and then she started trying to get in contact with her mother, but her phone didn't get reception in the basement, even by the window, so she tried AB's phone, which also had no reception, so I sent someone up to get my phone so A could try it, but all she could do was access the internet on it, it wouldn't call or send texts.  (It limited us to emergency calls only and nobody thought to grab the house phone.)  After awhile, S decided it would be safe to go back upstairs, so I put the Toddler back to bed (and luckily he didn't cry), and we called game for the night.  I also managed to get LW to sleep for a little while, too, until W and A decided to go home.

This reminded me of a Thank God School's Over party in high school where there were severe storms and we ended up in the basement being terrified that we'd be blown away.  I don't remember enough about that specific party to give more details than that, but it was pretty special.

J let me sleep until 9:30 this morning, and since he went to bed and I got up, the Toddler has thrown several tantrums, which somehow did not wake AB, he attempted to bite me during a time-out, and now he's chilling out in his high chair and we're just sitting around the living room.

I'm pretty sure today is going to be a nothing-much kind of day, too.  That's okay, because I like it that way.

Daily Drivel and Advice

I ended up writing nothing over the last weekend, mostly because I was so irritated with Blogger for deleting the page I had to re-create (the link is just below the title), and also because I’ve been exhausted beyond belief.

I got up at 6:00 after going to sleep around 4:00 on Saturday to help get everything ready to go for the road trip S and J were taking to pick up the riding lawn mower JGM gave them.  I had the house to myself for the whole day, so I ended up going back to sleep around 8:00 and slept until nearly 3:00, so I got nearly enough sleep.  I ended up cleaning the whole living room and taking a ton of laundry downstairs in anticipation of D&D, so we’d have room to play and S could stop dying on her crutches.

W and A came over with LW around 10:00, about the same time that J and S and the children returned, but by this point, it was far too late for game, so we hung out and chatted.  I made cornbread around midnight because it sounded wonderful.  They were here until LW fell asleep on A around 1:00, and then we all hung around the living room doing our own thing until very late.  Saturday was basically a very boring day full of nothing much.

Yesterday was also a nothing-much routine kind of day.  I don’t actually remember a lot about it because of how tired I’ve been.  The only thing that we really did was stop by the library to print some stuff because our printer at home is broken, and then not a whole lot happened.  I’ve been particularly irritable the last few days, not sure why, but I’d really like to keep that under control, since no one in this house has really done anything to deserve me being cranky and snarky toward them.

Today was exhausting because I didn’t get nearly enough sleep.  I fell asleep on S last night while she was showing me stuff in Minecraft, and then when I had to wake up so she could go to bed, I was unable to get back to sleep for almost an hour, then J scared me awake when he came home, and the dogs barked at M when he got home a couple of hours later, which also woke me up, and then the Toddler woke up before 7:00, and from that point onward, his mission for the day seemed to be to destroy the living room and grab stuff that doesn’t belong to him.  Like S’s incense.  I tried to take a nap earlier, but it takes me awhile to fall asleep, and between that and the guitar and the screaming, I managed about 10 minutes, especially since the Toddler decided to pound on the bedroom door and yell at me.  Wah, wah, poor me.

I had a stroke of brilliance earlier in regard to J’s work food - chili and cornbread!  I made a big batch of cornbread and we bought some canned chili at the grocery store, and he’s set!  Yay!

I have no plans in particular for tonight, I’m going to go to sleep early and hopefully get enough sleep so I can have some energy tomorrow (the coffee just doesn’t give me the energy I need anymore, I totally need an espresso maker), and I’m going to try to get some stuff done.  Like making a dent in the laundry, because S, the Toddler, and I are all completely out of clothes.  I’m currently wearing a retired pair of polyester dress pants, and it’s just too warm for that crap.  They don’t breathe.  I’m dying. 

I talked to C for a bit today.  I’m worried about him, he’s in a similar situation to E, and I hate seeing good people be miserable for no good reason. 

Speaking of E, I also spent a good long time talking to her today as well.  I really feel bad for her, she seems to be stuck between trying to please everyone and wanting to be happy, and she can only have one in this situation.  I hope she and her husband sit down soon and have a discussion, a real discussion, about the things they want out of life, and hopefully he’ll come to the same conclusion that she did, that they need to get a divorce.  She’s just so palpably miserable.  I try to sympathize with her as best I can, even though I’m on the complete opposite end of her viewpoint toward children.  I just don’t think she deserves to be punished because she doesn’t want them.  Not everyone was made to be a parent, and she’s one of those people.  As wonderful as she is, she would be an awful parent.  She likes things to be too clean to be a happy, effective parent.  I don’t know why her husband doesn’t see that, doesn’t see her.  I don’t think he even wants to see her, just the image of what he wants her to be, and I think that’s why he gets so angry when she just isn’t what he expects.  He doesn’t love her for her, and that’s not fair to her.

I don’t understand the attitude to the people who are childfree.  They are still people, and they still deserve respect, and they deserve to do with their lives what they want, even if that doesn’t happen to include children.  E doesn’t deserve to be treated like a brood mare because her mother-in-law wants grandchildren, or because her husband doesn’t care about her wishes.  I have several friends, not just E, who are childfree, and I try to be as supportive as I can, even though I don’t get why E and H hate babies.  Well, I guess I can see why they hate babies, but I see so much good and fun with babies that I can overlook all the gross stuff and the screaming and the sleep deprivation.  I guess that’s the difference between wanting to have children and not wanting to have children, and I will never pressure either E or H or any of my friends who don’t want children to have them.  It’s their decision to make, and I’ll still be just as supportive if they decide in 10 years that they would like to have children, though I have my doubts that either of them will.

I’ve been kind of an advice dispenser today.  Every so often, I just come out with all of this wisdom, and it always seems to be just the right thing to say.  It’s really weird.  I’m really stupid when it comes to managing my own life, but I can find the correct solution for the problems in my friends’ lives, and give them justifying reasons for why they deserve to be happy.  I just wish I could take my own advice sometimes.  (JHB used to call me his source of wisdom because of this weird quirk of mine.)

Anyway, today hasn’t been terribly exciting by any stretch of the imagination.  The Girl Child has slipped back into being sullen and surly, and has gone back to being insulting toward me at random intervals, S and I have been hanging out most of the day, and I’ve finally gotten my first wind and have started doing some of the laundry.  M and J are both at work, and the Toddler is in bed for the night.  Just another day at the crazy house.  Ha.  S is currently making lava waterfalls in Minecraft.

I really have nothing more to say.

Procrastination and File Transfers

I’m really not very good at following through with my plans.

Remember all that stuff about getting something done today?  Well, I must be the Queen of Accomplishing Nothing, because that’s pretty much what I did.  Well, I helped S get the living room cleaned up a bit and there was some play with the Toddler, and I “made” the corn for dinner tonight (I threw a bag of frozen corn into a bowl, added butter, and microwaved it), but I haven’t done much else.  I even had a nap for awhile because I was exhausted.  Honestly, if I could sleep 12 hours a day, it would be so awesome.

Anyway, I am currently writing this from the laptop I was using before the screen gave out.  J fixed it up for me.  He removed the screen, which involved completely destroying it, set up the wireless antenna so I could have internet without stretching still another ethernet cable across the living room (the antenna is taped across the chasm that once held the screen), and set it up with new drivers for the monitor so I could have a decent screen resolution.  Other than the cables completely taking over this side of the couch, it’s not bad.  My only real problem is that this keyboard is half broken, so it takes me longer to type on this computer than it does to use J’s, but at least I have the ability to use the internet when he’s here again, which I have sorely missed.  I’m going to take pictures of this amalgam soonish and post them to There I Fixed It, which is a site on the Cheezburger Network, for those not in the know.

I need to mop the kitchen soon, I don’t think J is going to do it, and there’s glass all over the floor.  I’m going to see if wet paper towels do the trick first, though, because I hate mopping.  (There was an unfortunate incident with an ashtray.)

Unfortunately, we are NOT having game tonight, because W and A are still moving into their new apartment and getting everything unpacked and put away.  But yay, they’ll only be living about 5 minutes away, so it’ll probably be easier overall to game from now on, because they won’t have to worry as much about gas and the driving time.  I’m rather disappointed that we can’t play tonight, but it’s so novel to be able to have the internet on a day when J doesn’t work that I don’t mind too much.

J also is fixing my external hard drive for me.  Well, he’s fixing it by doing a virus scan on it and moving all the files onto his computer because it’s become very temperamental and I haven’t actually been able to access anything for about a month or so.  This is very bad, because it has literally all of my files on it, and I don’t have back-ups due to that whole being broke thing.

There was talk earlier of moving to Texas, but I think that got cancelled because we want to keep M and he has to stay in Kansas for a little bit longer.  At first, I was horrified when I heard J and S talking about it, because I assumed they’d want to leave me here, but they’re planning to keep me!  Yay!!  I wish they were actual, “real” family, but they’re my family anyway, and I love them so much, and I’m so glad I get to be with them.

Semi-Consciousness and More Organization

I got to stay in bed until 8:00 this morning, but since the Toddler woke up at 6:30 and J didn’t come to get him until 7:00, when he started actively crying (I was in and out of sleep because he was playing in his crib), and then J woke me up to ask me where the off-brand Special K was at 7:30, I effectively woke up around 6:45, so I didn’t get as much sleep as it seems like I did.  I hope I can take a nap this afternoon after J wakes up so I can play game tonight.  I can’t wait.  I hope W and A show up.

Yesterday ended up being not so great.  I was so frustrated by the kitchen that there was a lot of shouting about why the pot lids were in the bread box and yelling at Sunshine, who kept coming in and getting in my way and spilling the trash bags.  However, all the mugs are put away properly, as are all the drinking glasses, probably 90% of the spices are on the spice shelf, the dishes are put away correctly, everything that is in the bread box actually belongs in the bread box, and all the pot lids and baking stuff and tupperware are put away.  Also, I organized the food cupboard and put the rest of the food in bags on the floor away.  There’s about a load and a half of dishes just sitting in the sink and on the counters right now, which I also find incredibly frustrating, because what I consider to be a load and a half gets turned into three or four loads for Girl Child, which is why the dishes are still not done.  I’m not sure how she has managed that.  Anyway, if I feel less exhausted later, I’m going to hunt up the good kitchen gloves and work on the dishes, because I’m just sick of this.

Girl Child is at her great-grandmother’s right now, so it’s particularly quiet this morning.  The Toddler is being unusually silent, watching Sprout, and S is so tired all she can do is read.  What a bunch we are.

I wound up hanging out with M for a little bit last night, which was a surprise, because I don’t often spend time with him in an effort to make him be not uncomfortable.  He was getting ready to leave for work and was dismantling a broken clothes rack, so I helped with that and carrying it out to his car.  Also, I turned a box into a hat.  Anyway, he thinks I should play Minecraft, but I’m not sure I’d be very good at it.  I’ll give it a try, but no promises.  What’s funny is that I actually went downstairs to switch over the laundry and work on another of the 8,000 loads that need to be washed, and we got to talking and I forgot about the laundry, and then J and S were home with Steak ‘n Shake, so I just never went back down.

We were going to play S’s epic-level game that she’s running for J and me, but S and I were too tired to play, and I ended up admitting defeat at about 10:30 or so and going to lay down in the bedroom, where I listened to the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix audiobook for awhile and then passed out.

It smells really good outside.  I freaking love spring.

I haven’t been conscious long enough (or had any coffee yet), so I actually have no mood other than being not quite awake yet.  The only reason I sound as coherent as I do is because I’m a better writer than a speaker.  I was going to write something else, but some asshole on a bicycle just swerved in front of a garbage truck, and I have discovered that garbage trucks have very loud horns, especially when they’re directly next to the open window right next to your ear.

Anyway, due to the bracing horn blasts, I’m all kinds of energized (or at least I got a blast of adrenaline), so I may get something done once everything stops hurting.  I need coffee.  I’m going to go, drink coffee, mess around for awhile, and then do some stuff around the house, like cleaning up the living room... or something.

Bringing the Magic Back

I decided I really want to write about the current Dungeons and Dragons campaign I'm involved in.  It's an old idea of J's, which has been attempted a few times over the last 10 years or so, but due to schedules and some people being rather unreliable and other things (like life) happening, the story has never been finished.  We're attempting it again, and so far it's been a lot of fun and rather exciting, even if S's character, Alu'un, did have her finger (temporarily) removed during the first session.

Basically, and this is only what I remember J telling us before and during the first couple of sessions back in January or February, this is a world that J designed (there's even a world map he made himself that's slowly disintegrating that we really need to get laminated before it completely turns to dust) where there is no arcane magic.  There are no wizards, sorcerers, magic weapons or items, or anything.  Something happened (I don't remember what) that broke the magical plane away from the regular plane of existence about 1,000 years before the story begins, and no one was able to access it, and magic slowly became something that was thought to be a myth.  Eventually, the plane repaired itself or something, because the god of magic, Boccob, has decided that the time has come to bring magic back to the world, because it does in fact exist.  Prior to our meeting him, our characters (Alu'un (S), Emerald (A), and Lilyana (me)) were treasure hunters working for a rogue named Haldern (W), doing things that you do when you work for a rogue.  Alu'un started the story as a scholar that did lots of research and knew places we could go to get treasure.

Anyway, we went to this temple in the middle of nowhere because Alu'un talked us into it, went through this really rigorous test involving duergar dwarves and drow elves, get teleported out of the temple, and discovered that Alu'un has been transformed from a scholar into a wizard with real magical powers.  (And she got her finger back.)  Then she used Magic Missile on Haldern like four times until he gave up and believed her.  (That part was especially hilarious.)

After that, we had a lead on a magical item that we needed, but it was in this museum of ego owned by a lord.  (We call him Lord What's-His-Butt because no one can remember his name.)  Anyway, we pretended to be nobility and went on a personal tour of the museum (there were old weapons, statues, other magic items, and the scroll that we actually needed), cased the joint, then sat down to plot how we were going to get his stuff.  At first, we were thinking of a heist, but we ended up visiting him again, and Alu'un demonstrated magic for him by conjuring a flower, handing it to him, and then watching him be amazed as it crumbled to dust.  She had to do this about five times.  Then we showed him the torches we picked up in Boccob's temple, which never go out and don't have heat, and he ended up paying us 400 gold for those and telling us we could have whatever we wanted out of his little trophy room in addition to the scroll we wanted.  It was pretty funny, actually.  Because we have a bag of holding, we took everything but the statues, so all he's got in his trophy room now are the torches and like three statues.  Hilarious.

The last three or four sessions we went through involved killing off Emerald because A moved to New Mexico for awhile, and then going through a wonderful dungeon in which we could really have used a cleric (Emerald is a cleric), because my character kept almost dying every few battles.  There was an especially grotesque one with a flesh golem that kept throwing me at the walls, at least until its arms fell off.  And a deurgar dwarf nearly killed me just by chance.  Fun stuff.  Anyway, we survived the dungeon, fought an optional boss that was a surprise succubus (whee!), and Emerald tumbled out of a portal that was ripped open when we killed the succubus (she'd been trapped for several hundred (or thousand?) years or something, didn't even remember that she was a succubus at first because of the enchantments put upon her by the wizard that owned the dungeon originally, and all that energy was released when we killed her), because A moved back and it was a better solution than forcing her to reroll a new character and having to spend an entire session setting up how we meet her.

My character is a fighter, or a beatstick, as W likes to put it, and I love her.  I like killing things.  Because I have the two-weapon fighting feat, I use a longsword in my dominant hand and a shortsword as my off-hand weapon, and I cause lots of lovely death.  In my head, my character fights like River Tam, twirling and jumping and destroying.  I told W this and he looked at me like I was stupid.

Anyway, I got bored a few weeks ago and decided to start designing dungeon floor plans, because I love drawing floor plans.  (I know this because I sometimes plan out in advance how I want to build a house when I play the Sims.)  Turns out that I'm really good at that, I've made a buttload of them for J, and every subsequent one is, "This is your best yet," and as I've been drawing them, I've been making them more and more convoluted and complicated, so we're pretty much guaranteed to die if J is using two of them combined.  Except we won't die, we just get bounced right back to life by Boccob because he wants us to complete our mission before we die.

Anyway, I'm all jazzed up about D&D and can't wait for Saturday to play some.  And hopefully we'll get to play S's epic level game on Friday, so that I can get some practice in and not forget how to do everything again, like I keep doing.  I don't know what's wrong with my brain, it's made of Swiss cheese, I swear.

I kind of want to DM a game sometime, but I'm really nervous about it because I'm not sure I'd be very good at making the game interesting.

Flash Mobs and Sleep Deprivation

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  S and I just remembered about a flash mob that’s going to happen at Crown Center either tonight at 7:00 or on the 10th at 7:00.  Pregnant women and moms wearing babies, but we can’t remember what they’re going to do or exactly when it’s happening.  S is trying to find information on it, but we can’t figure out when it’s supposed to be because we’re getting both dates when we find any info at all, and I don’t think we’d be able to go regardless due to the car situation.  Suck.

S’s mom, SM (her name also starts with an S!), visited earlier before she went to work to pick up a flash drive of some recent pictures of the kids to show S’s grandfather this weekend.  She’s really nice, the Toddler hung out with her for awhile and played with the crocheted balls she made for him.  (She keeps having to make more because Sunshine eats them.)  She’s done something different with her hair, I really like it and think I’ll have to ask her how she did it.

I managed to get to sleep a little after midnight, about three hours after I’d have liked to fall asleep, but it’s not really possible for me to go to sleep before at least 10:00 since I sleep in the living room and Girl Child’s bed time isn’t until then.  I also was woken up by J and M talking at about 5:00 this morning, J doesn’t really have an indoor voice and tends to speak loudly when he’s excited or jazzed up about something like I do, and I understand that, but I really wish he’d have his verbal conversations somewhere I’m not trying to sleep, given that I’m trying to get up by 7:00 every day.  Maybe he and M could pass notes like middle schoolers or something.

I’m actually really worried about how this sleep schedule will affect D&D this weekend, because I highly doubt I’ll be able to stay up very late, especially not if I have to get up at 7:00 the next day to help with Toddler.  We need one more adult or something with S laid up to help chase the toddler and do the child carrying and time outs and stuff in the early mornings on Sundays, because otherwise I’m going to want to kill myself.  I wish Toddler slept later.  I know it’s not really a plausible idea, I’m just really sad that we won’t get to have an epic gaming session this weekend, since we never manage to really get started until after about 9:00.  Maybe next weekend will be better.  I’m really excited about the next few sessions, we’re doing another dungeon crawl, and it’s two dungeon maps I designed put together.  J (the DM for this campaign) won’t tell me which ones because he doesn’t want me to meta-game, but I just want to know which maps they are!  Ha.  I can’t wait, really. 

I never got any laundry done yesterday (again) because I forgot.  I am full of fail!  I seriously need to get on that, though, S, the Toddler, and I are all swiftly running out of clothes.  J probably is, too, but he has decided he wants to wash his own clothes because he doesn’t like how I hang them up in the closet or something.  I think.  Girl Child knows how to do her laundry herself, but she uses it as an excuse to go downstairs and hang out with M and doesn’t actually get any of it done, which I find rather irritating.  Sometimes I’m tempted to throw away all of her dirty laundry because most of it has been dirty for months because she washes only her favorites and wears them over and over.  Kids.  *sigh*  It’s okay, though, once we go through her clothes and get rid of all the ones she won’t wear or doesn’t wear ever or don’t fit, there will be a lot less of her clothes.  We need to go through the Toddler’s clothes and get rid of all of his that are too small that aren’t keepsakes.  This cycle is just never ending, we’ve got three and a half bags of clothes to donate already.  Arrrgh, laundry!  (And don’t worry, I would never actually throw away her clothes.)

The Toddler is currently watching some sort of bizarre show with clay-looking people wigging out over laundry (hahaha) and all of them have Scottish or funky British accents.  It’s very odd.  Apparently, it’s something about firefighters, so I’m very confused about why they’re freaking out over the laundry.  And why on earth are they keeping the laundry basket under the bathroom sink?!

After the Toddler is finally done eating his breakfast (he’s ignoring it), he and I are going to have a shower and get all clean (his hair is crispy after he rubbed a banana in it last night and S tried to get it out with a baby wipe), and I think we’re doing something today, but I can’t remember what.  Fairly sure we’re going to the store or the library, but I may have lost my mind.  I know S said last night she’s buying more cigarettes today, so I imagine we’ll do a buttload of stuff while we’re out so S doesn’t have to try to get out to the car more than once or twice today.

S and I have managed to find a morning rhythm that is working fairly well, usually I’ll get the high chair out and lower it so S can clean it out, bring out Toddler’s food, and put Toddler on the couch so she can put him in and feed him, then I’ll either wash a sippy cup and get him some milk or I’ll add milk to the one in the fridge from last night (like this morning), then I’ll make coffee (S did it this morning, what a shock, I let her do something!), and once it’s brewed, I’ll make us both giant mugs of coffee and find myself some breakfast because I have to eat pretty quickly after I wake up or I’m screwed for the whole day.  I’ve been trying to handle most of the diaper changes for S so she doesn’t have to deal with the kicking and thrashing because I’m terrified the Toddler will hurt her and she’s really in enough pain as it is.

I’m hoping I’ll suck less today and actually get something done in the house.  I just wish I didn’t feel so weak and exhausted.  I’m so sleeping for a week after S is completely recovered.

Also, I updated my featured photo to the right to one of my favorite pictures of the dogs.