Obscure Doesn't Mean Hipster

I like obscure music.

I don't mean that in the hipster sense - it's not liking bands before they were mainstream thing.  I mean music that is literally not mainstream, that is literally obscure.  I'm talking about music that is usually categorized in New Age, Ambient, Noise, Space Music (which is actually a sub-genre of ambient), Ethnic Fusion, and World.  I used to listen to Night Tides on KCUR, my favorite local NPR affiliate, until I didn't have a radio that worked well enough to tune the station.  I wish I still had my stereo.

When I say my musical tastes are eclectic and kind of weird, I'm not kidding.  I like as much weird stuff as I like (ADD moment - oh!  Bjork!) mainstream music.  Apparently I'm currently on a .. I don't even know how to classify this group of music.  But I'm on a kick of it, whatever it is.

Anyway,  I just woke up, haven't even had coffee yet, so am a bit incoherent.  I wanted to sleep for longer, but I woke up when the Toddler did and then I started thinking, and that was the end of sleeping.

So basically, I've got nearly every musical genre represented on my iTunes playlist, and this tickles me.  Now I need to sort it all and delete the stuff I don't actually want, of which there probably won't be much.

I'll probably write another post later to explain what has been going on in my life outside of my music, because yesterday was rather eventful.  Also, I haven't taken my allergy pills in like two days, and I'm very sad, because all I can do today is sneeze and itch.

I'm Boring as Hell

I meant to write a post yesterday, but I ended up not bothering.  I'm fine.  The bites are still there, but the swelling has gone down significantly and I'm no longer in any pain at all.  Well, now that I'm thinking about it, I recognize that my elbow still hurts, but I'm no longer in agony like I was the last time I posted.  I didn't need to go to the hospital, either.

It's been pretty uneventful around here the last couple of days.  Nothing of note has happened.  I took some cute pictures of the Toddler, and I tried to get pictures of Girl Child for S because she wants them, but Girl Child was very obnoxiously refusing to allow me to photograph her, even going so far as to nearly smack my camera out of my hand when she tried to stick her hand in front of the lens.  Less than six months ago, she loved having her picture taken.  Honestly, she was probably being contrary just for the sake of being contrary.

I have links to write about, but I'm going to do it this afternoon when I don't feel like I'm going to fall asleep any second.

S just announced to the living room at large that WarGames is being remade.  Really?  How on earth does that make sense?  I think all the creativity that used to exist with movies got used up at some point, so they're just doing remakes of everything now.  This is why I don't bother going to the movies anymore except for the Harry Potter films.  (Speaking of which, we really need to go see the last one before it leaves theaters, I'll be devastated if I don't get to see it in theaters.)  I don't want to waste money on something I'm more likely than not to hate.  I just looked at movies that are in theaters right now on Fandango, and the only one that looked vaguely interesting was Cowboys & Aliens, and I'm not excited enough about it to bother seeing it until it comes out on DVD.

I finished the book I was reading last night.  It was Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts, which I've been waiting to read for about six months.  It was pretty good, but fairly predictable for her stand-alone stories, which usually all follow the same formula.  At least they have a plot, though, which I think is pretty good for the romance genre.  The first sex scene wasn't until almost 200 pages in.

Honestly, I just don't have anything interesting to write about.  McDonald's coffee is disgusting, I'm wearing a drink carrier on my head, and I have laundry to fold and wash.  This is pretty much my whole day.  But yay for some form of caffeine that isn't nasty Mountain Dew.

Broken Computer Redux and Other Crap

I had to switch computers yesterday morning.  The power switch stopped working on the one I've been using, so I'm back to the stupid Frankenstein computer.  I'm really frustrated - I've got a lot of stuff on there already that I don't have anywhere else, and my bookmarks on this computer are not updated to reflect the bookmarks on the other computer.  I guess this is what happens when I shut the computer down.  FML.

I slept most of the day yesterday because I woke up feeling awful.  I'm sucking today, too, but that's mostly because of the events of last night - there was a giant incident with Girl Child late last night after S went to bed and after I got the Toddler back in bed.  S won't want me to write too specifically about it, so I won't go into detail, but there was a lot of yelling and she's lucky that the police weren't called on her by the neighbors.  Also, as awesome as M is, he only made things worse by getting involved.  Let's just leave it with last night was very frustrating and stupid over something very simple, but I'm very proud of how J handled it when he got home from work this morning - he handled it beautifully.

But, partly because of last night, I only got about three hours of sleep, so I'm probably going to end up going back to bed soon.  Once I get actually sleepy, because I'm not feeling sleepy at all right now.

Before everything went all stupid last night, S and I watched a few episodes of The Joy of Painting, which causes hilarity to ensue rather often, because Bob Ross is kind of unintentionally hilarious sometimes.  I also made pudding from scratch last night and discovered that the recipe I used called for way more cornstarch than was necessary.  It tasted okay, but it was so thick and gelatinous that you could have rolled it into a ball and bounced it off the floor, so the texture was rather awful.  I actually dropped some on my shirt and it didn't even stick or stain or anything.  Yep.  Definitely way too much cornstarch.

My hair looks freaking terrific right now.  I am so never, ever using commercial shampoo and conditioner again.  I love the hell out of my hair right now.  I got a wide-tooth comb the other day to use in the shower, and it distributed the apple cider vinegar through my hair very nicely, and everything is all soft and perfect.

Anyway, I have a couple pictures to share.  I'd have links, too, but without my bookmarks from the other computer, I don't have any of them available and will have to collect others later today.

This is my awesome lemon shirt.  Girl Child has the same shirt in her size.  This leads to confusion on her part.

I discovered I was followed into the bedroom when I was taking the picture of my shirt, and found the Toddler, who had climbed on the bin of his spare toys and was just sitting there.  Yes, his face is hidden on purpose.

This is the Toddler.

I just ate a pile of bacon, so this morning just got transferred to the best morning ever.  Because bacon does that.  I love bacon.

The Lazy Blogger and the Linktastic Post

Okay. I should write an update.

Things around here have been great. Really. Life is awesome, everyone here rocks. Girl Child finally came home yesterday afternoon, and it was great to see her. She's such an awesome kid. I really like it when she comes home after she's been away for awhile, it reminds me how much I love her and how great she really is, which I sometimes forget when I see her all the time.

Yesterday was S's birthday, as I mentioned in my ridiculously short post last night. My mother was nice and sent me some money so I could get some stuff that I've been needing that J and S can't really afford to get for me, and I spent some of it on S's birthday - I got her a Shoebox (Hallmark) card that has a dog birthday party, and the dog has just opened a present with a candle inside and the speech bubble says, "Butt-scented! My favorite!" I don't remember what the inside of the card says, but I was looking at noisy cards and happened to glance over and see that one and knew it was The Card. S liked it, I think. I also got her a new pack of white t-shirts, because the ones she already has are kind of dying, and she really likes wearing t-shirts.

I also spent some of the money on the kids - I got Girl Child a new shirt and vest combo that is terrific and will look wonderful on her for school, and the Toddler got a brown onesie that says, "My Mommy is exhausted," which I thought was very apt, since the primary reason S is always so tired is because of him. I can't wait for him to wear it, I'm so amused. I got some stuff for me, too, and am planning on ordering a pair of jeans that will actually fit me online from Old Navy this week.

In boring laundry news, I'm almost completely caught up. I have two hampers of laundry left that is dirty, plus the comforter that J and S usually use on their bed needs to be rewashed - Girl Child didn't check it when she brought it upstairs from the dryer, and it was still wet, and then it got on the floor. Yipee. I have a lot of folding to do, but I'm not terribly interested in doing that at the moment.

I cooked dinner last night because it was S's birthday. If you have back problems, you should not go on an epic Wal-Mart expedition and then try to cook a giant meal. I could barely walk when I got up this morning (hence my disinterest in folding laundry), and it took a hot shower to loosen everything up to the point that I'm able to at least move fairly well.

I'm going to be making tuna goop at some point today, which is a recipe of GM's mother's that I learned in 2004. I have also learned that usually when I make it, no one but me likes it. I think it's just wonderful. I'm planning on making curry soon, too, but definitely not tonight. Hell no.

Last night while I was cooking and singing very loudly, J and S rearranged the living room. J's desk is now against the wall the coffee table (cedar chest) was against, and a bunch of stuff in front of the fireplace has been moved to the corner where the desk was. It really opened up the room. The only downside I've seen so far (other than the Toddler constantly messing with J's desk and chair) is that I can't see the TV if J is awake because his chair is in the way - I'll have to move the chair across the room in order to see the TV from my spot on the couch at all, or else move to the big chair right next to the TV to watch anything, and since I'm pretty sure I've got some form of ADD, it'll be difficult for me to watch anything without having my computer, which can't be moved. (The battery doesn't work at all on this laptop, so if it gets unplugged, it immediately turns off, so I'd have to completely shut it down, transfer my entire TV tray and computer across the room, string an extension cord across the room, and generally create a hazard to have my computer in the chair.)

J's new work schedule is working out wonderfully for everyone - I can sleep in the living room without being disturbed on the nights he works, J is getting enough sleep and is much less grumpy, and he's up when we're awake more because he stays up until about noon and then gets up in the early evening before the Toddler goes to bed.

So I'm still experimenting with no 'poo, and it's weird. My hair feels kind of okay and kind of awful right now (I washed it this morning), and it's still damp, so it may turn out to feel great once it's all dry, or it may just feel like poop. It's a tossup.

I'm so glad the heat wave finally broke. It feels wonderful outside right now, and it's making me very excited for fall, which has become my favorite season.

Yesterday I wrote a summary of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for someone who hasn't read the books since Prisoner of Azkaban, but has seen the movies. (She asked me to explain what happened after the events of Half-Blood Prince after I expressed horror at her asking if Snape was Harry's father.) I condensed the entire book into four pages, and a little over 2,000 words. It took almost an hour to type, maybe longer. I also learned that the character cap for Facebook comments is 8,000 characters, so when you write something with over 10,000 characters, it will sort of explode. I'm very glad I had the forethought to copy the full text and paste it in a Google document before I tried to post it.

I have a lot of links to post, because I've been collecting them for days. And a good bit of them will require me to bitch quite a bit, because a lot of them make me angry.


Link Round-Up


According to this Senate candidate, welfare recipients are like raccoons.  They want to get the easiest way to live possible, and of course there's no possibility that they just might not be able to find work.

Michele Bachmann is a really, really big hypocrite, and I'm terrified that she's going to make it past the primaries.  I'm definitely voting for each election that I can vote in, to try to keep her ass from ever being President.

Truck drivers are seriously underappreciated, and this story really points out what it's like for truck drivers in this day and age.

Apparently what's happening with E and her marriage (she knew she didn't want to get married before the wedding but felt like she couldn't back out after all the expense and everything) is becoming a really common thing among women who get divorced.  I still say she was dumb for not telling me she didn't want to get married before the wedding - I'd have stopped the wedding.

The fashion industry is sexualizing 10-year-olds now.  Lovely.  Poor little thing.

These people are assholes and their smug, snide attitude about what they did makes me so angry.

I find the concept of courtroom dogs very interesting, and it certainly would have helped me when I had to testify in 2001.  Of course, because the dogs are cute, that will totally sway the jury to convict the defendant.  I hate lawyers.

I can't imagine how it must feel to move to America from the country of your birth, live and work in America for over 20 years, and then be asked to be Prime Minister of your home country and live there for nine months as Prime Minister before going back to America and your cubicle at your job that you've had for 20 years.  that must have been so surreal.

Apparently what you eat during pregnancy and while breastfeeding will affect what foods your baby will enjoy eating as they're older.

The Rambliest Post Ever

So I haven’t bothered writing a post at all this week. This week has kind of sucked. I’ve been completely sleep-deprived for the last two or three days, and we’re out of cigarettes (and I’m not sure if we’re getting more or if only J is going to be smoking from now on), so I’m a real treat to be around right now.

I’ve almost completely finished all the laundry that was taken downstairs, though, so as long as I maintain it a little better, we won’t end up with a laundry mountain taking over the hallway again.

I spent three days working on a new Sharpie art piece - I don't have a photo of the completed version (and I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the completed version), but I do have a photo of it as it was right before I finished it off.

I haven't decided if I want to call this anything or not.  It now has a few more ribbons of yellow and some more stars and a black background.

I've also got photos of the crazy line drawing and the slightly schizophrenic-looking one that I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned previously.  I'm going to put those in the photo gallery instead, though, I think.  The crazy picture up above I'm thinking about uploading to DeviantArt as a work in progress photo since it's been months since I added anything to my profile.

Anyway, Thursday and yesterday were particularly bad in this incredibly fun week.  Girl Child had a friend over for a sleepover, which wasn't a problem, she's actually been working on cleaning her room, so S said she could have her over.  The problem came when Girl Child basically seems to have decided that since her friend is over, she can treat me any way she wants, regardless of the fact that I am an adult and she is not.  So the last two days have been nothing but us sniping at each other because I've finally cracked.  She completely overreacts to everything I say and do, even when I'm being perfectly lovely to her, so I'm done trying to be nice, at least until she adjusts her damn attitude and starts showing me some respect, because I'm sick of her crap.

Today, S and the Toddler are going out to meet up with a friend of S's, AC, for a little while, since it's been awhile since they've seen each other.  He's almost doubled in size (or at least it seems that way to me) since AC last saw him in October. 

Sunshine is slowly starting to get back to normal, so maybe she won't need to be put down after all.  She's sort of started wagging her tail again, and wagging her butt sometimes, too.  Unfortunately, she's also started being food aggressive toward Shadow again, even when he's nowhere near the food.  And for fuck's sake, we don't starve her!  There is always food available.  Dumbass dog.

My hair is about as long as it was in March of 2010, so I'm a little over a year behind where I would have been if I hadn't ever cut it, so at least there's that.  In about another year, it'll be waist-length, so in about two years, it'll be about to where I want it.  It's starting to look thicker, so maybe this not-dyeing thing is working out for me.

I don't particularly have anything of substance I want to write about.  I'm feeling particularly anti-social today.

I'm hoping to soon be able to get my learner's permit so I can start to get the hang of driving again - I discussed it with S a week or so ago and mentioned that if I got it in July, I could try for my license in October - I'm hoping to have my license before next spring, because S is planning on having a medical procedure done that would render her unable to drive for over a month, and the entire household would disintegrate if she didn't have a substitute driver.  Seriously, no bills would get taken care of, we would starve and die, J would never again get a prescription filled, and the car would eventually run out of gas or something.  Of course, we'd have starved and died by then, but still.  So it would probably be preferential for me to have a license so I can help in that way - plus, that would enable me to have a bit more independence - I could also get a job further away once I find a job nearby that I can use to get enough money to buy a car.

I was so angry at the couch the other night that I coated it in tape so it would stop falling on me.  I hate sleeping on it, we were supposed to get a new couch four months ago, but shit kept happening and we never were able to get one.  So I took a roll of packing tape that I had downstairs from a move and taped the cushion fabric to the top of the couch frame.  I think, since S and the Toddler are out of the house, I may remove the tape and nail it up there for a more permanent solution, at least until we get a new couch.  We're basically going to have to completely take this couch apart when we get rid of it to find all the crap we've lost inside of it.

This week has been crap.  The only reason I sound so damn cheerful half the time is because that's just how I sound these days - I don't think there's a power in the 'verse could stop me being cheerful for long.  This is what happens when you decide that you are going to be happy no matter what.  Eventually you stop trying to seem happy and just are happy.  And funnily enough, after writing all this down, I'm a lot less cranky and angry than I was when I started, so maybe that's another little nugget of wisdom I've learned: don't bottle everything up, find an outlet.

The weather here is awful, I wish it was winter again.  All my clothes that look good on me are too warm for me to wear unless it's 20 degrees outside.  It's currently over 90, and even with the air conditioning on, I feel like I'm melting.  I'm wearing my oldest, rattiest pajama pants and an ancient t-shirt, so I should be fine, but my stupid body is convinced that it's actually on fire.  (I've had these pajama pants since 8th grade, actually - I got the set specifically for pajama day at Sumner, and the only reason I can still wear them is because the elastic is basically exploded.)

I love the music that M makes - this particular song simultaneously makes me feel like my heart is swelling and makes me think of Jurassic Park.  What a combination.

I'm experimenting with not messing with my fingernails at all unless they get a snag, and am working on breaking myself of the only relic of biting my nails - sucking on them.  They're still very thin and bendy, and I hope they eventually get hard if I stop putting them in my mouth and idly playing with them, but right now they're like kitten claws - flexible and sharp.

Yesterday, S and I were introduced to a new way to play the Bad Translate game by my friend CN.  There's an online tool that does the translation transitions for you, so 10 translations, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 56 - and there are often hilarious results.  S and I spent most of yesterday playing with it, writing stream of consciousness passages, nonsensical sentences, and weird phrases to see what we would get.  For example, if you input, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," and tell it to translate that sentence 50 times, it comes back with, "Fox Brown cloth."  I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean, but it's pretty funny.

I require more coffee and I am interested to see if we have any canned pumpkin in the house at all, because I'm interested in completely winging a pumpkin cake.  Since I'm awesome like that.  I just wish I wasn't so tired.  I hope today doesn't suck as much as yesterday did.

Art, Weird Dreams, and Laundry

I didn't do anything yesterday.  I did a couple loads of laundry, one of which was necessitated by J using the weedwhacker on all the weeds and cutting down all the saplings in the back, and his whole body ended up contaminated with poison ivy.  Wheeee!  Fortunately, he seems to be one of those rare people who doesn't react to poison ivy, because so far he hasn't developed a rash at all.  Lucky man.

I did some more art with Sharpies yesterday while watching Firefly.  Some of them turned out pretty interesting.  However, I've also finished the series, so all I've got is the movie now, and then I'm going to have to find something else to have on while I draw.  S told me that I could probably sell some of my art and make some good money with some of it - particularly an acrylic painting I made in 2005 that's of a naked female torso.  A blue naked female torso.  Apparently that could be worth a lot, according to S.  I don't particularly think I'm all that talented - the things S draws are much more beautiful than the things I've made.  Anyway, the Sharpie drawings are apparently not too bad either, just psychedelic.  Heh.

J took the eight million loads of dirty laundry downstairs last night while I was sleeping, which is awesome.  Once my back stops hurting, I'm going to get started on that stuff.  For some reason, I always wake up in a lot of pain, no matter where I sleep, and it makes it difficult to move around for a couple of hours after waking.

This morning, I had a bizarre dream where first I was in a house with some people - this part is really fuzzy.  Robin Williams was there, though.  Then I was fixing something at the church I attended as a child with my grandparents in the restroom.  Father Frank was there, sort of.  I was both 11 and 24, at the same time, in that weird way dreams have of allowing things to be that way.  Anyway, I had a good conversation with a boy I attended elementary school with that I was sometimes friends with - he went to my 11th birthday party, but we didn't hang out a whole lot because boys and girls don't really hang out at that age.  We were, I think, the only two kids in our grade who weren't being raised by our parents.  He was being raised by his grandmother (possibly his grandparents, we weren't close so I don't know), and I was being raised by my grandparents, and our parents were otherwise absent.  Anyway, we were chatting in church and then there were some stairs and then I went outside for a smoke, which was the weird part, because I wasn't really eleven.  I was wearing a really awesome skirt and a jacket and something else.  And my awesome green hat, or something similar.  Anyway, a storm was beginning, and I was trying to find a place to go that I wouldn't get caught smoking because I didn't want to be expelled.  And then S yelled, "You are so cute!" in the living room, and I turned around and suddenly I woke up.

Yesterday, S had to take Sunshine to the vet again because she has been acting funny and we were worried that she might actually have some nerve damage or something - she won't go outside to pee or anything, and she's been very fearful since she got hit by the car.  We thought that there was a high likelihood that S and Girl Child were going to come home without her, so there was a lot of crying while we were getting everything ready for the vet trip, but Sunshine seems to be fine, and the vet has her on anti-anxiety meds now.  I think she's doing better, she even got a little excited about me petting her when I got up this morning.  The meds also help her pain, so hopefully that'll fix her up until she's completely healed and she forgets about getting hit by a car.  Unfortunately, the dumbass keeps trying to escape out the front door - she won't go outside to potty where it's safe in the back yard, but she's perfectly happy to endanger her life by attempting to go out the front door.  Stupid dog.

We've got Aladdin on, which makes me very happy - I love that movie.  It was my favorite in second grade.

Anyway, once I wake up some, I'm going to start some laundry and then ... do... stuff?

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.

Conversations and Crochet

Today, J asked me to make sure he has a clean pair of jeans, because he’s completely out of clean pairs, and since I’m the only able-bodied person who will be awake during the day, it falls to me to do it.  I said to him, “How do you manage to run out of jeans, anyway?  You own more pairs than anyone else I’ve ever known.”  He said, “I don’t know.. they just.. end up in... places.”  Then, of course, he got laughed at.  I don't even know what that means!

So, anyway, I’ll be doing some laundry today, which was the plan anyway, so I’ll just make sure a pair of J’s jeans get washed.  And hopefully not mix them up with Girl Child’s, which has happened before.

J and S let me sleep until 9:00, which was completely awesome of them.  I love them.

Yesterday when Girl Child came home from school, she showed off her grade for her Japan report, which was a 99/100, and she was all disappointed about it because the only reason she didn’t get a perfect score was because she put one of the parts of her report in the wrong place.  Anyway, J and S were rightfully impressed with her grade, and then the following conversation took place:

S: “Girl Child, you deserve a reward or something for that.  I just don’t know what.”  (Obviously Girl Child’s actual name was used, we don’t call her that in real life.)

Me: “We could... throw confetti at her and sing a song?”

S: *rolls up a straw wrapper, throws it at Girl Child, and makes a tootling horn noise through her hand*

We are awesomely crazy.  I love living here so much.  Even when my preferred breakfast condiments disappear completely.

I decided a few days ago that I was going to turn the bedspread project for when I was going to get married into an afghan.  Since, y’know, I’m not getting married anymore.  Anyway, I've got about half the squares I need, and am going to have to buy four more skeins of yarn so I can finish it, but I finally picked a square design I like after dozens of attempts over the last few days.  I did it in Paint.  Here's a picture:

These colors are very close to the yarn colors I'm using.

Anyway, there’s not a whole lot happening right now, I think we might be going to Starbucks in a little bit, though, but that’s not terribly exciting or interesting.  There's just not a whole lot going on right now, which is kind of nice.

Old Friends, Drama, and Blogging

Yesterday was so bad that I didn't want to post about it.  Well, at least not until I'd had some time to process everything and be in a less negative frame of mind.

I got four hours of sleep yesterday, because Girl Child threw the biggest tantrum I've ever seen her throw when J wouldn't let her go downstairs before school.  It was five o'clock in the morning.  She managed to wake everyone, including the Toddler.  I was so angry with her, because she threw off the entire day for everyone, and I am much less patient when I am tired, and I need to be able to be patient, because the Toddler is only 18 months old, and I was not as patient with him as I could have been.  I was so exhausted I couldn't cook dinner, which was okay because S and M went out for dinner last night and I didn't have any because I was too exhausted and ended up going to bed around 7:30.

I was in bed for almost 12 hours last night.  I slept for almost all of that time.

Nothing of note really happened yesterday beyond the epic tantrum, and I'm not going into detail about that to protect Girl Child's privacy.  I don't want her to have to read about it (she reads this blog when she isn't grounded), and I don't want her to decide to revisit this blog when she's 20 and freak out.  Because I love her anyway, even when she is being awful.  I know that it's only because she's 12 and miserable, because everyone is miserable when they're 12.  So I love her anyway, even when she spends months being absolutely awful to me, like she was over the winter.

I think I've mentioned this previously, but for the first time in my life, I have long fingernails.  I'm finally not so fucked up that I bite my nails constantly anymore.  I've bitten my nails for longer than I can remember.  I've had them long for about two months now.  I don't think they're particularly attractive (my middle and ring finger nails on both hands grow funny), but they're long.  Actually, at the moment, they're too long and I'm having difficulty typing.

I've been reading the blog of someone that I have known for over 10 years, though I don't really know him now.  He's part of the reason I started blogging on LiveJournal, and he was one of my closest friends while I was living with my mother, and then everything went to hell in 2005 and we barely spoke after that.  Reading his blog, though all but the most recent entry is about three years old.. it led to a lot of introspection and self-examination that made me think some things I'm not ready to put into writing yet.  I'm very glad to be back in contact with him, because I have missed him a lot.  I shall dub him C.  (I think I'm going to make a separate page on this blog soon for keeping the cast of people I talk about straight, I'm starting to get really confused when I talk about people, since I'm only using initials and other things to identify them in order to preserve privacy.  That's why I have yet to mention my name or give any indication as to who I am, so that that way the people that may eventually read this that don't really know me won't know or hold it against real-life me.)

Anyway.  I need to wrap this up, S and I need to run errands while the Toddler is napping, so hopefully I'll find the time and energy to write later about some of my other thoughts, if they ever become coherent enough to bother writing about.

I absolutely love the music that M makes.  It's perfect for helping me concentrate, which is why I want it.

Screen Resolutions and Sufficient Sleep

I have discovered that this computer resets itself to the lowest resolution possible whenever I restart it.  It's very ... special.  Fortunately, it lets me set it back on the correct resolution, so it no longer looks like crap.  I'm going to spend some time going through the ambient music I haven't sorted yet, and then probably resync the iPod today.  Hopefully, it won't lose my place in my audiobook, but in case it does, I'll be writing down where I am so I can return to it easily.  (Riveting, isn't it?)

The Toddler is currently chilling in his high chair, alternately eating his big toe and shoving it into his eye, between kisses.  Now he's telling his other foot hello.  I love how strange he is, he fits into this household so well.  He's very funny, he wanted to play with the green hairbrush (it used to be J's, but now it's a toy), and when I handed it to him, he gave it a hug.  Then again, he also kisses the vacuum, so it's not terribly surprising.  I'm going to have to vacuum the living room in a bit, he dumped all of his cereal on the floor earlier, so we'll see if he still wants to kiss it after that.

I got enough sleep last night!  I fell asleep around 11:00 and J and S let me sleep until about 8:00, when I woke up on my own due to the nightmare that I had, which of course I can't remember anything about other than J and S being in it.  Anyway, I wandered out of the bedroom (S let me sleep in there again last night), discovered M was up here, and ran and hid until I could find pants.  J found this hilarious, the bastard.

I need to go have some breakfast before I die.  I think I may have some strawberries or something.  I can't remember what all food we have in the house, but we have TONS.  Yay food!  Anyway, this morning is pretty decent, there's coffee and the Toddler is being pretty quiet, giving us some time to chill out and wake up before spending the entire day stopping him from destroying our stuff.

I'm not sure if we have any errands to do today or not, we keep forgetting to buy stuff at the store, so the list of things we're either out of or almost out of is growing because of this.  I guess we'll find out.  I don't know what else is planned for today, probably more laundry and getting the living room cleaned up.  I hope S has a nap today, she didn't get much sleep last night.

I've been talking to E online today.  For those not in the know, E is one of my best friends and we've been friends since we were nine.  She lives in the Nashville area now, so I don't see her very often.  In fact, the last time I saw her was for her wedding last May.  She's still thinking about getting divorced, incidentally, but hasn't done anything about it so far.  I feel bad that she's so unhappy with her life.  I don't even know why she married him, to be honest.  He's nothing like her.  Poor girl.

I'm not sure why, but I keep getting sucked into Caillou when I'm trying to do other things, and pretty soon I'm going to have every episode memorized.

Anyway, nothing much is happening today, and my attention span is starting to go, so I'm going to have to wrap this post up and write more later once my brain starts being a brain again.

Drivel, Coffee Mud, and iTunes

That nap I had yesterday resulted in me ending up with almost no sleep at all once I went to bed because S didn't go to bed until around 2:00, so I didn't fall asleep until probably 2:30, then was woken up by J when M came home (they were trying to make the dogs stop barking, and J was shouting), which was around 5:00 this morning.  Then my alarm went off at 7:00, but I ended up staying asleep until nearly 7:30, when I started getting worried about why I couldn't hear the Toddler, until I realized J had turned off the baby monitor when he went to bed. 

The Toddler was fine, though, happily playing in his crib, so I went downstairs to chat with M for a bit before I needed to retrieve the kiddo, and by the time I got upstairs, S was up and the Toddler was doing something involving his diaper that I won't mention here, but it was not a fun way to start the morning, I'll tell you now.

Anyway, S has been falling asleep on the couch off and on since about 8:00, so I made epically strong coffee.  The expression on her face when she tasted it was priceless.  I had to bring her more sugar and creamer.  This coffee is Jim-or-Davee-at-Micro-Center-strong, which means it's sentient.  It's a little stronger than I intended to make it, but at least we'll have some semblance of brain function once the caffeine hits our blood streams.

My hair is getting really long, I'm thrilled.  It's about as long as it was at the end of 2009, and considering how short I cut it last summer, that's definitely an improvement.  My intention is to let it grow as long as possible, but keep it just above the length where I could sit on it.  Then I will completely defeat the purpose of having long hair and wear it up all the time.  It's starting to thicken up a little bit, too, now that I'm not using Herbal Essences and have quit dyeing it, it's getting to be really healthy.

I'm going to spend some time (read: all of my time) today organizing my mp3s, since I now have the ability to access my files.  Speaking of files, I had a look at the file transfer on J's computer for my external, and I have over 45,000 files.  I had no idea, that's crazy.  I need to go through all of those and delete the duplicates (I know for a fact I have a lot of duplicates), and sort them into something resembling an orderly fashion.  I'm also going to clean up my iTunes and resync my iPod finally (I haven't been able to sync it since February!), and then life will just be awesome and stuff.  Or at least my music library will be updated.

S (Captain Gimpy) seems to be doing a bit better.  Sometimes I think she overdoes it a bit trying to continue to be independent, but I've been letting her because it bugs her when I try to do everything for her.  I'm just worried about her and don't want her foot to end up needing surgery or never healing.  I want her to be able to walk without crutches with good reliability, and to be able to do this with a minimum of pain.  I'm afraid if she does too much on her feet so soon after the injury that she'll never heal, but I don't know how to help without annoying the crap out of her. 

Anyway, I'm quickly drifting into incoherence.  I can't quite manage to stay on one subject for long this morning.  My single focus is my music right now.  And getting access to my photos from 2010 and the beginning of this year so I can add some to my Facebook, S told me ages ago that I could go crazy, but that's when I discovered that my external is very temperamental, so I'm very behind on uploading pictures.  I'm feeling very tangential this morning, so hopefully I'll be able to post a more coherent update later today or tomorrow.

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.

Organization, Dead Birds, and Errands

I really like organizing things.  I just spent about half an hour rearranging everything in the refrigerator, throwing away bad food (that cheese was an interesting color!), and getting all the groceries we bought at the store today put away in some semblance of order.  And I enjoyed doing it.  Well, except for the scary meat.  It was purple.  I'm going to finish organizing the whole kitchen later, figure out what to do about the entire loaf of bread that J crushed with the bag of apples, and get all the dishes and stuff fixed up in the cupboards so they all fit, since Girl Child apparently doesn't care about how things are supposed to go in the cupboards.  Arrgh.  That kind of thing drives me crazy, because I'm very much a person who likes everything to have its place.

I discovered how to get myself into a position where I have the energy to do more than chase the Toddler and screw around online.  Espresso.  I love Starbucks with every fibre of my being.  I may actually get some stuff done today, if my motivation stays up.  Woo!  I'm in a terrific mood.  I got something close to enough sleep, had espresso, and now I'm full of energy and good vibes and all sorts of happy things.  I love how enormous quantities of caffeine fill me with goodwill.  Yay!

I'm having a good hair day for once today.  I feel like I actually look good for once, and it's really nice.  My hair decided to do this really cool flippy thing all on its own; all I did was brush it this morning.  I'm wearing my green dangly earrings and a choker I've had since I was 15 that I got from the Rainforest Cafe that used to be at Oak Park Mall a few years ago.  I can't remember what's there now; everything has changed.  Anyway, sorry, I'm the tangent queen.  So I feel really pretty today, which has been rare the last few months, and it feels really good.

Today we went on a few errands, which was an interesting adventure.  When we first were getting ready to leave the house, I discovered the remains of the cute baby robin that couldn't fly that we saw yesterday (when it was still alive).  The neighbors' cat apparently killed it, disemboweled it, removed its legs and head, and left the body and one leg on our front walk, directly in front of the car.  Yuck.  Poor little bird.  And damn cat.  I don't like cats very much.

S and I discovered that Price Chopper actually has those carts for people who have trouble walking, so S didn't end up having to gimp through the whole store, which was good, because we were there for quite awhile.  The Toddler rode in the cart I pushed so we wouldn't have to spend twice as long trying to get him to go where we wanted to go, which turned out to be a good thing anyway, because it gave us a place to keep the crutches and the heavy food. 

We also stopped at the SRS office so I could hand in the letter saying that I do in fact live here so I can continue receiving food stamps.  I made the lady in front of me at the drop box really uncomfortable because I'd had so much espresso by that point that I was no longer able to stand still, so I was happily dancing from foot to foot while she was finishing up her paperwork.  She glanced back at me and I said, "You're fine, I just can't stand still!"  I'm pretty sure that gave her a giggle.

I'm having a really happy day.  And now the Toddler is in his crib and has stopped screaming like a banshee, so I assume he's asleep, which means I can do a few loads of laundry in relative peace, and work on the kitchen between loads, and maybe even read one of the bazillion books I have checked out of the library.

All in all, today is being a great day so far, even with the dead bird.

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.

Weather Check!

Why is it that as soon as I left the library yesterday, I had more books available to check out by the time I returned home?  Dammit!

So I receive text messages from weather.com (The Weather Channel's website) every morning, telling me the abbreviated 36-hour forecast.  Every morning, my phone dings at around 8:25, and either I or S will say, "Weather check!"  Today, it was expanded to me saying, "Weather check!  We might have weather today, let's see."  Then I read the forecast out loud and S said, "Wait, let's double check that," and opened the window and said, "Yep, there's weather out there."

We are hilarious.

Today's plans include laundry, the library, bathing, finishing the grocery shopping, and possibly learning to cook steak.  Not necessarily in that order.  (Quite mundane, really.)

I hate this butterfly garden commercial they have on Sprout 5486379 times a day.  Where do the caterpillars come from?  Do they sell them in the winter, too?  What if they're butterflies that aren't naturally supposed to be in the climate of the new owners?  Poor butterflies.  I feel so sorry for them.

I woke up a lot easier this morning, which was nice.  S was shouting at the Toddler two minutes before my alarm and I managed to get up right away and help her.  He had escaped and was in Girl Child's room, trying to destroy her art supplies, and when I picked him up, he peed and it leaked right out of his diaper and onto my foot and Girl Child's floor.  What a way to start the day.  But now I'm full of coffee and he's occupied by Sprout, and S and I are reading MLIA stories to each other.  Who knows what's going to happen the rest of today, but it's been a good morning so far, even with the pee-on-foot incident.