Category: Misc

Well it seems as though Tabby's first Halloween was a success. She wore her costume without much fuss, ate a tiny bit of her pumpkin dinner and fell asleep in her high chair. She had gone most of the day without a nap. We had a very nice evening with my parents and sister. I cooked the halloween supper but this time in individual sized pumpkins which have a nicer flavor and are cute besides. Matt did two darling pumpkins and we had loads of trick-or-treaters. Continue reading “Happy Halloween, y'all”

Dear Grocery Store Manager,
Funny story, but true: when I go to your store, I'm there to do my grocery shopping. I'm not there to buy Entertainment Books, sign petitions presented to me by skinny guys with less-than-stellar personal hygiene or take a survey about my preferences on cleaning products. I suggest that you revise your policies on these third party vendors using your business as their place of business or I will have to revise my policy on visiting your store.

Thanks,
me

Dear Local Equestrians,
As a dog owner, I am looked at as little better than a card-carrying Nazi should my pooch decide to do his bizness on the sidewalk and I am unprepared to properly dispose of it. How you horse people are getting away with this, I do not know, especially since your animal's excrement covers a much larger percentage of the sidewalk than mine and is no less offensive to the olfactory senses. I've got little problem with this when we're out on the hiking trails, but I really think it's just common courtesy to make sure your horse does not blanket the neighborhood sidewalks with its scat. Don't you think?

luv,
me

ps. Don't tell me it's too hard. I've seen those diaper things on horses in parades. Buy one.

Dear Ultra-sketchy Magazine Sellers,
Did you know that you're not legally bound to answer your door should you be home and someone comes to call? I agree, it might seem rude, but frankly, you people show up altogether too often in our neighborhood and I'm sick of your pushy/rude sales tactics. I am gratified beyond all reason that you managed to escape your gang and your crack addiction, but that does not make me want to buy magazines from you. So the next time you show up at my door and continue to knock on the door and ring my doorbell and this lasts for more than say … 1 minute, I am calling the cops. My dog *really* doesn't like you guys and frankly, that tells me something.

luv,
me

I've been a mommy now for almost 8 months, more when you count my time before Tabby was born. I've been a working mom for almost 6 months of that period (note: I do not say “working mom” to trivialize what it is that so-called “stay at home moms” do, I just say it to differentiate!). I like to think that I've gotten my juggling act together in that time period … more or less. Sure, the house, while clean, is generally cluttered (though this is mostly, in my opinion, due to lack of space, not effort!) and plenty of items on my to-do list that once would have been handled within hours or days seem to take much longer, but generally, I've worked it out. I stay at home with Tabby on Mondays so we get a bit of extra time. And I hit the road running early the rest of the week and work late or work from home to make up my Monday. I feel like I've got it pretty good, still contributing to my family's income and spending good time with my baby girl. No doubt it's sometimes a hard row to hoe, but y'know … that's how life is.

Anyhoo, one thing I'd never thought of before deciding upon this path was that I wouldn't be able to do some of the normal “mommy things.” No mommy-and-me classes. No mommy groups. They all meet during the day while I'm working. Of course this makes sense, but it is a little frustrating. To be fair, there are one or two “working moms” groups that meet in the evenings or on weekends, but none in my area. Any one of them would be a good 30-45 minute drive for me in normal traffic (not rush-hour!) and let's get real. That just ain't happening on a week-night. So I'm thinking of starting my own group. This is sort of terrifying for me since I am not big with that sort of thing. I'm an OK leader if I've gotta do it, but it's nothing I ever seek out. Now we'll see if A) I'm brave enough and B) I can find the time to get it all together. Any advice is appreciated.

I'm not big on joining. At all. This whole social networking thing has been going on pretty much without me. Until now. Yesterday I got an IM from an old friend from college who I'd lost track of asking me to join Facebook. Geez that's a time sucker.

Anyhoo, actually lots of people from college and high school that I knew. It makes all that crap seem like AGES ago. Not that I didn't have fun or whatever, it just seems like a very long time ago. So weird to see all of these faces. So do I have to become “friends” with these people to see their profile thingy? And where the heck is the friend who invited me. He's disappeared again. Can't find him. What gives?!?!

Confession time: I keep Tabby's “binky” in my cleaveage sometimes. It's convenient and clean and when we're just popping into a store real quickly and I don't want to carry her diaper bag or her bucket (carrier), that's where it goes. I figure it's probably a lot cleaner than my purse or pocket.

Anyhoo, so the other day I ran into Michaels real quick to pick up the t'shirt paint. It was one of those days where I was just running around like a chicken with my head cut off. So so so much to do and so little time. I was wearing a scoop-neck top. Nothing tight or revealing. I just don't do that. And while I was standing in line, this woman says to me, “I've never seen anyone keep a bink there!?!” Taken aback, I say, “Um yea, well it's a very convenient spot.”

But really, what the hell?!? First of all, lady, why are you looking down my shirt?!? Second of all, why are you chatting me up about what you see? Would it be appropriate to say, “I see you have a nice pair of breasts, there.” or “I rather like that polka-dotted bra you've got on.”??!?! Um. NO.

I swear. Weirdos everywhere.

It's been crazy busy around here. Here's why:
* New baby born on Thursday, been spending copious amounts of time visiting him in the hospital
* Had to make logo onesie for Tabby so she could attend company breakfast meting with me (imperative!)
* Preparations for aforementioned meeting
* Fabulously fun movie night with mom and sis
* Picking up much-missed husband at airport
* Trip to dog park for very neglected dog and his friend
* Lovely visit with Grandma
* Grocery shopping (or how I spend $150 at Target EVERY WEEK)
* Cleaning of still piggy house (why can I just not get ahead right now?!)
* Snow storm (this just makes things slower, I swear)
* Everyone in our house (except Loki) has a head cold

It's so quiet around here, y'all! Does everyone have bloggy ennui? Everyone busy?? Blah. Oh, and fair warning, this is going to be a rambly, incoherent sort of post.

I'm doing the single mommy thing 'til Sat. morning when Matt gets back from TN. This will, apparently, include taking Tabby with me to my company's quarterly early morning breakfast meeting since her sitter doesn't start work 'til 7. It was my boss's idea. Hehe.

I saw these things on LJC's site. I think what I like most about them is that I can toss them in the dishwasher to get clean. Easy like paper towels, but reusable. That's pretty great. Now I just have to make a trip to Wild Oats (like Whole Foods, but smaller) to pick some of them up. Along with s'more almond milk and some organic frozen squash. I have many lists.

I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my second honorary nephew, the son of our best friends. He is due to be born sometime t'day by cesarean. Now I am just hoping that 230985 emergency C-sections don't crop up last minute. Tabby and I are going down there after work.

Continue reading “What is going on?”

We went in to see the doc yesterday with Tabby. She was scheduled for a consult with the pediatric urologist. No biggie. So we got there at 2:50 and checked in for our 3:00 appointment and went upstairs and sat in the waiting room and played with toys and such. We met another mom all set to see the same doc as us with a 3:15 appointment. By 3:25 we were all getting a bit antsy. Then they called the other mom and her kids. And we got confused. I said to Matt that maybe we had our appointment time wrong. He decided we had better check and make sure. We've waited (in the pharmacy in paticular) for over 45 minutes and when we finally went to ask, we'd been forgotten or whatever. So he went up to ask. He made an inquiry with the receptionist who then went to get the nurse.

All the way across the large waiting room, I heard the nurse's rather rude answer. Basically the jist was that we may have gotten there at 2:50 but our appointment wasn't until 3:30 and how dare we even THINK to question this. When Matt came back I commented to him about how rude she had been. And I didn't bother to lower my voice because I didn't paticularly care if she heard me or not.

A couple of minutes later, she came out and called us. I walked over and she started in on us again. Just because we arrived early didn't mean that we could get into see the doctor any earlier. Very rude again. I told her in the politest way I could that we had simply had a misunderstanding about our appointment time and we were just trying to make certain we'd not been forgotten as we had been before and cited the incident at the pharmacy. “We've learned to ask rather than assume.” She curtly informed me that they were not the pharmacy that they were a surgical department who ran on schedule, blah blah blah, which was still clearly untrue because they were still 10 minutes late for OUR appointment (not that I care, but don't lecture me about your precise time tables when you're 10 minutes late, lady). I didn't bother to argue with her.

I didn't bring it up, but the doc did end up apologizing for her behavior, which I appreciate. It would have meant more if she had apologized, but whatever. This paticular appointment, it didn't really matter, but I think back to my first perinatologist appointment last October when the slightest anything would have sent me into hysterics because I was so upset already at having to be there and you just wonder if she shouldn't think about a new career. Possibly one with less people interaction.

What're y'all doing for Halloween? Tabby has some hand-me-down Halloween costumes … a black cat, I think, and maybe something else (I've got to look thru boxes). But I'm still not sure what we want to do about a costume for her. Part of me wants to mark the event (her first Halloween) with a cool costume, and part of me goes “$17(-$25) for something she's only going to wear for *maybe* 2 hours?!? Crazy!!” But I did see a really cute monkey costume @ Old Navy and a Pumpkin Faerie costume @ Target, both of which I really liked. And I'm also tempted to dress her up as Maggie (from The Simpsons) since she's so in love with her binky (though where can I find that hair?!?).

And of course, we need to carve pumpkins. Matt LOVES to carve pumpkins. I just saw a really great post about that too … ah yes, here it is. It's funny, I remember Halloween vividly last year, lying on the couch, eating pizza and watching that horrible Herbie movie (the one with Lindsay Lohan) and feeling Ms. Tabby kick me … hehe. Continue reading “Halloween and Other Things”