Had a great business trip/mini vacation. I did have to call the accountant from the front desk because I didn't actually have the credit card with me. They asked for a third party authorization. Other than that it went swimmingly. Good user group meeting with lots of interesting items discussed.
Word(s) of the day: SPACE MONKEY
Really odd thing happened to me this morning. I subscribe to Webster-Merriam's word of the day email group. Every morning when I come to work, there is an email with some word of the day they picked. I never use theirs for my blog however. I like to use words that pop into my head or that popped out of my mouth for some strange reason. Well, the darndest thing, last week I used 'infinitesimal' for my word of the day and that's the one I got emailed this morning. Hmm. Lets see them use space monkey, huh?
Lexie log: I guess I forgot to keep a lock of Lexie's hair from the first cutting. Both Carrie and TT were shocked. I was on the phone with an insurance rep when we were discussing this. I put her on hold to call home and check with Frank to see if the lock of curled hair I've seen for the past two days on the floor by the door was still there and he had already thrown it away. TT says I should put in her baby book this story. Ok. -- Oh my little swimmer. She slept most of the way to Olympia, since we left at 6:30am, this is not surprising. On the way out we stopped at the grocery to pick up wipes, etc. and I bought her a little elephant we named Olympia. She loved it and played with it the whole weekend. It is right up there with pink puppy, in fact she usually has one in each hand and they are the best of imaginary buds. We arrived at the hotel half an hour before the meeting. Amazingly enough, the room was already available. After dealing with the credit card issue and getting Lexie and Daddy settled in the room, it was 9:52am. I had eight minutes to get to the meeting. Now, the mapquest directions I printed out say that it takes eight minutes to travel from the hotel to the hospital. This is not correct. More like 15 minutes with lights etc. Then parking was next to impossible. After the meeting I called Frank, who was slightly panicked about Lexie. She was prancing around the room, fell, and hit her head on the corner of a divider wall. When I got there, she had a huge bump on her head. A goose egg. She acted fine, however, and when we called Dr. Miller's office and spoke with nurse Lori. She said everything should be fine. We picked up take out Mexican food from a restaurant we spotted while driving around. Lexie had gone since 9:30 with no nap. She finally slept in the car and Daddy rode in the back seat with her and put ice on her head while she slept. No way she would let us do it while she was awake. We had a pleasant evening. Lexie and I went down to the pool from 5:45pm to 6:45 pm. It was such a blast. The whole trip was worthwhile just for the joy we shared in the pool. I walked and swam around the pool with her hanging on to my neck, sometimes in back, sometimes in front. She squealed with delight and kept yelling, "Swimmin, swimmin!" Then she played on the stairs, kept climbing out of the pool and then getting back in by climbing over the side. I'll tell you, she was not happy to leave. Daddy had to carry her kicking and screaming. Then we spent the rest of the evening in the room, watching T.V. and eating good Mexican food. Two big old queen beds to jump around and play on. We brought the stack of Valentines cards her Grammy had bought post holiday discount, and she played with them for a long time. About the only negative thing was that Daddy was constantly worried that she would injure herself again. The next morning we tried to get Lexie to eat eggs, cheese, and oatmeal from the continental breakfast, but she would have nothing but banana and milk. It seems that right now she has issues eating anywhere but home. She will eat some, but hardly anything. After pseudo breakfast, we swam in the pool from 10:00am till 11:00am. Again, it was great. After swimming, Lexie and I took a shower/bath...more water. Then we spent a couple hours wandering up and down the Percival Landing boardwalk. We saw the capitol building, spent some time at the water fountain, which Lexie loved, again with the water. Took pictures, spotted a Belted Kingfisher, stopped and got Latte's from a walk-up window, picked out our favorite boats, and people watched. Frank had a chocolate caramel latte, and I had a Kaluha latte. The cashier was very generous and filled Lexie's milk bottle up with chocolate milk for free. Then she charged us less than the menu price, and then didn't take the penny. Of course we tipped back for her kindness. We walked all the way to the end of the boardwalk, right up to the fence for the Port of Olympia with the huge loading cranes. Then we drove home. It was a wonderful trip. Saturday night, after we got home, Lexie took yet another bath, and Daddy finally caved in and gave her a hair cut. She is so cute. Now you can actually see her face, she is not fighting with her superlong bangs. No more sheep dog. -- Sunday we spent a couple hours over at Grama Betty's on the front porch with Aunt Patty and Neighbor Jay. Lexie entertained us all. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and Lexie finally let us put a hat on her. All winter she would not wear a hat, but when her head got too hot in the sun, she was more than happy to give it a try. She tried to follow Jay into his house to get papers to draw on. We were all a tad concerned that she should be so willing to follow this stranger she had met only a couple times. Too trusting. Jay has this outrageous laugh that carries for miles. It used to be extremely annoying when we lived behind him, but now it's just funny. Whenever he laughed, Lexie would do her best fake laugh. What a great weekend. -- Oh, now she knows how to climb up onto and down off of her changing table. Little monkey girl.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, mini-vacations, time with my family on the porch, water, birds, and happiness.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Today's blog entry title sucks, cuz I have no song stuck in my head.
It is the most quiet here today of any day I have ever worked. No Carrie, no TT, no Val, no Barb. All I can hear all day is LB keying payments and making phone call, and the occasional Debbie sneeze and cough. I have been too lazy to turn on Carrie's radio, so I don't have any songs stuck in my head. In fact I keep opening my mouth wide, like a yawn, to try to pop my ears. It's so quiet I feel like I must be losing my hearing. It's fun to pay attention to the different stomps and footsteps as people walk by the cube. 99.9% of the time I can tell who it is without looking over. Sometimes I can even tell before they get to the cube opening. Dr. Baker has the most noticeable. She stomps at what seems like a jog when she passes. The strangest thing just happened. It just got really noisy in hear. The dot matrix printers just started up, the air conditioning contractor (Ron), Justin, and Karina are walking around talking loud. KC and Dawn are getting ready to leave for lunch.
Daddy is out of commission again today. I guess he pulled a muscle in his arm or upper back yesterday horsing around with Lexie. It didn't bug him at all until he woke up this morning and couldn't move it. He took a muscle relaxant that the doctor gave him for back pain over a year ago. He's never taken it before, he was too stubborn with the back injury to take it. No when I talk to him on the phone he sounds doped up and it didn't do anything for the pain. And yes, he refuses to take an Ibuprofen. I'm afraid I will never understand him and his bizarre medical issues. I got really angry with him over the phone. He is making a fuss over being in pain, and I don't have the slightest doubt that he is in serious pain, but he just wants to say it over and over and expects me not to feel like I should come home and take care of Lexie. Very frustrating. I wonder how this will play into going to Olympia tomorrow. And of course, at some point he will probably read this and feel hurt that I am talking negative about him. I do love you honey, with all my heart. It's just that this is really on my mind during lunch and it's so boring here today, that I don't have any thing else to dwell on. Love you!
Word(s) of the day: MARSUPIAL
Hey, I'm having fun playing with HTML again. I haven't played around with it for ages. Of course, I imagine at some point the link to this picture could fail and it will look silly, but oh well.
By the way, that is supposed to be something called a Marsupial Lion. It's a depiction of what it most likely looked like, as it is now extinct.
Another odd thing... Almost as soon as I mentioned how quiet it is in here, LB started talking away, having a conversation with me. It has been hard to concentrate on what we are supposed to be discussing while I type away. I think we've talked about a huge payment she should be getting from Blue Cross, her allergies to Ivy, and her grandchild.
Lexie log: She still drags the sit and spin all over the house so she can spin where ever you happen to be. It was warm enough last night that we watched a little T.V. on the back deck, and she carted the darned thing out there. It seems even more obnoxious when outdoors at night with neighbors and all. She just loves it though. The strange way she tilts her head and squints and make guinea pig noises. She is so in love and in touch with all her senses still. -- I keep thinking about the mini-bio I did in a recent blog entry, and I really want to do another one. I'm sure I will when the mood strikes me. As it is now, I would love to tell the story of how Frank and I met, but my lunchbreak is almost over and I have typed quite a bit already. More to come. An add on to the previous mini-bio though... Lexie and I also watched the footage of the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. It happened on February 1, 2003, she was exactly two months old to the day. Many years earlier when another shuttle, the Challenger, exploded I was in the cafeteria at Hillsboro High. For the Columbia, it was about 6:00 am, we had just gotten up (for the bazillionth time) and, I was nursing Lexie. Our normal routine was to be out on the couch with the T.V. on. We caught the first coverage of the incident, before they even knew anything except that the shuttle was missing. It was so surreal. All they could do at first was speculate about was going on, where was the shuttle, what happened to it and the crew? All they knew was that the last communication was at 9:00 am EST. Then reports started coming in from eye witnesses saying they saw an explosion in the sky over Texas. It was an amazing and sad story to watch unfold. We couldn't take our eyes off the T.V. for 24 hours. All If anyone ever asks, Lexie can say where she was in her mammas lap when it happened.
Ok, I've gone over lunch, so off I go.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, push pins, mirrors, graphite, and hairbrushes.
Daddy is out of commission again today. I guess he pulled a muscle in his arm or upper back yesterday horsing around with Lexie. It didn't bug him at all until he woke up this morning and couldn't move it. He took a muscle relaxant that the doctor gave him for back pain over a year ago. He's never taken it before, he was too stubborn with the back injury to take it. No when I talk to him on the phone he sounds doped up and it didn't do anything for the pain. And yes, he refuses to take an Ibuprofen. I'm afraid I will never understand him and his bizarre medical issues. I got really angry with him over the phone. He is making a fuss over being in pain, and I don't have the slightest doubt that he is in serious pain, but he just wants to say it over and over and expects me not to feel like I should come home and take care of Lexie. Very frustrating. I wonder how this will play into going to Olympia tomorrow. And of course, at some point he will probably read this and feel hurt that I am talking negative about him. I do love you honey, with all my heart. It's just that this is really on my mind during lunch and it's so boring here today, that I don't have any thing else to dwell on. Love you!
Word(s) of the day: MARSUPIAL
Hey, I'm having fun playing with HTML again. I haven't played around with it for ages. Of course, I imagine at some point the link to this picture could fail and it will look silly, but oh well.
By the way, that is supposed to be something called a Marsupial Lion. It's a depiction of what it most likely looked like, as it is now extinct.
Another odd thing... Almost as soon as I mentioned how quiet it is in here, LB started talking away, having a conversation with me. It has been hard to concentrate on what we are supposed to be discussing while I type away. I think we've talked about a huge payment she should be getting from Blue Cross, her allergies to Ivy, and her grandchild.
Lexie log: She still drags the sit and spin all over the house so she can spin where ever you happen to be. It was warm enough last night that we watched a little T.V. on the back deck, and she carted the darned thing out there. It seems even more obnoxious when outdoors at night with neighbors and all. She just loves it though. The strange way she tilts her head and squints and make guinea pig noises. She is so in love and in touch with all her senses still. -- I keep thinking about the mini-bio I did in a recent blog entry, and I really want to do another one. I'm sure I will when the mood strikes me. As it is now, I would love to tell the story of how Frank and I met, but my lunchbreak is almost over and I have typed quite a bit already. More to come. An add on to the previous mini-bio though... Lexie and I also watched the footage of the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. It happened on February 1, 2003, she was exactly two months old to the day. Many years earlier when another shuttle, the Challenger, exploded I was in the cafeteria at Hillsboro High. For the Columbia, it was about 6:00 am, we had just gotten up (for the bazillionth time) and, I was nursing Lexie. Our normal routine was to be out on the couch with the T.V. on. We caught the first coverage of the incident, before they even knew anything except that the shuttle was missing. It was so surreal. All they could do at first was speculate about was going on, where was the shuttle, what happened to it and the crew? All they knew was that the last communication was at 9:00 am EST. Then reports started coming in from eye witnesses saying they saw an explosion in the sky over Texas. It was an amazing and sad story to watch unfold. We couldn't take our eyes off the T.V. for 24 hours. All If anyone ever asks, Lexie can say where she was in her mammas lap when it happened.
Ok, I've gone over lunch, so off I go.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, push pins, mirrors, graphite, and hairbrushes.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
All I need is the air that I breathe, and to love you...
Well, against uncle Steve's better judgment...
Click ME!
What time is it?
Is it something about February 23 that makes people say, "Easter's coming"? It has happened a bit this morning.
Left my photo server software utility running on the home computer, so no Lexie pics loaded this morning. We were looking for one last night for our desktop wallpaper and found a whole bunch of really cool baby pictures we forgot about. A lot of ooooohhing and aaaahhing went on, oh how precious and adorable. Even though she two years old, I will probably post a lot of her older baby pictures. To get caught up ya' know.
Word(s) of the day: INFINITESIMAL
I actually used that word in a meeting yesterday. It just popped out of my mouth.
Lexie log: I am quite convinced that Lexie actually said, "Love you Daddy" last night. We constantly tell her we love her, but for some reason, even with all her mimicking, she never says the word love. Is this odd? She also forms three to four word sentences, but won't answer the question, "How old are you?", no matter how many times we rehearse it with her. But, if you say the word 'orange', she is more than happy to say 'orange', right back at you. I'm pretty sure she understands the concept of the words 'me', and 'you'. She will even throw a verb in between them and communicate with us, but she still hasn't spoken the words 'I love you'.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, communication, angels, a positive attitude, creativity, sunshine, photosynthesis, electricity, enzymes, and synapses.
Has anyone noticed I really like the word 'odd'?
Click ME!
What time is it?
Is it something about February 23 that makes people say, "Easter's coming"? It has happened a bit this morning.
Left my photo server software utility running on the home computer, so no Lexie pics loaded this morning. We were looking for one last night for our desktop wallpaper and found a whole bunch of really cool baby pictures we forgot about. A lot of ooooohhing and aaaahhing went on, oh how precious and adorable. Even though she two years old, I will probably post a lot of her older baby pictures. To get caught up ya' know.
Word(s) of the day: INFINITESIMAL
I actually used that word in a meeting yesterday. It just popped out of my mouth.
Lexie log: I am quite convinced that Lexie actually said, "Love you Daddy" last night. We constantly tell her we love her, but for some reason, even with all her mimicking, she never says the word love. Is this odd? She also forms three to four word sentences, but won't answer the question, "How old are you?", no matter how many times we rehearse it with her. But, if you say the word 'orange', she is more than happy to say 'orange', right back at you. I'm pretty sure she understands the concept of the words 'me', and 'you'. She will even throw a verb in between them and communicate with us, but she still hasn't spoken the words 'I love you'.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, communication, angels, a positive attitude, creativity, sunshine, photosynthesis, electricity, enzymes, and synapses.
Has anyone noticed I really like the word 'odd'?
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
People all over the world, join hands. Start a love train, a love train.
I wonder if anyone will notice if I take a nap at my desk.
Two cups of coffee and my eyelids are still feeling like they are weighted with sand bags. Some mornings it just takes more than others to get going. And yes, Carrie, I am aware that I misspelled wriggling.
I'm tired of mailing out claim forms. Pull the dot matrix circle hole side holder strips off, separate each page, pull secondary EOBs, staple, stamp, sort by mailing address, stuff envelopes, seal envelopes, stamp envelopes. I have a huge unrelenting resentful chip on my shoulder. Hating Bellis. There! I finally done it. I've split the personalities so I can identify and hopefully conquer. Don't ask!
I got a really rude message from a claims supervisor on my voicemail this morning. I have been working on this claim since August of last year. I have been passed around to so many reps and a couple supervisors. This latest supervisor leaves me a message stating all the facts I already know, with this hideously strong East coast accent. She doesn't address the issue at all, and even at one point says, "and blah-de blah-de blah-de blah..." Harrumph. This Tuesday is so very Monday.
Word(s) of the day: COMA TOAST
Lexie log: Last night she curled up on her bed, pulled up the covers, I sat down on the pull out bed, and we watched Sponge Bob's Halloween specials. I fell asleep on the pull out bed and woke up to her crawling out of her bed to snuggle up with me. It was so cute I couldn't even bring myself to get up and go to bed. That's right Lexie and I both slept on a crib mattress on the floor in her room. After the movie ended the T.V. played public access messages from channel 11 all night with music in the background. I woke up to the alarm, slipped out of the room, got ready for work, and made a mistake. I couldn't resist going in to kiss her goodbye, and she woke up. She cried for me and I held her and we talked for about five minutes. She kept saying, "What's wrong?", and I told her Mommy has to go to work to make a penny. I swear it sounded like she asked me if Daddy could go today and I could stay. It was so hard to leave and her crying didn't make it any easier. I do love her so. As you might can tell, I'm having an issue today being at work and missing her. I'm feeling very melancholy. I want my baby. Oh, great now KISN is playing Air Supply, "...I'll be missing you...." How totally perfect. I know, I know it's a love song, but take me back already. Geez. So...Anyway, three days till Olympia.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, cuddles, happy endings, airplanes, parking space lines, the color purple, novels, word association, locomotives, and stretching.
Two cups of coffee and my eyelids are still feeling like they are weighted with sand bags. Some mornings it just takes more than others to get going. And yes, Carrie, I am aware that I misspelled wriggling.
I'm tired of mailing out claim forms. Pull the dot matrix circle hole side holder strips off, separate each page, pull secondary EOBs, staple, stamp, sort by mailing address, stuff envelopes, seal envelopes, stamp envelopes. I have a huge unrelenting resentful chip on my shoulder. Hating Bellis. There! I finally done it. I've split the personalities so I can identify and hopefully conquer. Don't ask!
I got a really rude message from a claims supervisor on my voicemail this morning. I have been working on this claim since August of last year. I have been passed around to so many reps and a couple supervisors. This latest supervisor leaves me a message stating all the facts I already know, with this hideously strong East coast accent. She doesn't address the issue at all, and even at one point says, "and blah-de blah-de blah-de blah..." Harrumph. This Tuesday is so very Monday.
Word(s) of the day: COMA TOAST
Lexie log: Last night she curled up on her bed, pulled up the covers, I sat down on the pull out bed, and we watched Sponge Bob's Halloween specials. I fell asleep on the pull out bed and woke up to her crawling out of her bed to snuggle up with me. It was so cute I couldn't even bring myself to get up and go to bed. That's right Lexie and I both slept on a crib mattress on the floor in her room. After the movie ended the T.V. played public access messages from channel 11 all night with music in the background. I woke up to the alarm, slipped out of the room, got ready for work, and made a mistake. I couldn't resist going in to kiss her goodbye, and she woke up. She cried for me and I held her and we talked for about five minutes. She kept saying, "What's wrong?", and I told her Mommy has to go to work to make a penny. I swear it sounded like she asked me if Daddy could go today and I could stay. It was so hard to leave and her crying didn't make it any easier. I do love her so. As you might can tell, I'm having an issue today being at work and missing her. I'm feeling very melancholy. I want my baby. Oh, great now KISN is playing Air Supply, "...I'll be missing you...." How totally perfect. I know, I know it's a love song, but take me back already. Geez. So...Anyway, three days till Olympia.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, cuddles, happy endings, airplanes, parking space lines, the color purple, novels, word association, locomotives, and stretching.
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Lexie and cousin (2nd) David at the Olive Garden last summer. Scott sitting next to them, and Grammy, with her Aboriginal art t-shirt, and her Aum tattoo holding Lexie's bottle, barley visible on the left. Lexie was so loud at dinner that a few people at the table were uncomfortable. Ha! I sure do love her!
Monday, February 21, 2005
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Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go...
LB has allergies or a cold. Whichever, she has quite the resounding honk when she put nose to tissue. Humorous.
Earlier today there was an news helicopter hovering above our building for about 15 minutes. No one still knows why.
I have a Cheerio hooked on a paper-clip dangling from a cut out of a mini birdhouse tapped to my monitor. It is a present from TT so that I never go hungry. I'm not the only weirdo around here.
I want to be home now. Grammy, Frank and Lexie are going on another walk. To the Indian Hills playground. It is a gorgeous day outside. I am so jealous, that when I think about it I get butterflies in my stomach.
Word(s) of the day: SONOROUS
Lexie log: Hey, I forgot to post pictures this morning. Oops. -- This weekend was fun. Saturday went like this...Slept in until 9:00 am. Woke up to Lexie, "Mommy?", ...Me, "Yes?", Lexie, "Cereal?". I made her a bowel of mixed grain cereal, and while she fed herself I did the dishes, put away the dishes, fed the cats, cleaned the microwave, took out the trash and recycling, cleaned up the kitchen counter, and cleaned up the table. Then Lexie took a bath while I did some more picking up and got ready. Then we all piled into the car and went to the Evergreen Aviation museum in McMinville. My goodness what a spendy entrance fee. It cost 22.00 for the three of us. My only regret is that Lexie did not get a good nap before we arrived. She had three major temper tantrums. She doesn't yet understand the no touch part of a museum and the only thing between her and the airplanes was a chain rope hanging one foot off the ground. She was far too excited (mixed with tired) to sit still in her chair. I tried carrying her for a while, but she was still too squirmy. She walked holding hands for all of ten paces before the duck and dive maneuver. This is how it works: Fall to the floor and roll, while still being held by the hand. Then just lay there waiting for time to pass and the hand to drop. Then start inching you way on your belly, as if no one will notice, off in some odd sort of escape attempt. I even tried letting her walk on her own, she is pretty good at this sometimes, but it wasn't even a nanosecond before she made a bee-line towards and under the barrier chain. So, then a full blown tantrum (no. 1) as I made way for the first exit labeled "no re-entry". Luckily we had our hand stamped. We had a nice ineffective chat on discipline and behavior. I made a lot of intelligent points on the subject. Lexie was far more impressed with the outside wall composed of cemented river rock. She proceeded to touch each rock with her index finger while saying, "Rock, rock, rock...". So we went back in after our little cool down exercise. This time she went into full tantrum (no. 2) immediately upon being set in her stroller. I decided I could ride this one out. For anyone who may have read my previous blogs, I mention about the fact that I never seem to notice anyone paying attention to her tantrums in public. Strike that. We got all kinds of scowling looks, mostly making me feel like I had done some horrible thing to my child. I believe Frank even mentioned the fact that she was two in loud voice. I walked around for what seemed like 20 minutes, but was probably closer to 10. She finally realized she was not going to win this round and endured sitting quietly in the stroller. We had a pleasant tour and pictures around the whole museum, and ended up in the "hands on" children's area. We strategically picked the exhibit for last. The first thing we did, was put her in the cockpit of a real, miniature airplane, with real controls. It had gauges, levers, pedals...everything but the steering mechanism. She was in heaven. We were out of battery juice in the camera. We fooled the camera into working by waiting a few minutes and then trying again. I believe we got a couple pictures before this trick didn't work anymore. We haven't looked at them yet. The most amazing thing was that as we were watching her, she figured out how to work the controls to get the wing flaps and tail/rudder thing to move. She used her feet on these pedals and some other thing... And I was dumbfounded. Still am. Of course, we would have had to stay there for hours, until she crawled out of the cockpit on her own, or fell asleep in it, in order to avoid the next tantrum (no. 3). We literally had to extract her from the plane kicking and screaming. She did not stop until we left the building. Frank, I don't know what he must have been thinking, wanted me to wait for him in the lobby of the snack shop while he bought us some Sobe. I held her riggling in my arms, on my shoulder, kicking, making that horrible Pterodactylus scream. I was confused, but stayed there, never hearing him tell me to forget it and go outside because I could hear nothing but her. I guess that was my little "I told you so" childish behavior. Oh well, she stopped the moment we got outside. We went and looked at some tanks (military vehicles, not storage) behind the building, then to the car. She fell asleep moments after getting back on the road. I really need to remember to bring the video camera more often. I have some mental block because we have not transferred any of the digital movies to VHS yet. It is already an extremely daunting project - ten or more tapes - to watch, organize and label. I think I have unconsciously given some ultimatum that I won't record anymore until I get this done. Sound like a good Grammy Monday project.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, museums and other attractions, weekends, happiness, and fish.
Earlier today there was an news helicopter hovering above our building for about 15 minutes. No one still knows why.
I have a Cheerio hooked on a paper-clip dangling from a cut out of a mini birdhouse tapped to my monitor. It is a present from TT so that I never go hungry. I'm not the only weirdo around here.
I want to be home now. Grammy, Frank and Lexie are going on another walk. To the Indian Hills playground. It is a gorgeous day outside. I am so jealous, that when I think about it I get butterflies in my stomach.
Word(s) of the day: SONOROUS
Lexie log: Hey, I forgot to post pictures this morning. Oops. -- This weekend was fun. Saturday went like this...Slept in until 9:00 am. Woke up to Lexie, "Mommy?", ...Me, "Yes?", Lexie, "Cereal?". I made her a bowel of mixed grain cereal, and while she fed herself I did the dishes, put away the dishes, fed the cats, cleaned the microwave, took out the trash and recycling, cleaned up the kitchen counter, and cleaned up the table. Then Lexie took a bath while I did some more picking up and got ready. Then we all piled into the car and went to the Evergreen Aviation museum in McMinville. My goodness what a spendy entrance fee. It cost 22.00 for the three of us. My only regret is that Lexie did not get a good nap before we arrived. She had three major temper tantrums. She doesn't yet understand the no touch part of a museum and the only thing between her and the airplanes was a chain rope hanging one foot off the ground. She was far too excited (mixed with tired) to sit still in her chair. I tried carrying her for a while, but she was still too squirmy. She walked holding hands for all of ten paces before the duck and dive maneuver. This is how it works: Fall to the floor and roll, while still being held by the hand. Then just lay there waiting for time to pass and the hand to drop. Then start inching you way on your belly, as if no one will notice, off in some odd sort of escape attempt. I even tried letting her walk on her own, she is pretty good at this sometimes, but it wasn't even a nanosecond before she made a bee-line towards and under the barrier chain. So, then a full blown tantrum (no. 1) as I made way for the first exit labeled "no re-entry". Luckily we had our hand stamped. We had a nice ineffective chat on discipline and behavior. I made a lot of intelligent points on the subject. Lexie was far more impressed with the outside wall composed of cemented river rock. She proceeded to touch each rock with her index finger while saying, "Rock, rock, rock...". So we went back in after our little cool down exercise. This time she went into full tantrum (no. 2) immediately upon being set in her stroller. I decided I could ride this one out. For anyone who may have read my previous blogs, I mention about the fact that I never seem to notice anyone paying attention to her tantrums in public. Strike that. We got all kinds of scowling looks, mostly making me feel like I had done some horrible thing to my child. I believe Frank even mentioned the fact that she was two in loud voice. I walked around for what seemed like 20 minutes, but was probably closer to 10. She finally realized she was not going to win this round and endured sitting quietly in the stroller. We had a pleasant tour and pictures around the whole museum, and ended up in the "hands on" children's area. We strategically picked the exhibit for last. The first thing we did, was put her in the cockpit of a real, miniature airplane, with real controls. It had gauges, levers, pedals...everything but the steering mechanism. She was in heaven. We were out of battery juice in the camera. We fooled the camera into working by waiting a few minutes and then trying again. I believe we got a couple pictures before this trick didn't work anymore. We haven't looked at them yet. The most amazing thing was that as we were watching her, she figured out how to work the controls to get the wing flaps and tail/rudder thing to move. She used her feet on these pedals and some other thing... And I was dumbfounded. Still am. Of course, we would have had to stay there for hours, until she crawled out of the cockpit on her own, or fell asleep in it, in order to avoid the next tantrum (no. 3). We literally had to extract her from the plane kicking and screaming. She did not stop until we left the building. Frank, I don't know what he must have been thinking, wanted me to wait for him in the lobby of the snack shop while he bought us some Sobe. I held her riggling in my arms, on my shoulder, kicking, making that horrible Pterodactylus scream. I was confused, but stayed there, never hearing him tell me to forget it and go outside because I could hear nothing but her. I guess that was my little "I told you so" childish behavior. Oh well, she stopped the moment we got outside. We went and looked at some tanks (military vehicles, not storage) behind the building, then to the car. She fell asleep moments after getting back on the road. I really need to remember to bring the video camera more often. I have some mental block because we have not transferred any of the digital movies to VHS yet. It is already an extremely daunting project - ten or more tapes - to watch, organize and label. I think I have unconsciously given some ultimatum that I won't record anymore until I get this done. Sound like a good Grammy Monday project.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, museums and other attractions, weekends, happiness, and fish.
Friday, February 18, 2005
You go back, Jack, and do it again...Wheels turning round and round...
Nice relaxing quiet Friday at work. Just got off the phone with Frank. He put Lexie on the phone and we had a nice little chat where she made different animal noises, said it was funny, asked where I was, said she didn't understand, and when I said I knew it was hard for her to understand, she said she knew. Hmm. It actually came out sounding like a semi-intelligent conversation.
I have this ongoing issue with forgetting things I was going to tell my mom. I get on the phone with her, and almost every time I say, "I thought I was going to tell you something, but I can't remember what it is." Well, I just this moment remembered one from over a week ago that is just silly now, but it is definitely one of those tiny 'things' I was going to tell her but forgot. I go to the bank drive through very frequently. The tellers all know me by name. Last week I was at the drive through and the teller accidentally called me 'Sandra' instead of Rachel. Very odd since Mom banks there too and that is her name. I told her that, she asked me if we looked alike and I said we did. She thinks that must be why she called me Sandra. Just wanted to share that tid bit with Mom but she's never around or on the phone when I remember.
Word(s) of the day: BOUT
Here is a list of some of the topics that were discussed in the office this morning between 10:00 and 11:00 AM: Sleeping Beta fish, Alpha Beta grocery stores, Herbie the Love bug, Dodge Neon, raunchy license plate border about the other ride, crochet patterns, Dr. Dinkston at the Robbery Clinic, impulse spending, Trader Joe's Chai tea, car bombing in Vancouver, Michael Jackson, Carries's cough, if Carrie is doing anything fun on her day off- like going to the coast, LB clipping her nails, Payless human manicure kit dremmel used for birds claws-maybe ok for cats, sturdy roses, cat grooming and static shock as Downy/water was sprayed on the office carpet.
Phew.
Yesterday I had a bout of stupidity.
No offense to my cubicle cohorts, but I really like being alone over here. No TT, no Carrie. If I had to do it everyday I might get lonely, but it sure is nice.
Price of Tea in China: Cup @ restaurant= free, Cup @ tea house= approx 15 - 20 Yuan, One pound bag of Tie Guan Yin = approx 150 USD.
Yeah, that's right, I actually researched that.
I just made myself a cup of French Vanilla coffee.
The Honda does not smell like hamburger.
Lexie log: I can't wait for the batteries in the sit and spin to go dead. I bet Frank would love it even more. If they weren't such a pain to remove, we'd have done it by now. I hope she doesn't mind using it without the obnoxious soundtracks. Frank and I were not-so-seriously talking about if Lexie would be a happy, decent child actor. She is so outgoing, animated, dramatic, and beautiful. I guess we are biased though. Anyway, it is not something we would normally consider with all the controversy that goes along with children celebrities. Then today LB said she wished she could be a contestant/participant, so I was looking up local auditions on the Web. Came across a career posting board for extras, models, commercials, actors of all ages, no experience. Have I lost my mind???!!! I submitted a couple photos to the email with my contact info. What on earth has entered my oh so tiny brain? -- I tried to watch Shark Tale with her last night and fell asleep on the couch. I woke up and the menu screen was on and she had deserted me to crawl in bed. Harumph! -- Daddy and I had a brief difference of opinion on whether or not she should have low carb ketchup. Then he tried it and saw that it tasted the same. Less sugar is all. -- One of the bazillion temporary nicknames she has right now is 'little monkey'. She is prancing all about the house with some amount of energy that I just can't fathom. -- She is getting very good at naming animals and making their sounds. She does a brilliant cocadoodledoo, and a very impressive roar. Her oink and whiny are improving. -- Whenever we go out, like to the grocery store, when we walk holding her hand, she can't stand to walk normal. She has to do this odd skipping thing. Very cute. She's been doing this for over a month now. She has had somewhere between five and ten tempertantrums in public places. Mostly the grocery store, mostly when she needs a nap, and always about mode of transportation. She gets mad about having to be in the cart, doesn't like to stand still when holding hands, and falls down screaming if you don't let her tear of around the store on her own. I am still utterly amazed at how other patrons don't even turn to look when she is in full throw. I have begun to wonder how many times in my life I have heard a young child wailing in public and paid it no notice. I have started trying to pay more attention to this. -- Last weekend we went to Petco for a fish tank filter replacement. Originally, I was just going to go in and get it (didn't seem that complicated), but I had a little difficulty locating it. When I was in over five minutes, Daddy decided to bring Lexie in for a search and rescue mission. I was half-way back through the store (in the fish section), in the ailes, unable to even remotely see the front door. I could have sworn I heard Lexie say "Mommy?", so I went to investigate. I am pretty impressed that I honed in and recognized her voice. Some day, I will loose this, I know. I know this because now, when I call my Mom "Mom" in public, it takes two or three times at escalating decibels. Mom....MOM.....MOM!
Did you know that tea leaves contain phenols which can absorb radioactive strontium?
Today I am grateful for Frank and Lexie, tea, mayonnaise, KC's generosity, water, common sense, parking spaces, and q-tips.
I have this ongoing issue with forgetting things I was going to tell my mom. I get on the phone with her, and almost every time I say, "I thought I was going to tell you something, but I can't remember what it is." Well, I just this moment remembered one from over a week ago that is just silly now, but it is definitely one of those tiny 'things' I was going to tell her but forgot. I go to the bank drive through very frequently. The tellers all know me by name. Last week I was at the drive through and the teller accidentally called me 'Sandra' instead of Rachel. Very odd since Mom banks there too and that is her name. I told her that, she asked me if we looked alike and I said we did. She thinks that must be why she called me Sandra. Just wanted to share that tid bit with Mom but she's never around or on the phone when I remember.
Word(s) of the day: BOUT
Here is a list of some of the topics that were discussed in the office this morning between 10:00 and 11:00 AM: Sleeping Beta fish, Alpha Beta grocery stores, Herbie the Love bug, Dodge Neon, raunchy license plate border about the other ride, crochet patterns, Dr. Dinkston at the Robbery Clinic, impulse spending, Trader Joe's Chai tea, car bombing in Vancouver, Michael Jackson, Carries's cough, if Carrie is doing anything fun on her day off- like going to the coast, LB clipping her nails, Payless human manicure kit dremmel used for birds claws-maybe ok for cats, sturdy roses, cat grooming and static shock as Downy/water was sprayed on the office carpet.
Phew.
Yesterday I had a bout of stupidity.
No offense to my cubicle cohorts, but I really like being alone over here. No TT, no Carrie. If I had to do it everyday I might get lonely, but it sure is nice.
Price of Tea in China: Cup @ restaurant= free, Cup @ tea house= approx 15 - 20 Yuan, One pound bag of Tie Guan Yin = approx 150 USD.
Yeah, that's right, I actually researched that.
I just made myself a cup of French Vanilla coffee.
The Honda does not smell like hamburger.
Lexie log: I can't wait for the batteries in the sit and spin to go dead. I bet Frank would love it even more. If they weren't such a pain to remove, we'd have done it by now. I hope she doesn't mind using it without the obnoxious soundtracks. Frank and I were not-so-seriously talking about if Lexie would be a happy, decent child actor. She is so outgoing, animated, dramatic, and beautiful. I guess we are biased though. Anyway, it is not something we would normally consider with all the controversy that goes along with children celebrities. Then today LB said she wished she could be a contestant/participant, so I was looking up local auditions on the Web. Came across a career posting board for extras, models, commercials, actors of all ages, no experience. Have I lost my mind???!!! I submitted a couple photos to the email with my contact info. What on earth has entered my oh so tiny brain? -- I tried to watch Shark Tale with her last night and fell asleep on the couch. I woke up and the menu screen was on and she had deserted me to crawl in bed. Harumph! -- Daddy and I had a brief difference of opinion on whether or not she should have low carb ketchup. Then he tried it and saw that it tasted the same. Less sugar is all. -- One of the bazillion temporary nicknames she has right now is 'little monkey'. She is prancing all about the house with some amount of energy that I just can't fathom. -- She is getting very good at naming animals and making their sounds. She does a brilliant cocadoodledoo, and a very impressive roar. Her oink and whiny are improving. -- Whenever we go out, like to the grocery store, when we walk holding her hand, she can't stand to walk normal. She has to do this odd skipping thing. Very cute. She's been doing this for over a month now. She has had somewhere between five and ten tempertantrums in public places. Mostly the grocery store, mostly when she needs a nap, and always about mode of transportation. She gets mad about having to be in the cart, doesn't like to stand still when holding hands, and falls down screaming if you don't let her tear of around the store on her own. I am still utterly amazed at how other patrons don't even turn to look when she is in full throw. I have begun to wonder how many times in my life I have heard a young child wailing in public and paid it no notice. I have started trying to pay more attention to this. -- Last weekend we went to Petco for a fish tank filter replacement. Originally, I was just going to go in and get it (didn't seem that complicated), but I had a little difficulty locating it. When I was in over five minutes, Daddy decided to bring Lexie in for a search and rescue mission. I was half-way back through the store (in the fish section), in the ailes, unable to even remotely see the front door. I could have sworn I heard Lexie say "Mommy?", so I went to investigate. I am pretty impressed that I honed in and recognized her voice. Some day, I will loose this, I know. I know this because now, when I call my Mom "Mom" in public, it takes two or three times at escalating decibels. Mom....MOM.....MOM!
Did you know that tea leaves contain phenols which can absorb radioactive strontium?
Today I am grateful for Frank and Lexie, tea, mayonnaise, KC's generosity, water, common sense, parking spaces, and q-tips.
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Thursday, February 17, 2005
Well, I been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to get out of the rain...
I forgot to bring my breakfast/lunch/snack bag to work. Growl, hiss. This should make me a sufficiently irritable and hungry specimen by this afternoon.
Word(s) of the day: OCTOTHORPE
Word of the day submitted by Carrie T.: CATERWAUL
Useless info site of the day: http://www.sigtel.com/tel_tech_octothorpe.html
Rubberband ball update: The rubber band ball now has a two inch diameter.
Why is it that I ALWAYS have to look up the spelling of 'desert'?
I have the attention span of a doughnut today. Hence all the short silly stuff.
For the most part Lexie has the best grandparents in the world. Grammy, Grampa, Gramma, but then there's Lloyd. Her biological grandfather. Has never laid eyes on her and has adopted a new family, kids included. I just still have such issues with this. I really need to let it go, but it only gets more irritating since I have become a parent myself. I really need to refer myself back to the five G's I recently read in another blog (Thanks Kelly, even if it was plagiarism. If you find the original author, let me know, please). Which is the one I'm looking for here??? Oh yeah, "Gentle-- Be gentle to others, especially animals and those at both ends of the age spectrum. Don't judge others: you don't live their lives nor do you know what issues and pains they go through on a daily basis. People wont always be gentle to you, but its important to strive for gentility in our lives." "Okay, Okay, Okay", Lexie would say. This concludes the "irritated with my biological father who has not really ever done serious harm, but still, what up?!" portion of my day.
Note to self...Not a good idea to leave work at lunch. Don't let me do it again. Hate it. It's so beautiful outside, didn't want to come back. Also... aaaaaah. Went on lunch run to McD's for myself and Carrie. I never do this. Now I know why. Pulling out items from McD's bag and one of double patties falls out of sandwich and in between seat and console. Yuck. Not able to retrieve. Yuck. Fiercely mad at myself for messing up the car and I'm not sure if it will ever be cleaned they way I want it to be. This, I suppose, is my punishment for breaking my healthy routine. I wonder if the car will spell like hamburger forever. Hope not. I'm not going to mention it to Frank, not right away. I'm too embarrassed. And I can guarantee I'll never hear the end of it. He's the type of person that will bring things up till the end of time. He still has to mention the antique, un-opened Blitz bear bottles and national geographic collection my parents threw out while cleaning out an old house of ours. He doesn't say it in a mean way, just like, "I wish I still had....." Wow, I am bitchy today! All of this because I was running late, couldn't find my pants, and forgot my lunch. Post Script, Carrie thanks for lunch again.
Lexie log: A little personal history... Lexie was conceived at 2301 SW Augusta Drive, Aloha, Oregon almost one month to the day after Frank and I were married and one month before I graduated from ITT. She was born at Tuality Community Hospital in Hillsboro. We moved houses the summer before she was born. I was six months pregnant, and it was hot. My wonderful husband and parents pretty much did all the moving without me. Frank is a fantastic caregiver to her, I only wish we could switch jobs. But...I had just graduated and was unemployed. I got this job at Broadway Medical in part because of the degree I had just achieved and part because of the eight years experience with health insurance at Aetna. When I took this job I knew I was a little over two months pregnant, but nobody here did! I was frantically searching for a job in the tech field but even 4.0 Magna Cum Laude, degree doesn't override NO EXPERIENCE. So I finally started looking back in the medical section of the want ads. I'm pretty sure it would have been kind of me to mention my 'state' at the interview, but I just had this sneaking suspicion that it would change the outcome. By now I'm almost positive of that. The old manager -since fired- most likely would not have hired me had she known. Even though it would have been discrimination, I believe she would not have wanted me had she known. She had a chip on her shoulder about it ever since she found out. Used to say stuff like, "You better name her after me, I own you." Well guess what! Her name's Lexie, not Terri you weird little woman. She even tried to get me to act like a spy on a co-worker, wanting reports on phone activity and work ethics. I hate being put in that position, and I told her so. Anyway, where was I! Oh, yeah. Of our two jobs, mine was the more established and so we decided that Frank would stay home with Lexie. Neither of us could bare the idea of putting her in daycare with all the weird things we had heard. Looking back on this two years later, I see that we may have been a little overbearing as new, first time, parents-to-be, but the end result is that she is better cared for by her dad than a stranger. It is also cost-effective with not having to pay for childcare. The clinic had flowers sent to our house as congratulations when we got home from the hospital. Tiki FREAKED out when we set her car seat on the bed. He ran faster than I ever saw when she moved. Oddly enough, Felix, the freaky cat, could have cared less (until months later when she was mobile). I took three months maternity leave, but it was unpaid since I had been working here less than a year. Lexie and I were up all hours of the day and night together. It was awesome! We watched the war coverage at night, Regis and Kelly in the morning. We watched them pull the Saddam's statue down together. The office administrator allowed me to log on remote and program reports from home to help out. The office manager (Terri) was fired while I was gone. One morning I got an email from her and that afternoon the office admin sent me email letting me to address any questions to the lead, rather than Terri. She was gone. Even with that, It was so hard to come back to work. I still miss her everyday(see previous picture post of my desk at work). Enough, for now, of the mini-bio, on to the present... -- She used to absolutely hate being under any kind of covers. A couple of weeks ago, she thought it was a neat idea to both cuddle under the throw blanket on the couch while we watched a movie. Ever since then, she is growing a fondness for cuddling under blankets. It's adorable. The way she burrows her head into the pillow, pulls the edge of the blanket tight up around her chin, and smile with these happy little blue angel eyes. -- She does not yet like the movie Shark Tale. We haven't had the chance to sit and watch it together, hopefully this weekend. Until she watches it all the way through with us, she probably won't watch it. She is frightened by some of the scenes with the sharks and the whale washing scene especially.
What a weird spell check this blog has. And, yes, as you can tell, I rarely remember to use it. One of the spell check suggestions for 'fondness' was 'bondage'. Odd.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, forgiveness, Kelly's kind blog comments, Carrie's generous nature, tomorrow being payday, blog, spell check, ducks, and back scratchers.
Word(s) of the day: OCTOTHORPE
Word of the day submitted by Carrie T.: CATERWAUL
Useless info site of the day: http://www.sigtel.com/tel_tech_octothorpe.html
Rubberband ball update: The rubber band ball now has a two inch diameter.
Why is it that I ALWAYS have to look up the spelling of 'desert'?
I have the attention span of a doughnut today. Hence all the short silly stuff.
For the most part Lexie has the best grandparents in the world. Grammy, Grampa, Gramma, but then there's Lloyd. Her biological grandfather. Has never laid eyes on her and has adopted a new family, kids included. I just still have such issues with this. I really need to let it go, but it only gets more irritating since I have become a parent myself. I really need to refer myself back to the five G's I recently read in another blog (Thanks Kelly, even if it was plagiarism. If you find the original author, let me know, please). Which is the one I'm looking for here??? Oh yeah, "Gentle-- Be gentle to others, especially animals and those at both ends of the age spectrum. Don't judge others: you don't live their lives nor do you know what issues and pains they go through on a daily basis. People wont always be gentle to you, but its important to strive for gentility in our lives." "Okay, Okay, Okay", Lexie would say. This concludes the "irritated with my biological father who has not really ever done serious harm, but still, what up?!" portion of my day.
Note to self...Not a good idea to leave work at lunch. Don't let me do it again. Hate it. It's so beautiful outside, didn't want to come back. Also... aaaaaah. Went on lunch run to McD's for myself and Carrie. I never do this. Now I know why. Pulling out items from McD's bag and one of double patties falls out of sandwich and in between seat and console. Yuck. Not able to retrieve. Yuck. Fiercely mad at myself for messing up the car and I'm not sure if it will ever be cleaned they way I want it to be. This, I suppose, is my punishment for breaking my healthy routine. I wonder if the car will spell like hamburger forever. Hope not. I'm not going to mention it to Frank, not right away. I'm too embarrassed. And I can guarantee I'll never hear the end of it. He's the type of person that will bring things up till the end of time. He still has to mention the antique, un-opened Blitz bear bottles and national geographic collection my parents threw out while cleaning out an old house of ours. He doesn't say it in a mean way, just like, "I wish I still had....." Wow, I am bitchy today! All of this because I was running late, couldn't find my pants, and forgot my lunch. Post Script, Carrie thanks for lunch again.
Lexie log: A little personal history... Lexie was conceived at 2301 SW Augusta Drive, Aloha, Oregon almost one month to the day after Frank and I were married and one month before I graduated from ITT. She was born at Tuality Community Hospital in Hillsboro. We moved houses the summer before she was born. I was six months pregnant, and it was hot. My wonderful husband and parents pretty much did all the moving without me. Frank is a fantastic caregiver to her, I only wish we could switch jobs. But...I had just graduated and was unemployed. I got this job at Broadway Medical in part because of the degree I had just achieved and part because of the eight years experience with health insurance at Aetna. When I took this job I knew I was a little over two months pregnant, but nobody here did! I was frantically searching for a job in the tech field but even 4.0 Magna Cum Laude, degree doesn't override NO EXPERIENCE. So I finally started looking back in the medical section of the want ads. I'm pretty sure it would have been kind of me to mention my 'state' at the interview, but I just had this sneaking suspicion that it would change the outcome. By now I'm almost positive of that. The old manager -since fired- most likely would not have hired me had she known. Even though it would have been discrimination, I believe she would not have wanted me had she known. She had a chip on her shoulder about it ever since she found out. Used to say stuff like, "You better name her after me, I own you." Well guess what! Her name's Lexie, not Terri you weird little woman. She even tried to get me to act like a spy on a co-worker, wanting reports on phone activity and work ethics. I hate being put in that position, and I told her so. Anyway, where was I! Oh, yeah. Of our two jobs, mine was the more established and so we decided that Frank would stay home with Lexie. Neither of us could bare the idea of putting her in daycare with all the weird things we had heard. Looking back on this two years later, I see that we may have been a little overbearing as new, first time, parents-to-be, but the end result is that she is better cared for by her dad than a stranger. It is also cost-effective with not having to pay for childcare. The clinic had flowers sent to our house as congratulations when we got home from the hospital. Tiki FREAKED out when we set her car seat on the bed. He ran faster than I ever saw when she moved. Oddly enough, Felix, the freaky cat, could have cared less (until months later when she was mobile). I took three months maternity leave, but it was unpaid since I had been working here less than a year. Lexie and I were up all hours of the day and night together. It was awesome! We watched the war coverage at night, Regis and Kelly in the morning. We watched them pull the Saddam's statue down together. The office administrator allowed me to log on remote and program reports from home to help out. The office manager (Terri) was fired while I was gone. One morning I got an email from her and that afternoon the office admin sent me email letting me to address any questions to the lead, rather than Terri. She was gone. Even with that, It was so hard to come back to work. I still miss her everyday(see previous picture post of my desk at work). Enough, for now, of the mini-bio, on to the present... -- She used to absolutely hate being under any kind of covers. A couple of weeks ago, she thought it was a neat idea to both cuddle under the throw blanket on the couch while we watched a movie. Ever since then, she is growing a fondness for cuddling under blankets. It's adorable. The way she burrows her head into the pillow, pulls the edge of the blanket tight up around her chin, and smile with these happy little blue angel eyes. -- She does not yet like the movie Shark Tale. We haven't had the chance to sit and watch it together, hopefully this weekend. Until she watches it all the way through with us, she probably won't watch it. She is frightened by some of the scenes with the sharks and the whale washing scene especially.
What a weird spell check this blog has. And, yes, as you can tell, I rarely remember to use it. One of the spell check suggestions for 'fondness' was 'bondage'. Odd.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, forgiveness, Kelly's kind blog comments, Carrie's generous nature, tomorrow being payday, blog, spell check, ducks, and back scratchers.
The bubble. Not the best picture, we couldn't get the light right. Grammy/Mom touched it up so it's a little better. Just an example of bubble time. In her left arm is her bottle, don't know why she still uses it, and her pink puppy. One of her all time favorites. Daddy picked up at Freddy's for her.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Can't touch this...
The office administrator just told me I should have a pair of big pink fuzzy slippers. I frequently take my shoes off here and wander around in my socks. This may seem odd, but it works for me. Our cubicle is often on the too warm side for myself and TT. The other cuboccupant has issues with blood circulation as well as insulation. I am also a prime candidate for those strange cases you hear about where people spontaneously combust. For no good reason, my hands sometimes get so hot, you would think there were glowing. So...in order to remain comfortable, I must vent some heat. So I have to put up with the occasional comment, and I do put the shoes back on when I go downstairs to clock out for lunch.
Word(s) of the day: MIASMA
No, my feet don't stink.
Argh! Every thing I typed at lunch was lost. Hating hating hating.
Dartboards are made out of horsehairs.
Lexie log: Lexie's new phrase/question, "What are you doing here?" So cute when she says it. -- Grammy came over yesterday. She, Frank and Lexie walked up to Safeway. It is reported that eventually Lexie needed to be strapped into her stroller, as apparently each passing mud puddle was too much of a temptation. After the walk, Grammy supervised as Lexie splashed, thrashed, played and swam in the tub. When I got home from work they were curled up on the pull out bed, and Fantasia was on the tube. Lexie was a slumber, Grammy was a playing opossum. Grammy brought a bag of balloons which was the theme for the rest of the evening. She popped a few and loved it. I loved rubbing them on her hair and then watching her spin around and grasp at it to get it off. Again with the hair fetish. I also static-stuck them to the kitchen wall, just out of reach. Bad Mommy. That didn't last any longer than her little fit. Ahh, balloon fun.
Oh, bummer. My audio book appears to have ended before the end. I can certainly re-record the ending over what's on there now, but still, I won't have it to listen to at the gym tonight. Goes so much faster with the book. Oh well.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, refrigerators, balloons, Mrs. Dash, the chance to re-type 90% of this wonderful blog entry after losing it to cyberspace (not!), wind and breezes, mossy rocks, and giraffes.
Word(s) of the day: MIASMA
No, my feet don't stink.
Argh! Every thing I typed at lunch was lost. Hating hating hating.
Dartboards are made out of horsehairs.
Lexie log: Lexie's new phrase/question, "What are you doing here?" So cute when she says it. -- Grammy came over yesterday. She, Frank and Lexie walked up to Safeway. It is reported that eventually Lexie needed to be strapped into her stroller, as apparently each passing mud puddle was too much of a temptation. After the walk, Grammy supervised as Lexie splashed, thrashed, played and swam in the tub. When I got home from work they were curled up on the pull out bed, and Fantasia was on the tube. Lexie was a slumber, Grammy was a playing opossum. Grammy brought a bag of balloons which was the theme for the rest of the evening. She popped a few and loved it. I loved rubbing them on her hair and then watching her spin around and grasp at it to get it off. Again with the hair fetish. I also static-stuck them to the kitchen wall, just out of reach. Bad Mommy. That didn't last any longer than her little fit. Ahh, balloon fun.
Oh, bummer. My audio book appears to have ended before the end. I can certainly re-record the ending over what's on there now, but still, I won't have it to listen to at the gym tonight. Goes so much faster with the book. Oh well.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, refrigerators, balloons, Mrs. Dash, the chance to re-type 90% of this wonderful blog entry after losing it to cyberspace (not!), wind and breezes, mossy rocks, and giraffes.
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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Good day, Sunshine....
I just had the worst tuna fish ever in my life at lunch. I do not like Bumble bee. Here is what a typical weekday meal plan looks like for me: morning= Hazel nuts and 1/2 grapefruit; lunch=1/2 can tuna (hopefully never bumblebee); 1 boiled egg, 1/2 cup fresh green beans; before gym snack= hazel nuts and 1/2 grapefruit; dinner=whatever.
Short bummer moment. Because of illnesses and appointments I will only have 74.7 hours on this Friday's paycheck. Yuck.
I'm getting to the point in the latest audio book where it is close enough to the end that I'm taking my time and making it last longer. I'm not anxious to leave my little land of make believe. I always know that there will be another book that will capture my imagination, but when the book is this engrossing, it's like cutting short a good vacation.
I work in a neighborhood called the Hollywood District in East Portland. One piece about the area I find odd is that the local business have got some strange theme with their bicycle racks. The vision specialist down the street has an oversized yellow spectacles for a bike rack. The bank up the street has the Star of David, and last year the clinic where I work had one put in that's supposed to look like a stethoscope. Silly looking thing, really. One co-worker dubbed it the "uterus." Children play on it at least once a day, but I rarely ever see a bicycle locked to it.
Note to self; before going to bed, make sure there are no cats shut up in the office. This is fairly important now that Lexie goes around opening and shutting doors. Woke up this morning to a nostril offense of the feline variety. After plucking about the house I found Felix and TurkeySwoop shut up in the office. WOOOOHHHHWEEEE! Turkey's artifact was nigh on the size and shape of an elephant dropping! I had to layer papertowels over it and use a Safeway plastic grocery bag as a glove. I almost lost the breakfast I hadn't had yet. Made the bathroom stories here look like the rose garden! Poor little old Felix was kind enough to use the thing looking the closest to a litter box, a small, thankfully empty, cardboard box that Chikita usually naps in. Good morning!
Word(s) of the day: RESPLENDENT
That word just popped into my head this morning at a quarter till 5:00am for no reason. Didn't even know what it meant, I just had to look it up in the dictionary.
Lexie log: Yesterday afternoon when she finally fell asleep for her nap, I carried her in and laid her on our bed. She woke up and we had a little staring/smiling contest. Nose to nose, it was precious. Grammy is coming over this afternoon, and I have heard rumor that they will all go for a walk. What a beautiful day, I'm a little jealous. -- Sample of a typical Lexie menu; breakfast = mixed grain cereal or scrambled eggs; snacks/lunch all sort of run together= banana, milk, grapes, yogurt, crackers, slice of cheese, turkey lunchmeat; dinner= peas or corn, assortment of stuff like quesadilla, raviolli, pasta and sauce, chicken nugget, mac and cheese, or kid's cuisine dinner. -- This weekend I tried watching Fantasia with her again, and she is now the age where she will sit still and enjoy the music and the animation. She likes the opening one, but I think her favorite (mine too) is the nutcracker suite done with forest fairies. She' s quite the little dancer. Almost always in motion. When I was pregnant with her, her nick names were kickybaby and belly dancer. She has made those carry over into childhood.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, litter boxes, the backyard cat compound Dad built, not having to do origami to earn a paycheck, face talk with Lexie, good air freshener, the soy candle we got for our anniversary, heartburn medicine, and graphite.
Short bummer moment. Because of illnesses and appointments I will only have 74.7 hours on this Friday's paycheck. Yuck.
I'm getting to the point in the latest audio book where it is close enough to the end that I'm taking my time and making it last longer. I'm not anxious to leave my little land of make believe. I always know that there will be another book that will capture my imagination, but when the book is this engrossing, it's like cutting short a good vacation.
I work in a neighborhood called the Hollywood District in East Portland. One piece about the area I find odd is that the local business have got some strange theme with their bicycle racks. The vision specialist down the street has an oversized yellow spectacles for a bike rack. The bank up the street has the Star of David, and last year the clinic where I work had one put in that's supposed to look like a stethoscope. Silly looking thing, really. One co-worker dubbed it the "uterus." Children play on it at least once a day, but I rarely ever see a bicycle locked to it.
Note to self; before going to bed, make sure there are no cats shut up in the office. This is fairly important now that Lexie goes around opening and shutting doors. Woke up this morning to a nostril offense of the feline variety. After plucking about the house I found Felix and TurkeySwoop shut up in the office. WOOOOHHHHWEEEE! Turkey's artifact was nigh on the size and shape of an elephant dropping! I had to layer papertowels over it and use a Safeway plastic grocery bag as a glove. I almost lost the breakfast I hadn't had yet. Made the bathroom stories here look like the rose garden! Poor little old Felix was kind enough to use the thing looking the closest to a litter box, a small, thankfully empty, cardboard box that Chikita usually naps in. Good morning!
Word(s) of the day: RESPLENDENT
That word just popped into my head this morning at a quarter till 5:00am for no reason. Didn't even know what it meant, I just had to look it up in the dictionary.
Lexie log: Yesterday afternoon when she finally fell asleep for her nap, I carried her in and laid her on our bed. She woke up and we had a little staring/smiling contest. Nose to nose, it was precious. Grammy is coming over this afternoon, and I have heard rumor that they will all go for a walk. What a beautiful day, I'm a little jealous. -- Sample of a typical Lexie menu; breakfast = mixed grain cereal or scrambled eggs; snacks/lunch all sort of run together= banana, milk, grapes, yogurt, crackers, slice of cheese, turkey lunchmeat; dinner= peas or corn, assortment of stuff like quesadilla, raviolli, pasta and sauce, chicken nugget, mac and cheese, or kid's cuisine dinner. -- This weekend I tried watching Fantasia with her again, and she is now the age where she will sit still and enjoy the music and the animation. She likes the opening one, but I think her favorite (mine too) is the nutcracker suite done with forest fairies. She' s quite the little dancer. Almost always in motion. When I was pregnant with her, her nick names were kickybaby and belly dancer. She has made those carry over into childhood.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, litter boxes, the backyard cat compound Dad built, not having to do origami to earn a paycheck, face talk with Lexie, good air freshener, the soy candle we got for our anniversary, heartburn medicine, and graphite.
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Monday, February 14, 2005
Row, row, row your friggin boat, gently down the stream
Weee, it's Monday, also Valentines Day, also Oregon's birthday. Weee. After a tremendous sugar high from the morning full of sweets everyone brought in, I am now crashing and irritable. It's also uncomfortably warm in the office today.
Here is a little history I pass along every year to my co-workers:
The holiday of Valentine's Day probably derives its origins from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. In the early days of Rome, fierce wolves roamed the woods nearby. The Romans called upon one of their gods, Lupercus, to keep the wolves away. A festival held in honor of Lupercus was celebrated February 15th. The festival was celebrated as a spring festival. Their calendar was different at that time, with February falling in early springtime.
Here is a little history I pass along every year to my co-workers:
The holiday of Valentine's Day probably derives its origins from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. In the early days of Rome, fierce wolves roamed the woods nearby. The Romans called upon one of their gods, Lupercus, to keep the wolves away. A festival held in honor of Lupercus was celebrated February 15th. The festival was celebrated as a spring festival. Their calendar was different at that time, with February falling in early springtime.
One of the customs of the young people was name-drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man drew a slip. The girl whose name was chosen was to be his sweetheart for the year
Legend has it that the holiday became Valentine's Day after a priest named Valentine. Valentine was a priest in Rome at the time Christianity was a new religion. The Emperor at that time, Claudius II, ordered the Roman soldiers NOT to marry or become engaged. Claudius believed that as married men, his soldiers would want to stay home with their families rather than fight his wars. Valentine defied the Emperor's decree and secretly married the young couples. He was eventually arrested, imprisoned, and put to death
Valentine was beheaded on February 14th, the eve of the Roman holiday Lupercalia. After his death, Valentine was named a saint. As Rome became more Christian, the priests moved the spring holiday from the 15th of February to the 14th - Valentine's Day. Now the holiday honored Saint Valentine instead of Lupercus.
The end. Plagiarised for your reading pleasure from some web-site a long time ago.
Word(s) of the day: POST TOASTY-O'S
Why on earth would anyone make a cream filled doughnut filled with icing?!? Yuck! I went to take a bite of what I thought was cream filled doughnut and got a mouthful of super sweet icing! I don't even eat the icing on a cake unless it is the cream kind, and this definitely wasn't. Again, I say Yuck! Val, the purchaser, was also stunned at this. Sunny's doughnuts must have gone nuts! Oh well, didn't need the sugar anyway.
Lexie log: All weekend I thought about one of the reasons I love Lexie at this age she is. There is a certain innocent fearlessness about her that is so fun. If I were to walk down the hall calling for Frank, and he jumped out from behind a door and yelled "BOO", I would probably scream, check for heart attack, and possibly cry. Later, maybe, I would laugh about it, perhaps after a good pummeling. Lexie, on the other hand, lives for such episodes. There is no threat, in her world, that would cause the surprise to be frightening. I just love it. Some days we can spend an hour or more with me finding different places to hide, her trying to seek me out, me surprising her and chasing her back in to the living room, and on and on, again. -- Last Thursday Lexie's little hair twisting habit got the better of her. She was very sleepy, drinking a bottle of milk in the car, and absently twisting away, as usual. She got a pretty good chunk of her hair twisted around her finger, tight. She yelped about it until she got it free, but of course, it didn't deter her. She can create some really superb knots this way.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, changing tables, diaper wipes, movies, fresh starts, making Lexie smile, and weekends.
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Friday, February 11, 2005
Come on baby light my fire
Eeek! My earhole hurts! I woke up this morning with the worst earache I have ever had. Even when I get ear infections, my ears never hurt. I am here at work for a couple more hours, but I can feel the Vick's Dayquil wearing off already. I am feeling a bit feverish and I have been told that my face is red, my ears are hot, and my forehead is clammy. I am blogging early and think I may leave at lunch.
I missed Sue's birthday yesterday. Sorry, I was thinking of you and Mom even mentioned sending you an email, but I forgot till just now. Hope you had a great birthday. Does your birthday ever fall on Fat Tuesday?
Word(s) of the day: WOOZY
Lexie log: She had two firsts today. Yesterday was a beautiful blue day that seemed almost spring-like. I left work an hour early to get Daddy to a 3:15 doctor appointment. We dropped him off and drove a block two blocks up to the Beaverton library. We walked across the street to a little playground/park with a jungle gym. She has always loved slides, but until now, she will only go down if you put her on them and hold her. Yesterday, she went down the slide 22 times by herself. The first 15 times she went down on her stomach, feet first. Then I convinced her to go down on her bottom and she just loved it. She went around and around, up the steps, down the slide, laughing, giving me high-fives at the bottom. It was great. The second first was back at the doctors office in the waiting room. She just loves those bead board puzzles commonly found in waiting rooms. She has a miniature one at home that Carrie got her for Christmas. This one at Dr Silverman's is super sized. Her hand-eye coordination has been improving and yesterday was the first time she was able to use two hands to get the most complicated set of beads from one side to the other.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, scoopable cat litter, the Columbia river, camera phones, garbage service, and playgrounds and slides.
I missed Sue's birthday yesterday. Sorry, I was thinking of you and Mom even mentioned sending you an email, but I forgot till just now. Hope you had a great birthday. Does your birthday ever fall on Fat Tuesday?
Word(s) of the day: WOOZY
Lexie log: She had two firsts today. Yesterday was a beautiful blue day that seemed almost spring-like. I left work an hour early to get Daddy to a 3:15 doctor appointment. We dropped him off and drove a block two blocks up to the Beaverton library. We walked across the street to a little playground/park with a jungle gym. She has always loved slides, but until now, she will only go down if you put her on them and hold her. Yesterday, she went down the slide 22 times by herself. The first 15 times she went down on her stomach, feet first. Then I convinced her to go down on her bottom and she just loved it. She went around and around, up the steps, down the slide, laughing, giving me high-fives at the bottom. It was great. The second first was back at the doctors office in the waiting room. She just loves those bead board puzzles commonly found in waiting rooms. She has a miniature one at home that Carrie got her for Christmas. This one at Dr Silverman's is super sized. Her hand-eye coordination has been improving and yesterday was the first time she was able to use two hands to get the most complicated set of beads from one side to the other.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, scoopable cat litter, the Columbia river, camera phones, garbage service, and playgrounds and slides.
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Thursday, February 10, 2005
London Bridges falling down
Working on Advil cold and sinus today. LB's wall outlet is malfunctioning, so we are powering down. Back in a minute....
Here I am! Did ya miss me? LB used her electronic stapler and it burned out the outlet on her cube strip. Central had to figure out which breakers control what so they could replace it. Old building, nothing labeled correctly. So I got up to make a copy, and he threw the breaker for the copier, right as my copy is hurtling through the machine, jamming it. Now all calm, order, and electircity is restored.
And enough with the damn fish jokes, mister air conditioning dude! Every time he passes through he says something about the dead fish. A few employees had fighting fish here at the office, and one weekend this winter the boiler never came on due to their constant tinkering with our old HVAC system. Came in that Monday to very dead pet fish in very cold water. Some of the gals razzed the contractors for being responsible, and now I have to listen to the most creative dead fish joke he can come up with when he passes through. This office is always so full of people fixing broken equipment.
Word(s) of the day: SCHLEMIEL
Lexie log: Most nights now since Daddy has been ill, I have been staying up late with her. Her hours are more messed up now than they were before. Daddy stays in bed longer in the morning, because he isn't feeling well, so Lexie has been sleeping in later. Ever since Monday, she has been taking her nap later and then staying up later. Every night this week I have fallen asleep on the couch except last night. I fell asleep on the little pull out matress in her room and when I woke up, she had abandoned me and crawled into our bed to sleep next to Daddy. Why don't I just be stern, like I used to be, and turn off all the lights. I don't know. I guess I'll try that tonite. I think it's because I like to spend the time with her until I can't keep my eyes open. But...I am paying for it with lack of sleep. We will come to some kind of balance again once we are all over our illness and back on schedule.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, spiders and Carrie's arrangement/contract with the spiders in her apartment, paper clip removers, dictionaries and thesaurus, Advil cold and sinus, and (got to go, emergency meeting called).
Here I am! Did ya miss me? LB used her electronic stapler and it burned out the outlet on her cube strip. Central had to figure out which breakers control what so they could replace it. Old building, nothing labeled correctly. So I got up to make a copy, and he threw the breaker for the copier, right as my copy is hurtling through the machine, jamming it. Now all calm, order, and electircity is restored.
And enough with the damn fish jokes, mister air conditioning dude! Every time he passes through he says something about the dead fish. A few employees had fighting fish here at the office, and one weekend this winter the boiler never came on due to their constant tinkering with our old HVAC system. Came in that Monday to very dead pet fish in very cold water. Some of the gals razzed the contractors for being responsible, and now I have to listen to the most creative dead fish joke he can come up with when he passes through. This office is always so full of people fixing broken equipment.
Word(s) of the day: SCHLEMIEL
Lexie log: Most nights now since Daddy has been ill, I have been staying up late with her. Her hours are more messed up now than they were before. Daddy stays in bed longer in the morning, because he isn't feeling well, so Lexie has been sleeping in later. Ever since Monday, she has been taking her nap later and then staying up later. Every night this week I have fallen asleep on the couch except last night. I fell asleep on the little pull out matress in her room and when I woke up, she had abandoned me and crawled into our bed to sleep next to Daddy. Why don't I just be stern, like I used to be, and turn off all the lights. I don't know. I guess I'll try that tonite. I think it's because I like to spend the time with her until I can't keep my eyes open. But...I am paying for it with lack of sleep. We will come to some kind of balance again once we are all over our illness and back on schedule.
Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, spiders and Carrie's arrangement/contract with the spiders in her apartment, paper clip removers, dictionaries and thesaurus, Advil cold and sinus, and (got to go, emergency meeting called).
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