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.