July 2006 Archives

The sign is in Badgermama's yard, the other things are from mine.  Wonder if she'd consider trading?

Willow and I sat cuddling on the floor in a patch of sunshine like a couple of cats this morning.  It's funny being home again, because getting back into my regular routine -- in my case that means plunging the toilet, calling the urgent care nurse, pleading the case for adequate tooth brushing to a seven year old, and drinking too much coffee -- makes the whole weekend seem even more dreamy than it was. 

BlogHer was, well, it was really cool.  BlogHer is to women what the first moon walk was for space travel.  It's groundbreaking and breathtaking and really, really cool.  So many times as I was walking around the hotel grounds I heard parts of conversations where women were excitedly talking to each other about all the great ideas they'd heard in the talk they just attended.  I saw women who have been building relationships through email and instant messages finally get to hug each other, even if they were reluctant or awkward huggers.  There were round tables of women leaning over their lunch plates and nodding in circles of agreement.  And I got to spend time with some of my very own personal favorite women without a bunch of miles and a computer screen in the way of our interaction. 

I have been slacking and haven't written about the TWO BlogHer parties I've been to already, but, hey!  I've been busy partying.  Besides, I'd just go on and on about the love I have for all these brilliant women I know and the ones I'm meeting and there's something else I want to confess.

I was out running a couple of errands this morning, by myself since BabyO's mom offered to stay with all the kids for a little while, and I turned on a news radio station.  The Andrea Yates jury was filing into the courtroom with a verdict while I was parking the van, so I sat and listened.  As you probably know, they decided that she was not guilty by reason of insanity.  I was, well, certainly not happy to hear that, but I was relieved. 

So hot, that when I got a can of chicken noodle soup out of the cupboard for Nate's second supper, it was so warm that he didn't need me to microwave it for him.

This afternoon I did the dishes, which isn't generally something to write about, but it is HOT and we have no a/c.  I wore my swank hot pink dish gloves that I bought at Holy Foods (because I'm all dainty and shit) and they keep the water out really well, but I sweated* so much that they were gicky inside.  That was HOURS ago, and I just now put them on to do more dishes and THEY WERE STILL GICKY INSIDE.  So, I'm not doing the dishes tonight.  I'll just wash the gloves and deal with it in the morning.  yuck

*I was checking to see if "sweated" is really a word (it is) and I'm linking to this because it's gross.  Kismet!  John just came in to tell me that he fed bullfrog tadpoles to the lizard** and that is the grossest thing of all.  Ew.  He even imitated how the lizard happily gulped them down.  I'm gonna go barf. 

**Because they have taken over the pond at the school where he works and they are non-native and are killing all the other wildlife and plants there.  So, they are being population-controlled. 

I've been splitting my time the past few days between having too much fun to be on the computer, being too hot to be on the computer, and hand washing my underpants in the sink wishing that the washing machine repair person could get here NOW instead of Wednesday "at the end of the day."  I think "at the end of the day," translates to "it won't get fixed on Wednesday HA HA HA, suffer!" but, maybe I'll get lucky. 

What do you call it when your day nickels and dimes you to death, but not financially, just, peskily?  It's HOT outside, and I seem to be retaining five pounds of fluid (mostly in my face) because of this poison oak adventure.  The kids will. not. stop. bickering.  I had a satisfying fantasy this afternoon where I walked out to the street with them and then, one at a time, drop kicked them over the houses across the street and into the field behind.

When I was changing over the laundry, I saw a puddle.  And, I was all, "Oh my!  Someone must have dropped an ice cube under the washer.  It CANNOT be leaking because it is new." 

I'll be the one with the poison oak rash all over her face (so! attractive!!) and neck and legs.  Probably other places by then, too, but I'm trying to not think about that.   

Oh, I'll also be the only one without a laptop. 

Good things do happen as well, though.  Yesterday I went to Tarjay to get a new microwave and I found one ON SALE that came with a free little am/fm radio thingie for the kitchen AND IT HAS AN IPOD DOCK ON TOP!  Score!  It even charges it up!!  Of course, I cannot plug the ipod into the computer because itunes is still funky, and currently empty, and if I hook up the ipod it will come away empty and then I'll only be able to listen to NPR while I cook and do dishes.  But, maybe that would smarten me up some.

Apparently, I cut off my hair just in time.  Well, a couple of months within time.  Today the microwave oven got really quite very too much HOT inside and out after I used it, and since it was made in 1998 and since, as of yesterday, the inside light sometimes works and sometimes does not, it is time to put it in the garage get rid of it.  We don't have cable (or any) television, either, and it seems to me that no microwave + no television + multiple packs of tofu in the fridge + two parents with hair down to their butts = embarrassing hippy household that makes your kids hate you and grow up into republicans. 

We totally cannot have that.  They can hate me all they want, but I don't want to grow any republicans!

Also, apparently, I AM allergic to poison oak.  I thought maybe I was immune, when really I was just a careful hiker.  Until about eight days ago when I went hiking in a cute skirt.  Willow walked near some poison oak and I later picked her up.  That was on a Sunday.  On Wednesday I got a funky rash on my knees that I couldn't figure out.  Now it is on the backs of my calves and the insides of my knees and in the general area of my left elbow.  It's not getting better and I am UNHAPPY about the whole thing.  It really really really really fucking itches.  BAD.  It is traveling and I fear where it may go.  And if it's not cleared up before BlogHer, I won't be able to wear the supercute skirt I scored at Tarjay for $3.74 on clearance. 

AND, itunes is broken again.

Damn.  I'm going to bed.

So, I just had the best ever idea while I was standing in the shower in my jeans and old maternity tshirt (I like to get my money's worth, you know) scrubbing the glass doors and the tiles and the damn grout with bleach and a green nylon scrubby sponge.   I was standing there, my eyes and lungs b u r n i n g, and I thought, "Hmmm.  It would be so great if bleach made you high!  Think of all the fun I'd be having!"  And then, a giant orange (my favorite color) light bulb went off over my head and I thought, "I'm going to invent and market a cleaner that gets you stoned!!  It's going to be called 'Mother's Little Helper!'  I'm going to be so rich!!"

My eyes STILL sting, but the shower is cleaner.  And, considering that midway through my project I shucked all my clothes so I could turn on the water and stand there naked and scrub ALL the soap scum off the glass doors and rinse everything down really well with an elderly plastic cup from Chilli's, maybe bleach DOES get you high.  Maybe it gets me high, anyway.

do some good in the world.

This afternoon I took Nate and Baby O with me to run a couple of errands while the other kids stayed home with John.  We were driving along, yapping about whatever, when Nate starts talking about one of his favorite extended family members, fourteen year old A, who was just here for a visit.  A lives FAR away, and Nate only sees him every year or two.   He said, "Mom.  A has underwear that say, 'Playboy!'"

"Really?"  I say.  "Who told you that?"

"Nobody told me."

"Well, how do you know then?"

"Because, Mom, he shags."

And, yes, this is when I sucked that Small Altoid right into my right lung and nearly ran off the road.*  After I recovered, I shrilly, hysterically nonchalantly  said, "Hmmm.  So, do you know what 'shagging' means?" 

I know that he knows all the facts about reproduction, but it still bugs me when the stupid slang creeps in. 

"Pffft.  MOM, you know, it's when guys let their pants hang down.  I could SEE it said 'Playboy.'"

"OH! OH!"  I said, "SAGGING!!!  YES!  SAGGING!  It's 'SAGGING,' not 'SHAGGING!'  Hahahaha!  Yeah.  Sagging.  Okay."

Phew. 



*Just to clarify: I didn't think A was doing anything whatsoever to the boys.  I was briefly worried that he'd maybe bragged about a conquest or something.  Don't want you to get the wrong idea about why I was inhaling my mints.

In June when I went to visit my family, my cousin asked if I'd received one of the photo cds that my aunt had put together for everyone at my grandfather's funeral.  I hadn't, so she ran home and burned a copy for me.  I didn't get a chance to look at it until I fixed the cd burner last week, and the first time I tried to I had to turn it off.  The pictures were all of my grandfather's funeral, which I wasn't able to go to, and I was just too sad to look at them. 

A few days later I was on the phone with my brother and found out he didn't have a copy either.  So, I put the cd in again to make him one and saw that there are 512 photos on it.  I set it to the slide show and discovered that after the funeral pictures at the beginning, there are all these family photos dated from 1912 to 2005.  It's an amazing thing to have.  I looked at them and cried and cried and cried.  Here are a few.  The gorgeous woman is my mom.  The funny looking baby is me.  The little boy on the lawnmower stroller thing is my dad; his father is next to him.

  tooth fairy pillow 
  Originally uploaded by jenijen.

Last fall sometime, maybe in November? I found this really cute tooth pattern fabric while I was shopping with my mom in Berkeley.  Yesterday I FINALLY got a tooth fairy pillow put together.  I was inspired by the one I saw at Little Birds.   I didn't buy enough fabric (the quarter yard I got was too narrow because of the direction of the pattern) to back the pillow, so I just used some for the pocket, which I then sewed all the way around before realizing it was a pocket.  duh  I'll have to go back to Stone Mountain and Daughter for more; this fall I'll have a kindergartner and a second grader, and I think these would make really good birthday gifts for all those parties they'll be invited to.

(If you click on that photo, you'll go to flickr where you can see the pocket on back.)

  ninja moopy 
  Originally uploaded by jenijen.

I HAVE TO get some sleep, but, look!  I made the Ninja Moopy.  He's a little crooked, but doesn't that give him a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon kinda Matrix-y look?  Sorta? 

Back tomorrow.

  Contemplative 
  Originally uploaded by Corbie.

We made it over to the beach again tonight.  We left late and it was cold, so our stay was short.  But, oh, was it ever breathtakingly beautiful there. (click on the photo to see more pics on Flickr)  We were lucky enough to meet up with Gwendomama and her family for a brief visit.  Sophie cried because she was cold and wanted to leave, and Willow cried because she wanted to "go swimmin' in it!!"  The boys just ran around digging and finding big rocks.  I sat and tried to figure out how anyplace can be so lovely.      

I remembered to shake the sand out before putting the clothes in the washer, but Lex upped the degree of cleanup difficulty by barfing in the car.  Luckily, he did it into two big plastic cups, which I appreciate more than he knows.  Everyone is tucked in and the stuff is put up.  The washer and dishwasher are running and now it's time to sleep.  Maybe we'll go again next week, earlier and with firewood.

This disjointed post brought to you by sleepiness.

  coyotepoint 093 
  Originally uploaded by jenijen.

We've been so busy that I haven't been on the computer much at all.  All of a sudden the week is mostly over, and our schedule is packed for the next few days, too.  Tonight I made those Ibarra cookies and I put in a very generous helping of cayenne.  Oh. Yes.  They are so very very good.  Now I want to get the kids to bed (they stay up so late these days, but we're having FUN) and get out my knitting and watch Amalie. 

Tomorrow night: the beach!  Hooray!

very busy eating

  firedancers 008 
  Originally uploaded by jenijen.

makes the party, no? 

I'd never seen firedancing like this (flaming globes at the end of chains) before.  It was impressive.  Possibly even more impressive than the fact that I went out again tonight, which makes twice in just under a week.  AND, I racked up TWO dinner invitations, one night after the other, for later this month. 

Today Sophie walked up to me and looked me in the eye.  She leaned over and first kissed me, then winked at me, then whistled, and said, "Mom!  You are beautiful and hot and famous."