Rack of ham

Yesterday afternoon, I picked up one of the blankets laying around here (there are many, for various reasons, none of which are very good) and put it over my head and acted like a ghost, much to Auggie’s delight. So last night, we got out some great home video footage of Auggie running around the house with a blanket over his head, going, “Woooo! Wooo!”

Sigh. He is the cutest ever.

No news is no news

I have nothing to write about today. No angst. No complaints. All is well with the world, it seems.

Auggie got the “all clear” from Dr. Scott, the snow storm didn’t happen, my brother and sister-in-law arrived back from the cruise uneventfully.

So. There you go.

Here’s a list of five recommended records that I sent to my friend Jason:

Five alive:

5) Liz Phair – “Exile in Guyville”

4) The Stone Roses – s/t – C’mon! This record is so good, the band was ruined forever after recording it.

3) Tim stole mine – Whiskeytown – “Faithless Street” – Buy it already.

2) Stereolab – “Transient Audio Noisebursts with Announcements” – The first time I heard this record, it. blew. my. mind. Nothing was ever the same.

1) Sam Cooke – “Nightbeat” Works every time…

Good-bye, January 15

Today was one of those “What happened?” kind of days. Here it is, after 11, and I don’t know where the time went. We did the play group thing, we did the lunch at the Bread Co. thing (I won’t mention Auggie’s unfortunate unseating of my Diet Pepsi all over the floor, of course), we did the Pier One thing (votive holders and votives for $3.50? I feel like I’ve died and gone to IKEA!), we did the home thing, I did the work on my publication thing while Auggie did his turn the house inside-out thing and suddenly, Tim was home!

Of course, since we had such a lovely time with the play group this morning at the Science Center, Auggie started rubbing his ears this afternoon, assuring my swift, but fair, expulsion from said play group. He was pretty out-of-sorts for the rest of the day.

Now, we’re supposed to get some amount of snow (the projections vary in doom from station to station) and I’m supposed to pick up my brother and sister-in-law from the airport tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and my son has a probable ear infection, so we need to fit in a visit to Dr. Scott somewhere in there. Yippee.

I’m never going to find the time to replace my tres expensive face lotion, am I? Here the air is, drier than a crouton at the Old Country Buffet, and my face is completely unprotected! The humanity.

I’m sure that the Apple Store will call tomorrow with the replacement for my rapidly ailing battery. I’ve contacted Battery Hospice and they’ve started the morphine. Just hold on till Auntie Blog gets here, baby.

Did I mention that I’m a wee bit tired? I apologize for my increasingly esoteric ramblings. And does anyone really know what “incandescent” means? I’m off to Webster’s to find out!

Wasting away

So today I went a little crazy at the yarn store for the very first time — the first time of many, I’m sure. I bought two skeins of beautiful, hand-painted wool yarn for a hat I want to knit, and maybe a bag that I saw in the book that I bought, Vogue Knitting: Bags and Backpacks. Wait. Do you smell that? Could it be… Christmas presents?

God, I’m such a nerd.

But I’m a nerd that weighs 28 pounds less than she used to! Woo hoo!

Allllll riiiiiight.

Ah, flannel sheets. The ole flannels are getting a late start this season, as they were temporarily “lost” amid the miasma of items still in the garage since the Great Floor Refinishing of 2002. As those items are slowly making their way back upstairs, we’re rediscovering some things that we were missing, and things that we haven’t really missed at all.

It’s those things that we really haven’t missed that I’m having the hardest time with. Do we really need those things, if we haven’t noticed they were gone for the last three months? Flylady would say no. But then the question becomes how to get rid of them.

Several of the items are pieces of furniture, replaced by our big IKEA excursion. We’re giving away the old computer desk to Tim’s parents, but we can’t find anyone who wants a matching bedroom dresser and night stand, or a china cabinet. What to do?

We’ll probably just try our luck with selling them in the Bargain Bin in the paper.

It’s been really nice, actually, bringing things back up slowly. We’re definitely more reluctant to add more “stuff” to the mix. Especially considering how much Auggie loves to get into everything, climb on everything and generally tear everything apart with his teeth like the small, badger-like creature that he is.

So that’s that in the world of us. Less stuff, more love. All right.

Excuse me, I’m having title-block

Good weekend, overall. Very low-key.

I even got to go to the Apple store, which is always exciting. I’m having problems with my battery in my iBook, so I paid the Mac Geniuses a visit. The problem is not very sexy, so I’ll spare you the details. Suffice to say that Apple’s probably going to be forking over a new battery to me this week.

We finally had Christmas with my dad today. He went a little crazy and bought Auggie a tricycle. It’s got streamers and a bell and everything! Of course, Auggie won’t be able to ride it for another year or so, but he thinks it’s pretty cool anyway.

My dad and stepmother got us some really generous gifts too. My stepmother is very crafty and she reupholstered one of our chairs for us. It had been originally redone by Tim’s mom at some point, but the pink velvet had started to deteriorate with age. Margie (my stepmom) found this beautiful fabric that matches our living room set perfectly and restored it all by herself! I love people that can see the potential in things.

One thing that Auggie is doing right now is waving “bye-bye” to things as we go by. Today in the car, he was waving to all of the houses as they went by. Last week, we were sitting outside the coffeehouse and he was waving at all the cars going by. Too cute.

Why, God, why?

Why must I be a slave to the “acronym-as-title” method of naming a newsletter?? Why?

I suppose I should shut this down now, as Auggie is quite intent on licking the screen of this here iBook.

Good-bye, cruel world!

I feel like throwing myself in front of a truck. Warning: Extended gripe ahead.

Today was just the most insane day. It even started out crazy. I had this horrible nightmare about my upcoming high school reunion. It took place in a Paris train station (sounds cool, but it wasn’t, as the only other people that spoke English were my former classmates and all the toilets were stopped up) and it lasted several days, kind of like summer camp. The truly horrible part was that I got completely dissed by my high school sweetheart. He was all like, “I’m never going out with you again.” And I’m like, “Dude, I’m married. I don’t want to “go out” with you. I have a son.” But he was unconvinced and acted all smirky every time he walked by me. And throughout the entire dream, I was continually looking for the bathroom.

So then, Auggie wakes up at ungodly-6 in the morning. Tim, saint that he is, left me to sleep in and got up with the boy (just as he does every morning except the occasional Saturday when I’m feeling benevolent). I awoke at 7:30, ready to hit the phone and harass all of my contacts in Louisville, just as they were getting to work, booting up their computers and enjoying a quiet sip of coffee.

No one answered. Of course. No one ever answers their phone! I live in Voice Mail Purgatory, I swear.

So Tim heads off to work and Auggie and I settle in for some quality Sesame Street time. The phone rings. As I’m talking with contact #1, contact #2 beeps through. It went like this all day.

Today was supposed to be great. I was looking forward to getting together with the ole playgroup at the Zoo, enjoying the amazing weather and generally being at peace with all things. Instead, here is a scenario from this afternoon:

It’s 1:30. Auggie and I are supposed to be leaving for the Zoo, but instead I call fellow playgroup mommy to delay our meeting time by an hour to buy enough time for a shower. Auggie and I are still in our pajamas. We jump in the shower, jump out of the shower and are toweling off, just in time to hear elusive contact of the week leaving a message on the answering machine. $%^&! I run into the office, unsuccessfully try to catch him while he’s on the line and try to call him right back. Of course, he does not answer his phone. While I’m at the computer, I check my email. The phone rings. It’s him! The villagers rejoice! I’m interviewing him for an article, naked. Auggie comes tearing into the room, also naked. It’s at this point that I thank God that I am not on a reality TV series.

We ended up canceling the playgroup and Auggie and I took the dogs out for a walk instead.

The rest of the day was better, but I still have that rush-rush-rush feeling. I hate that feeling.

Of course the two coffees (lattes) I had this evening aren’t helping much.