S. A. T U R. D A Y. night!

I've started ready A Dirty Job: A Novel by Christopher Moore. Let's not expect me to get anything else done for awhile. And I'm laughing so hard that I keep putting the book down and wanting to call someone. But you people aren't answering your phone!

Best quote so far: "Fuzz on the toast of Death".

Party at Elfini's!!

My parents are going out of town and my brother promised to get me a six-pack of Budweiser with his fake i.d.

or...

Kyle is at his dad's this weekend and Chris took Erin to Santa Cruz. Chris gets to dive, the grandparents get their baby fix, and I get to stay up past 9:00pm!

B-days a go-go

Wow, April is birthday month. Chris started things off on the 2nd. Erin's was on the 13th. My dad turned 88 on the 19th! 88! On the 19th!! The Sain't had a birthday yesterday on the 21st. And today is Paula's (my mother-in-law) birthday. Happy Birthday P!

Am I forgetting anyone else? Because apparently my day-timer can't be trusted. I had Sain't down on the 19th and my dad on the 21st. And I suspected that I had somehow gotten them mixed-up, but then Sain't called on the 19th complaining that his birthday check from his parents keeps getting smaller every year. I was at a game (were else?!) and told him happy birthday and I would call him later. I left him a message somewhere between the library and the grocery store with more birthday salutations but without any singing - I know how he likes to sock things away for later use. That evening he calls back and admits that his birthday isn’t until the 21st. Bastard. Of course by then it was too late to call my dad on the east-coast. That 3 hour thing is always screwing me up. That and my friends who obviously love and cherish me. Ha.

So, I called my dad on the 21st. In fact I managed to check off everything on yesterday’s to-do list (except start the Christopher Moore book) and I even had time to make this –

- all while being a wife, mother, vital-cog and member-of-society-at-large. Amazing.

Baseball's been bery bery good to me...

Actually baseball has been kicking my ass. Where did my weekend go?!
Friday night there was a game up in Newcastle. The Giants lost. (Although Kyle smacked one to left field for a base run, and then scored) And then they had another game at 12:30 on Saturday. It was looking good for the Giants in the first half but things fell apart when the A's brought in Cecil to pitch. This kid is the best pitcher in the league. We quickly lost our 8-4 lead and ended up losing 9-17. Ouch. (Kyle got walked this time and then scored) And I'm sure that game wasn't really any longer than their night games, but I was exhausted by the time we got home around 4pm. Then I hit the library, the grocery store, we went out to dinner, took a postprandial walk around the neighborhood and then bam - it was Sunday. And besides finally loading the film in the Holga, I didn't do much this afternoon besides the obligatory laundry. Fun for me.

And tomorrow I get to find out if the IT guys managed to get my computer fixed at work. My Microsoft Outlook stopped working last Wednesday and I spent over 2 hours on the phone with them Friday afternoon. I've got to tell you, my expectations are not high.

Oh! Before the never-ending call to the Help Desk? I was at the doctors seeking help for my rib-cracking-cough-that-just-won't-quit! And I was sent away with a prescription for Advair. Which is a asthma inhaler! ?? I don't know why - but at least it seems to be helping.

Tomorrow's to-do list:

• Call my dad and wish him a happy 88th birthday! Apologize for not calling on the 19th. The Sain't does not get another call.
• Call Katie and reschedule coffee.
• Shoot some more of the roll of film in the Holga!!
• Start reading new books; Balkan Ghosts and A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.
• more laundry. It really never ends.

At least there isn't another game until Wednesday.

Typical. A day late and 24 cupcakes short.

April 13, 2007
One year later...

Can you believe it?! Erin’s 1st birthday was yesterday; although we celebrated on Saturday. This whole leap year thing made it easy to claim both days as appropriate for celebrations. We had the cake and presents on Saturday and the much anticipated flipping of the car-seat ceremony on Sunday the 13th. Ok, it wasn’t much of a ceremony; Erin and I were inside while Chris re-installed the car-seat to its new forward-facing position. Yay. Of course now I can barely operate the straps because everything is backwards! Parenting is fun.

So, the big party? Not so big, it was just the 4 of us and Chris’s folks. But that was ok – more cake for us! And of course I made the cake because that is what I do. I am most mom-like when it comes to birthdays. I will bake for you! You want a cake? Great - what color? Need 31 cupcakes for you class? No problem. And this time, since Cook’s Illustrated just happened to have a recipe for chocolate frosting, I made the frosting for my cake (still from a box) from scratch! (Yes, that particular CI had a cake recipe too but it was yellow and we are chocolate cake people) And may I just say, that frosting? Way too chocolaty!!! I know, many of you can’t comprehend such a thing, but dude, it was rich. And I have a ton left over! And according to Chris throwing away frosting is some sort of cardinal sin! Gads. He was more than ready for me to make a batch of cupcakes to put under all that frosting. Like we really need 2 dozen cupcakes hanging around the house. I think I’ll just throw that tub-o-frosting in the freezer. Someone has to show some restraint around here!

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Erin is 1. Too fast! We bought Erin her first doll house and quickly declared the Little People Dad a nerd because of his sweater-vest. She also got one of these ride-on contraptions from Grandma and Grandpa. She is all over pushing those buttons* but not that interested in riding on it. Yet. And they also bought her one of those Corn Poppers! That is not nice!! And of course Kyle is having great fun playing with all her new toys. Goober.

I would like to say that I’ll finish sorting through the gazillion photos this evening, but Kyle has a baseball game**. You just might have to wait until Tuesday night to see more of Erin in all her one year old, toothy, chocolate covered, party dress wearin’ glory. But I can guarantee you that it will be well worth the wait!


* Buttons. Really, that is all that little girl wants to do – push buttons. Eventually she'll find mine! But for now, her favorites are the ones on the tv and dvd players. Great.

** The Giants are 0-5 or is it 6? Either way, they are having a rough go of things so far. But Kyle is doing really well for his first season playing. He needs to gain confidence at the plate and get more aggressive, but he is doing fine when out in the field. He caught a pop fly to right field last week in the first inning. I have vowed never be late for a game again! And when I did get there he was playing 3rd base! The coach has said he was going to be starting him from now on because he's worked really hard and nothing gets by him. Way to go Kyle!

Love Thursday - the Floral Edition

I came downstairs this afternoon and discovered that someone had left me flowers! And just in time for Shutter Sister's Love Thursday!

And who is my secret admirer? Well, I'm not going to name names, but he is awefully cute and as you can see surprisingly sweet.

Don't tell anyone because I've got a reputation to uphold, but I love him to pieces!


This post brought to you by the letter V and Dupont "Better Living through Chemistry"

The Root of all Evil

If you have been following my Twitter* updates there on the right, you probably already know that I ended up having a root canal yesterday afternoon. Those endodontists are a sneaking bunch - "Oh my, that tooth is bad and needs a root canal - and since you're already here in my chair why don't you just put on these not-so-stylish sunglasses and lay back..." And an hour or so later, your jaws sore from being wedged open for so long (oh yes - a wedge!), you're writing out a check for some un-godly sum but you don't care -it's so worth it because that pain the big huge please make it stop pain - it's gone! And this morning, even though my jaw is still a bit sore, I feel 1000% better. Which is amazing because this last month has been rough to put it mildly.

Of course now I need to make another appointment with my dentist to get a crown for this reformed bad tooth. But again, feeling good is still a novelty so I don't care. Happy happy joy joy. But I do wonder about my dentist... did he really not know what he was seeing on the x-ray? That slight clouding that was so mysterious to him? He mumbled something about possible resorbtion - rare - only sees 1-2 cases a year - treatable if caught early - I'll refer you to - maybe they'll know... ??? Did he not know I was heading for a root canal? or was he just chicken -didn't want to be the one to give me that bad news?

Either way, they have rebuilt me. And now I am better than before! Like the bionic woman. Hey it would be really cool if I could get pod-casts on my new and improved tooth. Or maybe blue-tooth capabilities! Viva la borg.


*I don't know what it is but I know I like it!

I started seeing Twitter updates on other blogs awhile ago. I even created my own Twitter account but never posted. And then a week or so ago I received an email that someone was following me on Twitter. What? A stalker of my very own?! How exciting! So I started posting and added the link to my sidebar. But when a couple people asked me what Twitter is, I discovered that I can't answer them. I'm just not sure how to describe it. And apparently I'm not the only one because this guy made this handy little video to help explain Twitter to the masses. So click play and then you too will know and love Twitter. You just won't be able to explain it to anyone.

I've got nothin'

Wow. Monday already. This cold has been kickin’ my ass. As a result not much has been going on.

Let’s see…what can I tell you...

• I'm almost finished reading Comrades!: A History of World Communism.
  
• I have put Sain’t Christopher’s banner project on hold while he re-thinks his tag-line.
  
• Haven’t opened that CSS code book all week. I carry it around with me though. Learning by osmosis – it could happen!
  
• Picked up a new scanner on Saturday and am very pleased that it will scan 120 negatives! Now I just need to load the Holga and start taking some pictures.
  
• Have been sitting with Kyle every afternoon making him practice his bass. The boy is this-close to getting kicked out of band. I don’t want to talk about it.
  
• And Erin will be 1 next Sunday. Which means I'll be baking a cake. Come on over.

So now that you are caught up, I think its time for another dose of Emergen-C. And then it’s off to Jen’s to pick up Erin and find out what happened when the bullet meant for Sonny ricocheted off the shelf and hit Michael! Carly is going to be so pissed.

But what if I want to see Jesus?

Hey - today is Chris's birthday! But enough about him. I would like to state for the record that I like NyQuil. Even better - his generic cousin in the nice easy-to-swallow gel-caps!

I've had a cold since last week and the headaches have been bad lately. I couldn't afford to wake up in the middle of the night with another headache. (I've only got 1 Maxalt left and 2 weeks to go before I can get another refill!) I needed to get a good nights sleep. So I asked the medicine-man (yeah, Chris had the cold first and at the first sign of a scratchy throat Cptn. Pharmacy springs into action) what we've got. And now I ask you - who would bother with sipping night-time TheraFlu when you have NyQuil in a pill?! Nighty-night rabbit.

But getting up this morning was not so easy. I was having dreams with French sub-titles. Awesome! Snooze #1 = normal. Snooze #2 = I shouldn't but ok just this once. # 3 = got up, turned off the alarm, got back into bed. I figured I would get up in time to drive Kyle to school, drop off Erin, and then come back home and shower and go to work. Yes, I was ready to be late.

Somehow I got here 15 minutes early. WTF? Really, how does that make sense?! I don't even think I noticed that I was driving the huge man-van and not my nice mid-sized Highlander. And during our ritual morning phone call, Chris made the observation the NyQuil seems to agree with me*. Can't argue with that! Although the boss-man might disagree as I'm trying to put together his expense reports right now!

*Although on our second call - as I laughed wildly at nothing - he seems to have reversed his position and declared me a danger to myself and the office supplies.