What a hack

Well, I just couldn't stand it any longer. Erin's bangs were down to her chin and she would not leave the barrettes in her hair. She was constantly reaching up to her head to see if there was a barrette or pony-tail holder up there. If there was, she pulled it out. And then put it in her mouth. It was a losing battle. So she spent her days with her hair covering half her face. She was starting to crawl with her head turned to the side so she could see were she was going. I had had enough and got out the scissors. And as you can imagine trying to cut a squirming 13 month old's hair is more than a 2-person job. So, I present to you:

Baby's first bad haircut. A play in 2 acts: Before and After. Enjoy. And don't worry. It will grow out.

Worth the wait

I finally watched Charlie Wilson’s War last night. And it did not disappoint. And in retrospect, it was probably a good thing that 6 months have passed between my reading the book and seeing the movie. Last night I was completely ok with the casting – in fact I think it was spot on. Phillip Seymour Hoffman? Fanfuckintastic. And I had forgotten just enough detail from the book to not notice any real discrepancies with the movie, if there were many at all. I think it really was well done. The true story is just insane enough that a straight forward telling of it is all you need. And it was funny. Funny and scary and well worth the price of a dvd rental. I recommend it and give it two Stinger Missile Launchers up.

A Tale of the Queen of deNile

Once upon a time – last week - the 5th graders watched “the video”. You know the one I’m talking about, the health video for boys and girls on “puberty and their changing bodies”. Oh joy. Consequently Chris and Kyle have been talking. Discussions about erections, birth-control, and wet dreams. I meanwhile have been sitting in the corner with my fingers in my ears singing lalalalalala. Erin joins in with her Tibetan monk chanting and then my head implodes. The end.

Books are Good Food

Erin and I went to the library this afternoon before picking up Kyle from his last band practice. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before how much I adore a good library. I mean come on – free books! What’s not too love?! Grab anything that strikes your fancy. Not enjoying it? Simply return it. No harm, no foul.

And today’s trip with Erin was a perfect example. I had 2 books to return and nothing on my ‘must read next’ list. I had finished the book on the Balkans (very good) but hadn’t spent much time thinking about what I wanted read next. As always there are some themes I plan to explore further (I’m still looking a you Russia!), but I seem to have found my groove with Fiction again. After the joy that was reading A Dirty Job, I picked up an Elmore Leonard novel that I spotted on my last trip to the library. Killshot* – maybe not his greatest, but if you’re a fan (and I am), it’s typical Leonard and a fast and enjoyable read. So, this afternoon, instead of heading straight to World History, I decided to cut through the Fiction section. And when you’re pushing a stroller, it’s like grocery shopping with the munchies. Any book that catches your eye you just throw in the basket. I shopped until it was time to get Kyle. Let’s see, what did I find... I had made a left down the R-Z aisle. Saw The Satanic Verses on my left. Hmm, why not? Tossed it in the basket and kept moving. High up on the right – Kurt Vonnegut. A slim volume I hadn’t read before, God-Bless-You-Dr-Kevorkian. In the cart. Crossing an aisle I’m in the Art section. Familiar territory. Grab a giant book of photographs by Josef Koudelka, which I am very much looking forward to perusing. Then a quick stop in the 700’s to pick up a book on propaganda and we are on our way to the self-check-out. The trip a success - plenty of things to read while I continue searching for the next big-read.

And I’ve got to admire and fear the programs used to by Amazon.com to suggest books that I might like. They have got my number. Between Amazon and my library records, I wonder when the FBI will flag my file.

*Just found out this has been made into a movie. Mickey Rourke is in it which automatically makes it a horror movie. Have you seen his face lately? Scary.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Are you worried that this blog is going to be all about school and my bitter complaints about the weather? Well, that might seem a valid concern after the last 2 posts, but I doubt there will be that much more to say about my class.

Now the temperature issue - I'm not going to make any promises about that one.

But I've gotta admit, I'm just not groovin' with the new look of this page. It's pretty and all but it doesn't inspire me. It just doesn't feel like 'me'. Which is kinda silly since I designed it -used one of my beach photos and picked the color scheme. But it's too calm and soothing, which is not really my mood when I'm writing. I'm thinking of changing it back to the grassy field banner and green color scheme until I come up with a new idea.

And more things are changing around here. Erin is this close to walking. Besides circumnavigating the coffee table, she will hold your finger and walk across the room. And over the weekend she started walking behind her ride-on contraption. She is also climbing up on everything! Oh the joy.

Things are changing for the better for Kyle's baseball team. They have been winning games. Not every game, but enough games that they've pulled out of last place in the league standings. And win or lose, I gotta tell ya - I love watching their games! Yeah no one is more surprised than I am.

A Kyle change that I'm not enjoying so much is the fact that in less than a month, his elementary school career will be over. (Thanks for that Chris) Next year he will be in Middle School! We went to the Parent Orientation last Thursday. Ugh. I'm sorry, but I think the 6th grade should be in elementary, not Jr. High. But I was not consulted and now Kyle is going to have to get his shit together. His last progress report was less than stellar. Far too many late assignments. Not good.

What else? Chris is also going back to school. (Hey, I figure I'll get the rest of the school stuff out in this post and then that will be it.) He just mailed the tuition check for his first class to get his Masters in Financial Services and CRP. Hmm, compared to that, a little computer code doesn't sound that bad eh?

And saving the best for last - next Wednesday's high is only 79!

Spring Semester 08

Hey, look at me - I’m a college student. Again. How weird is that? And at a new school. Now that is not so unusual. In fact, there seems to be a pattern. With every move to a new town comes a new school for me to take a class or two at. God forbid I ever actually get my act together and need to submit all my transcripts. That would be a Herculean task. Chris has one. I, on the other hand, could possibly have dozens! I’m like a connoisseur of colleges. And when you request transcripts they like to know what year/s you attended. That’s funny. I can’t even tell you with any certainty what year I moved to California! That information requires a phone call to the Sain’t.

Anyways, today is the start of my semester. I’ve sharpened my Dixon-Ticonderogas, dusted off the Trapper-Keeper and had my Wheaties…

::crickets::

And I’ve got nowhere to go. And no specific time to be there.

Hmpf. On-line classes are a bit anticlimactic. I guess tonight I’ll log into the system, get my assignment, and participate in the discussion group where everyone will have to introduce themselves. Hmm, lack of public speaking is definitely a plus! On the other hand, I talked Cynthia into taking the class with me. It wasn’t hard. But it’s going to be tricky getting the desk next to her in the back row. How are we going to furtively pass notes to each other and spread rumors about Chad and Susie breaking up?!

p/s I weighed the textbook - its 5 lbs!

Too Cool for School

Not.

In fact I’m going to summer school!
And it’s all Chris’s fault.

He was looking at welding classes at Sierra College one afternoon so I started to peruse the class schedule myself thinking it would be great to take another photography class. I took several photography classes at Ventura College many many years ago and I loved it! Black & White Film – way back when before digital was even a pipe-dream and dinosaurs still roamed the earth. I loved working in the darkroom and experimenting with double exposures, solarizing prints etc. The only reason I stopped taking photography classes was a problem I had with one of the instructors. I won’t bother going into details but I will say that I politely declined to smoke a peace pipe with him at the end of the semester. So, I didn’t take another class with him but took a painting class instead. And now this lovely trip down memory lane has distracted me… where was I? Oh yes, discovering that the Fall Semester photography classes were only one evening a week. That sounded doable. There was even a Saturday morning class. Chris was all for it. So I hopped on-line and applied for admission to Sierra College. But the Fall Semester start until August. I started wondering what classes I could take over the summer. I found a Web Programming I (HTML & CSS) on-line course – hey why not? (Again, Chris said I should do it. He totally supports me going back to school to finish getting my degree. Which is great, but I don’t know how he is going to convince me to finally take that Speech class. Good luck with that buddy.)

So, I signed up. Class starts next Monday. And after buying the text book – which has to weigh at least 20 pounds!! – I’ve now spent 130 dollars to learn the same things I have been teaching myself for the past few months with a library book! Which had an out of pocket cost of $0. No I ask you - is that smart? Maybe I really do need to go back to school.

Well it's about time!

What a slacker I am - haven't posted since last Saturday night. Tsk tsk. (and again I find myself fighting the urge to post a Bay City Rollers video!) But today was a day of many fine accomplishments. I finally got my hair done. And believe me when I say that it was long overdue. And as you can see, elfini-land has a new ‘do too! I was not finding the errant line of code that was plaguing my original template, so I finally gave up, loaded a new template (Minima) and started customizing. And I’m not finished yet but it’s a start. What do you think? Do you miss the green grassy field? Will a nice Santa Cruz beach suffice? Chris is just thankful that I hadn’t gotten around to uploading the Stalin poster off my camera yet or this site might have been far more red!

And speaking of commie pinkos – I’m back to reading about the Balkans. Now that is some warm and fuzzy bed-time reading. And I passed A Dirty Job on to Chris, who is suffering his own dirty job this evening. He took Kyle to a River Cat’s (Sacramento’s AAA baseball team) game. Kyle’s school choir and band got to sing the National Anthem before the game and Take Me Out to the Ballgame at the top of the 6th. Which I’m sure was fun for Kyle but he had to miss his own baseball game tonight. And they were playing the Rangers – the only team they have managed to beat this season. I went by the ball field at the end of the game and found out the Giants won! Something like 15-5. I wish I had seen that game.

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.

The gift that keeps on giving

Look at what I got!

A Holga!* A present from the ever lovely Julie T for the work I did on her Bad Home Cooking banner. I am so excited about this! And do you see that little white box to the left of the camera? That is film** baby! Yup, it's a cheap plastic 120 medium format film camera. Oh the fun I will have!

But not today. Cause I'm sick. The baby started it with her running nose. Chris went down suddenly Thursday night. And when I woke this morning I was not my usual sunny self. I've just been a slug all day; reading a book on typography and glancing at the CSS book without the energy to actually pick it up. I'm hoping I will have more pep tomorrow because I want to finish up the work I've started on Sain't Christopher's project. Now that the ethical dilemma has been resolved (he asked, she said yes), I can proceed with a clear conscience. And when it is done and has been declared "Glorious!" maybe the Sain't will send me more film (wink wink nudge nudge).

* Because how was she going to ship a hoagie?!
** I've read that Ilford's film has a minty flavor. Sweet!

An overnight sensation

Rome might not have been built in a day but what about a toddler?

We went to Santa Cruz this past weekend. We left Friday morning with a cute little 11 month old girl who crawls like a speed demon but could be contained by setting her in the grass. Such a sweet little baby. By the time we put her to bed – all that had changed. She was still sweet but life as we knew it was over.

Friday afternoon Paul came by. After awhile, Chris, Paul, Kyle and I went out front leaving Grandma to watch the baby. And who should come crawling out the front door and down the sidewalk? The baby. (Doing quite a number on the knees of her pajamas I might add) Thinking we can keep an easy eye on her, we set her in the dreaded grass. And Paul (who will soon go home and not have to spend the rest of his day keeping track of the baby) starts to lure Erin across the lawn. Pulling up grass and sprinkling it in front of her – waving leaves in her face – and BAM! Erin’s fear of crawling on grass is conquered. I suppose that’s not too awful. But after she started crawling down the sidewalk towards Portola Drive we went back inside.

Later, after our guard has been let back down because we were inside - where it’s safe - someone asks “Where’s Erin?” Not seeing her anywhere on the floor where she should be, we find her on the stairs. Not in front of the stairs but on. the. stairs. She’s crawled up the first step and we stand there, watching in horror as she continues up the stairs! So not good. We bought a gate Saturday morning.

And because these things like to come in 3's – she finished off the day by perfecting the stand and scoot - fine let’s call a spade a spade – the stand and walk around the furniture routine. Good gravy, if this is what that fresh sea air will do to you next time we'll go to LA!

I’m sure other things happened this weekend but until the PTBWSD* subsides I’ll be damned if I can remember any of it!

*Post Traumatic Baby Walking Stress Disorder

Since we’ve been home we have removed the bumper from her crib (rendering it a bleak prison cell – I have vowed to buy prettier sheets!).
And now we need to re-baby-proof everything that 2-3 feet off the ground. Oh the joy.

How was your weekend?


p.s. – I just wanted to mention that I could have gone with the whole ‘She has risen’ Easter theme but I didn’t. There might be a hint of regret.

Neither horseshoes nor hand-grenades

I’m so close...

So, I’ve been muckin’ around knee-deep in code all week, determined to get this blog in shape. And last night I found it – the chunk of code that will contain this beast. And as you can see Elfini-land is now 800px wide and will stay that way until I say otherwise! That is how great my powers are.

Unfortunately there is still a slight problem. When I am editing my template and hit ‘preview’, the site looks perfect! It floats in the center of the window as it has been instructed to do. Yet when I open the page on its own, I find it snuggled up tight to the left. Refusing to budge even a little bit. What the hell?! It’s making me a bit claustrophobic and I have not yet been able to figure out what it causing this blatant disobedience. But I will. It might take me another half dozen chapters but I will emerge victorious!

And after that - who knows? Maybe a line delineating the side bar. A colored background? Or maybe some blinky lights pointing to the comments link!
The world is my css oyster!