in other news

Our daughter - Miss FooFoo - is registered for Kindergarten.
MT took all of the paperwork in yesterday before he started his work day. It feels good to know that it's all handled and that this portion of her school stuff is all tucked away.

I still need to get her some elements of her uniform. Fortunately the school is much more generous with their uniform policy than when I was there, and navy blue is as suitable as the ultra expensive plaid uniform bits that my mom had to buy for me. Yes, my daughter is attending the same elementary school I did - I think it's weird, and sweet. I have most of what she'll need that way.

It's been very difficult for me to avoid getting her school supplies already. That's an outing that we'll share with her dad who is as much a stationery-whore as I. I think she may end up with enough paper, markers, crayons, pencils, and whatever else to supply her entire class. We just can't help ourselves.

The most daunting preparation, however, is the baby herself. Oh - don't get me wrong, she's completely geeked to be going to school. What she's not getting is that going to school means going to bed at a bedtime, and waking up early in the morning. (This 'early' makes me laugh, as I'm usually out the door to start my workday before she'll even be getting out of bed.) We've decided to start grooming her for the new schedule by shifting her to it after her 5th birthday (very soon approaching). I'm not looking forward, at all, to those first few weeks. Our Miss Foo is a night owl (like mama) and NOT a morning person (like her dad). She's going to be a Princess p.i.t.a... I can tell.

Still - I'm so proud of who she is, and so eager for her to experience all the fun that school means. She'll have new friends at her own age, she'll be learning things in new ways (mom and I teach her - a lot, and often - but we have our way, and this will be a new way... it's exciting). She'll have gym class, and computer class, and Spanish class. She'll have "pizza days" and "Christmas break" and all those wonderful, awful, terrible things that come with school.

I'm so excited.

not so levititious

=======================================
:::UPDATE:::
i owe all of your a collective quarter. i had to call my husband and ask him when he was coming home to have dinner with us. no, it wasn't some obscene hour of 'too-late-to-eat' - i just really wanted to have what we had for dinner, i started it earlier than i usually do, and it was done and making the house smell gorgeous and MT (my husband) still wasn't home yet and - well, you get the picture.
AND - further evidence that the whole effort is worth it? when the baby decided that dessert should be ice cream (we have a delightful ice cream shoppe (yes with an e) about 5 blocks away) my MT duly headed out to garner it. on learning that the shoppe is now closed for the season, he packed up the baby (allowing me some precious/coveted relaxation time) and headed off the the 'local DQ' (about 15 miles away) to STILL bring home the ice cream for dessert.
ah....

=======================================

this is probably the only time you will hear me grouse about my domestic life... at least like this.

my afternoon
drive 1 hour home
collect the child
go to credit union
forgo personal trip to drug store for nail polish remover, as baby is napping
come home
carry in all of my bags, baby's bags, and mail
empty trash can
clean dag-nasty trash can lid (ew)
load slimy gross standing water* dishes into dishwasher
hand wash dishes that CANNOT go into dishwasher
hand wash dirty dishes that can't be forced into already overfull dishwasher
get bulk of dinner into oven
wash hair
start dishwasher
relax briefly until parts two and three of dinner need cooking

i will bet you ALL a collective quarter that within 5 minutes of waking through the door my husband will ask me some variation of "when's dinner?"

oh but he's generous with the flowers and the sparklies and the skull-things!

* i despise the "fill it with water and let it soak: method of pre-cleaning all but the most heinous of dishes. what I hate worse? when folks throw OTHER dishes (namely silverware) into said mank-swamp of precleaning.

Fruit, Flowers, and Appliances

my current lolcat fave.

anywho - -

Today is our fourth anniversary. Hallmark says that traditionally I should be expecting fruit and flowers, and that the modern me can look forward to appliances. Traditionally romantic - but i'm a practical girl. Bring on the electro-mechanical goodness!

For my part, I'm "hosting" the get-away weekend. I'd love to tell y'all where we're going, but the thing is, it's a surprise location for my darling husband, who reads me, and I don't want to give it away. Maybe I'll post a review and some photos when we get back.

GAME SHOW

h: can you set aside some clothes for the baby tomorrow
w: sure, do you forget?
h: well, that and there's so much in there, it's like a gameshow
w: giggle, snort, cackle, laugh, giggle, snort, guffaw

dream husband

ok - let's face it - i've been having a crap couple of weeks. a lot of my time - especially work time - has been clouded over by a general malaise that makes me weepy at best. i can't even describe my worst, lately.

so - what's a husband to do?

have a front porch full of saturday morning surprise brown mary-jane crocs to replace the worn-to-broken brown leather mary-janes that went EVERYWHERE with me.

i wore them all weekend. i'm wearing them right now. and i suspect they will be a key element of most of my wardrobe for the next several months (except when it's too wet and cold to wear them without suffering for it). i'm still hoping for a pair of black ones to go with them... so i can live 90% of my wardrobe in comfortable feet.

Pillow Talk - - or - - channelling maggie mason

me: I don't know why they named it Avelox, Moxifloxacin is such a cute name

him: forget cute, they should call it what it is and name it KickYourAss-acin

giddy up

i just got valentine's day roses from my husband
te he
brilliant man. he had them sent today instead of tomorrow (because my plans are to visit him for lunch tomorrow - - or at least were - - the weather is threatening to be deep white by then).
you see, the folks at my flower shop - - no matter how much you beg - - won't deliver before noon when you're going to only be at the office until noon. today, the flowers arrived before 11.

beautiful white roses - - to match the snow!!!

i'm on my second page of February in my scrappy journal

i was late for work this morning

i finished my husband's valentine's day gift last night. the baby almost gave it away. she doesn't understand secrets.

i have a hunger to be creative lately... like i want a studio hungry. though i need a studio with a corner for the baby - - she was itchy to 'help" yesterday.

i'm still working on the menu for dinner tomorrow...

slowly she turns...

she being the house.
i don't know if it's male or female - - it might actually be one of the first neuters among my collection of stuff.
at any rate, we spent the weekend getting some big steps closer to having all of the flooring project done. the floor that wasn't done is now done: the gap between the dining and living rooms, and the gap between the dining room and kitchen (a very gappy dining room!) are filled in with flooring. the last row of the living room (and the landing at the bottom of the stairs and the coat closet too) is done. all that's left are two thresholds (study and basement stairs) and the baseboards (play room and kitchen) and the quarter round molding. and we seem to have fixed the leak under the kitchen sink.

ok enough of that

we have snow falling and more coming (tomorrow afternoon? evening - night...) it's pretty. i love watching it. it's sad that it might put an end to a pending visit from friends. it's woeful that i'll likely have to battle the idiots who forget, every year, how to drive in it on my way too and from work.

my cousin had her baby this weekend, i didn't get to see them at the hospital, and i'm loathe to put my own baby in the car and drive through the muck to go visit, but i really want to see the little one, and so does my daughter. we'll see.
i have a headache today and don't even really want to write, let alone drive.
yeah, we'll see.

a bit of good news

i got the results from Ghengis' bloodwork today. all levels are very good - - particularly for cat of 13. a lucky year?

tomorrow we start the new insulin.

sub zero

current temp is -1 degree f.
it used to be -5 (like this morning when i had to trek out to my car to get in to the office)

half of my team is out today
- - husbands with pneumonia
- - school closings
- - i'd rather not trudge my sorry self through sub-zero temperatures to go to work

over the weekend the part of our water line that goes to the laundry room and out to the hose connection on the addition froze up. i'm not sure if it's because of the hose spigot or because of the significant lack of insulation between the outside wall and the water line in the addition part of the house. regardless, my dad spent the better part of 4 or 5 hours thawing the pipe yesterday. today the laundry room faucet is left at a 'better-than-a trickle-but-not-full-out-run" while i work. on the way home i'm depot (or lowes) bound to collect a heating cable, some pipe insulation, some house insulation, and a boot cover for the outside faucet. it will probably set me back a few dollars, but I adamantly refuse to have this happen again.

it also got me to thinking about the blanket that is not on the hot water heater, the window film that is still in boxes, and the gazillion other things that i should be doing to winter-proof my house (for the next two months or so).

for now, though, i'm going to tend to some work and my headache.

gruntled - - and not

plumbing be damned
EVERY time it feels like we have the worst behind us, something else comes up and bites us in the collective ass. it's enough to make me consider digging an outhouse.
ok, not really, but close.

focus factor
i'm having a very difficult time keeping my head down and getting work done. nothing seems to want to make sense right now - - like what i'm doing, why i'm doing it, who - exactly - it's for...

rock star salamander
i have, however, at work just completed a project on which i am listed as a co-creator. it's a tool for other employees to use to make their jobs happier, easier, more meaningful. it is EXACTLY the kind of work i love doing here, and thus far, it's been extremely well received.

backyardigans bliss
my daughter is starting to catch on that the backyardigans are cool. they are, by far, my favorite kids show right now and it's nice that we can enjoy together. i'm thinking of getting us a few cd's for house-keeping days.

snow
it's actually, finally, pretty-winter here in michigan. the snow flies nearly every day and the yards and rooftops are all a wonderful marshmallowey white. as a bonus, the road folks (at least in wayne county) are doing a great job of keeping one step ahead, so i get to see pretty snow, and still have a relatively decent (and safe) drive.

and for now, that's a wrap (i want to stop while there is more green than red!)
happy tuesday

Noise and Sloth

saturday was belated Christmas (and just before that a lot of furniture moving - - no, not around, IN). it looks nice and feels cozy, if just a little bit smaller than i had expected, but that's mostly because we have two larger sized comfy chairs that we'd never had before (quite frankly never could have had before) which provide ample room for loud guests.
they were loud guests i was happy to have... family (extended) that i just absolutely love and always have and likely always will. the baby had a great time visiting with cousins near her own age, and well, i think even my husband enjoyed the visit - - which was a boon to me. though i think that possibly the home made loaded baked potato soup may have had as much to do with his enjoyment of the afternoon as anything else. this said, i think i may make more soup. i like making my husband that kind of content.

the evening and most of yesterday were spent in the land of Spira (a world, i have just discovered, of the Final Fantasy video game). it was nice. it's definitely my speed for a video game, and though i didn't play (which i seldom do - - i have enough trouble controlling my OWN actions, thank you!) i had a lot of fun. apart from the baby, we kind of 'batched' it for food and whatnot through the day - - also cool, keeping the pressure off my having to cook. we interspersed our game play with looking out the window at the softly falling snow, snuggles with the cat, and baby's nap time. it was a really lovely comfy cozy wintery waste of a day.