eee!

Next weekend we're having a Christmas party. I don't really think we're prepared. All of the decorations are up (save for my big china nativity) but the house needs major cleaning. I'm not sure what all food we're serving. I'm not even sure how many people are coming. This year's turnout looks to be pretty small, but that might actually make it a little easier.

My daughter is being a typical 3-year-old PITA. She won't eat her lunch, she won't take a nap, she won't follow directions. We were going to take her to the zoo this afternoon for their holiday light display, but she was being such a pain that we're not going any more. She tried to tell me that MDR was excited to go to the zoo. Nice try, kid. We're still not going because you're not being good. I know she's acting this way because she's tired and needs a nap. But if she'd only go to sleep instead of fighting us, perhaps then we might actually go. So it's her fault if it doesn't happen. Tough luck, kid.

I'm tired. This week has been hard because I've been sick since what, Tuesday? Major sinus congestion, coughing, sneezing, etc. ( Cut for gross stuff. ) So now I'm feeling better, which is good. My voice is still a bit goofy from too much coughing and I'm still congested, but I don't feel as if I'm going to collapse any longer, so that's good. The Scientist caught it as well, though he bounced back much faster than I did. Anyway, it's been a long week and this coming week won't be much better because of trying to get the house ready for the party. At least I can breathe now.

What else is going on? I saw Mockingjay Part 1 last week. I thought it was good. But I agree with every person who said this film consisted of middle, middle, and middle instead of a beginning, middle, and end. The entire film is setup for Part 2. If I hadn't read the books, I'd probably be pissed by this film. I also finally saw Edge of Tomorrow, or as they're now calling it on the Blu-Ray packaging, Live, Die, Repeat. Frankly, that title probably would have brought more people into the theater. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to watch a movie where Tom Cruise gets killed again and again and again? Especially when a bunch of those times are Emily Blunt putting a bullet directly in his head? But it's a good movie and I'd definitely recommend it. It's like Groundhog Day with aliens.

Anyway, that's life here. I hope you're all well.

LOL! The cat just popped a balloon accidentally. That was hilarious. Stupid cat.

Man, it has been FOREVER since I last updated. There's been both a lot and nothing going on in my life. Let's see how much I can remember and crank out in a limited amount of time...

So work continues. That's something. Morale at my office is absolutely TERRIBLE these days. I'm lucky that I have my boss as a boss, because he seems to be one of the only level-headed managers around these days. Everyone else is either hiding their heads in the sand or are completely oblivious to the fact that we're doing everything completely backwards lately, and that's not likely to turn us much of a profit. I mean, really, if we're not getting product out the door and in the hands of students, how can we stay in business? I really don't know.

I went to go see my parents in Michigan this past weekend. I think it's the first time we've seen each other since Christmas. There are phone calls all the time, but face-to-face visits are different. We went to the Gilmore Car Museum where my dad volunteers once a week as a docent. Despite the fact that he's been working there for about three years, this is the first time I've ever gone. I know absolutely nothing about cars other than "ooooh, pretty!" but I actually really enjoyed it. If you're ever in Central Michigan, I'd recommend checking it out.

There have been A LOT of trips to the zoo in weeks past. Many, many zoo trips. We actually upgraded our membership a while ago. My sister and her family get us a family pass every year for Christmas, and we definitely get our money's worth out of that. But a few weeks ago we got a letter from the zoo saying we could upgrade to the "family unlimited" pass for a prorated amount. So for an additional $35, we now get EVERYTHING at the zoo for free (save for food and souvenirs). VEE loves it, as this means unlimited rides on the carousel for her. We met up with one of my coworkers and her daughter a few weekends ago and in that one day we almost made our money back. We've also discovered now that the Scientist must smell delicious to stingrays, because whenever we go to the stingray petting pool they're all over him. I'm talking SWARMS of stingrays piling on each other to get to him. It's both hilarious and bizarre.

My pregnancy is coming along well. I'm officially in the second trimester now and I'm starting to show. At the same time, I'm also dropping weight like crazy. I think I'm one of the few people around who actually loses weight when pregnant. In the last month I've lost another 8 lbs. I think overall I've lost around 30 thus far. Rock on, me! Of course, it would be nice to actually EAT, but whatever. The baby can eat my food; I'll live off my fat like a polar bear. Anyway, all is well with Baby 2: Electric Boogaloo. Genetic tests have all come back clean. Next week I go in for my ultra-long ultrasound where they do all kinds of measurements and look for any abnormalities. We should find out the gender then.

I know I have so much else to talk about, but I just can't remember right now. Man, I stink. But I'm also tired, so there you are. I hope you're all well, and I miss you all very much and wish I had more time to play online with you all.

Today marks the first official day of my Christmas vacation. I was really looking forward to sleeping in. Instead, some jerkface called my husband's cell phone at 6:50 a.m., let it ring just once, and it woke me up. This is my normal wake-up time! If the call had come in at, say, 4 a.m. I would have just gone back to sleep. But a phone call at the same time your alarm clock normally wakes you up just ruins everything because it's your normal schedule. So instead I got up and putzed around online a bit. Then the Scientist woke up and we spent the rest of the morning assembling the Fisher Price/Disney singing princess palace that Santa Claus will be delivering on Christmas morning. (Better us to get it ready in advance than to spend time trying to do it in the morning amongst all the Christmas fallout while she's begging to get her hands on it.)

The Scientist went out with his dad to H-Mart to get food for tomorrow night. His family's Christmas Eve tradition is to watch Christmas movies (usually White Christmas), play games, and eat Asian appetizers like pot stickers and crab rangoon. Then they're also getting Honeybaked ham for Christmas Day, and then the Scientist has to go to the Comcast HQ to return our cable box. Ever since Dec. 13 our cable has been randomly going out. The screen goes blank, the sound cuts out, and every now and again we can see either a blue or black negative image of what's on the screen. Yesterday we had a service call, and not 30 minutes after the guy left the problem started up again. VEE was watching Jake and the Never Land Pirates, and it looked like scrambled porn. No good. So the Scientist got fed up and is taking the box to them for an exchange. Hopefully this will solve the problem. I don't know what to do otherwise. Cut cable and go with Hulu? Beats me...

So today I had to run to Target to get cat food, and the place was packed with last-minute shoppers. (And yes, I'm still going to Target despite the security breach. I only use their credit card at the store, and so it's easy to tell what's my purchase and what's not. If it wasn't sold at Tinley Park or Woodridge, then I didn't make the charge. The end!) I was going to get supplies for baking, but I forgot to check what I had on hand and what I need. I was going to make my fruitcake cookies today -- even people who hate fruitcake like these cookies -- but I got home to find that I was out of candied cherries. I have no idea where I'll find those. So perhaps fruitcake cookies aren't on the menu after all...

Man it's nice not to be at work today. Even if I'm not really getting anything done except laundry. But hey! I got my daughter to eat lunch AND take a nap, and all before 1:45. Woooooo! It's a red-letter day, my friends.

Anyway, who knows if I'll be able to check online again before the holiday. So for all of you who are celebrating, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! And happy belated Solstice for those of you that celebrate that holiday as well! May your holiday season be filled with happiness and laughter and safe travels if you're going anywhere.

In case anyone cares, the baby went to sleep easy as pie last night. Hooray! (Because I'm sure you all want to read about my daughter's sleep habits. Heh.)

Yesterday was good. Did the wine festival, which was fun. It was an all-you-can-drink wine fest with about sixty tables, all of which had at least six bottles at them. I didn't drink nearly as much as I normally do at these events, which was fine by me. I didn't want to feel icky for the rest of the day/all day today. We ordered a few bottles, as did my sister-in-law. Then we came home and the Scientist took a nap. Unfortunately during this time I realized that we have no food in our house. I was going to make mac & cheese for VEE because she loves it and will always eat it, but then I realized we have about one tablespoon of butter. Not enough for that. But that IS enough for a grilled cheese sandwich... except we have no bread. We didn't even have enough milk for her. UGH. And I couldn't go out because my car was boxed in (long story, don't ask). So in the end, my sister-in-law ran to McDonald's and got VEE a Happy Meal with milk and apple slices and a cheeseburger. She ate all of the former and only a quarter of the latter. Parental FAIL. Oh well. So needless to say, we're going grocery shopping today.

In movie news, the Scientist went to see Now You See Me with his siblings last night while VEE and I crashed out. He liked it. Earlier this week he and I went to see The Fast and the Furious 6, which was totally redonkulous and a rollicking good time. If you even remotely enjoy action movies, this is worth the money. Not as good as Fast 5, but still a super-fun time.

Oh, and if anyone's interested in seeing photos from our zoo trips (including animatronic dinosaurs), you can find my Flickr set here.

Had a nice day yesterday. Did the farmer's market with the Scientist, got some cantaloupe. Normally I HAAAAATE cantaloupe, but the baby loves it and it tastes delicious when I'm pregnant, so there you are. Afterwards he went to work and I went to get an oil change. Except that an axle seal was leaking and that had to be replaced, but thankfully it was covered 100% under the warranty so I only paid for the oil change. Spent 2+ hours at the car dealership, which was BORING except that I got a lot of cross stitch done. Then I drove to deeablo's house. From the far southwest suburbs to the near north suburbs in just over an hour. Go, me! Not even Harry Dresden could get across Chicagoland that quickly -- and he's a wizard. angelchicken was there as well, looking as gorgeous as ever. We (along with some other friends) watched The Apple, and it was as terrible/awesome as always. Good times. Then I headed home, took a wrong turn onto the wrong highway (first time doing THAT), got home exhausted, and fell asleep on the sofa.

I have no idea what we're doing today. The Scientist is currently vacuuming (a job I hate because the Dyson -- while great -- makes a high-pitched whine that hurts my ears). I think we may do some more work on the nursery today. Or clean the house, as yakgirl and her family will be stopping in next week. Or go see Captain America. Or do laundry. I dunno.

How are you?

Hi, LJ people! I know I haven't updated in a long, long time, so here I am. It's a Saturday (early evening), and I'm just hanging around the house doing not much. Earlier the 25th anniversary concert of Les Miz was on PBS, so I watched that and did cross stitch. I also went to the eye doctor to get my new contact lenses checked, and she agreed that my right lens was too weak. I had to return it to the lab where it was made, so now I'm on glasses or old contacts until who knows when.

Also, my cat was just sleeping in a laundry basket at the foot of my bed. I heard her starting to vomit, so I raced in just in time to see her yak over the edge of the basket, onto the comforter, and down the side of the sleigh bed footboard. Thanks for that, cat. Then she wouldn't get out of the basket and proceeded to yak on two pairs of freshly-laundered socks. Cats. >:\

So, what's been going on with me otherwise? Not a whole lot. Lots of work. LOTS of work. I've been going in early to make up for lost time, so that's draining. But I'm working on a book called "Apparel" (not to be confused with "Fashion!", and yes, it does have an exclamation point), and the book is pretty thus far. It looks nice, all glossy and with up-to-date images.

I've seen some movies. Rango was good, though not my favorite animated movie by any means. The animation was stunning, however. Definitely not a movie for little kids, and definitely a movie for adults who are fans of westerns and movies in general, as it has several homages to several films of different genres. The Adjustment Bureau was fantastic, and one I highly recommend. It's a modern-day fantasy, very smartly written, and an interesting film about fate, free will, and love.

All the stuff going on in the world just makes me sad. I don't know what to think of what's happening in Libya, and the earthquake/tsunami one-two punch in Japan is just horrendous.

Last week I met Patricia Briggs, author of the Mercy Thompson books. They're basically the only urban fantasy series I can stomach. The signing was TERRIBLY disorganized, and there was no limit to how many books you could have signed. I was in the second-to-last batch of people to get books signed, and there were people ahead with a dozen books, whereas all of us in the back just had one or two, tops. Also, the bookstore didn't say that you could pick up wristbands for the signing at 9 a.m. when the store opened, so there were a lot of disgruntled people. I had to wait for over 4 hours to get the books signed. By the time I got to her, I was rather delirious and said something stupid, but what do I care? I don't. And I'm also not shopping at Borders ever again. There's a reason that store is going under, I tell you. Anyway, I'm reading her latest and I like it MUCH more than the last two. So take that as my recommendation, should any of you read Briggs's books.

The Scientist gave me my birthday present super-early: a backup drive for my Mac. All was going well. I had the software for it installed, the drive was showing up, and then I went to transfer files to it. I got an error saying that the disk was formatted and therefore stuff couldn't be added to it. WTF? In my confusion/haste to fix the problem, I pulled the USB for the drive out without ejecting it from the computer first. Now the computer won't recognize the drive as plugged in at all. I fail. I broke my birthday gift. SUCK. I need a Mac guru in my area to come and fix my computer, stat. I feel terrible about "breaking" my gift.

I am so tired. But I need to call my parents, and I need to wash those puke-socks, so I should wrap this up. I hope you're all well. Miss you!

I swear to God, I am allergic to my office. I was totally fine until I got inside here, and now I'm sneezing and my nose is dripping. I went outside to my car a while ago, as I'd left my phone and wanted to get it. Outside it's BEAUTIFUL, all sunny and mildly warm with a slight breeze. It's perfect. And you know what? Just two minutes outside in the fresh air and sun made me feel so much better. But then I had to come inside, and now I'm sneezing and drippy again. GROSS. I'm sure it doesn't help that about ¼ of the people in my office have the Hacking Cough, and the stupid A/C is just recirculating germ-filled air. But God, what I wouldn't do to have a window that I could crack open to get some fresh air.

My life is tragic, y'all.

In other news, this morning I had the most awesome dream, where I met all of the actors from The Big Bang Theory, and I invited them over to our house for dinner to surprise the Scientist. So they all showed up, and he was like "OMGWTFBBQ?!" Except Jim Parsons kept insisting he really WAS Sheldon, and it was all very strange and we had pot roast. And then I woke up when the Scientist rolled over and picked up his watch from the nighstand, and I realized I'd been sleeping a really long time. Somehow, I'd turned off all the alarms on the clock radio, and it was 7:50. I'm normally out the door by 8:10. CRAP. So I ran around like a fool trying to get ready, and the Scientist was none too pleased at waking up that late, but I'm fairly certain he got to shower after I left, so he's still in better shape than I am right now. Plus, I bet his job isn't making him sneeze.

I really want to wash my hair, though. Blech.

Everyone should go look at these amazing photos. (Link via Gapers Block.) They're a collection of photos from the Great Depression through WW2, but what's phenomenal about these are that they're in color. When have you seen color photos from the Great Depression? Probably never. So not only are these pretty rare, they're also touching and beautiful and amazingly shot. Seriously, some of these photo compositions are gorgeous. spicedrum, you should love these, #58 specifically. There are some great real-life Rosie the Riveter-esque photos near the end, too (#54 & #66).

The other thing I love about these photos is checking out all the colors in the clothing. My mom is always bitching that in period dramas, the costume designers always seem to dress the people in drab fabric. Mom's always like "These people didn't have anything; if they had money for fabric, do you think they'd buy brown and gray? No. They'd pick something colorful and cheery, because that's one of the only times they'd have something bright in their lives." And these pictures prove my mom's right. Just look at the patterns and colors of the cotton farmers' clothing in #9, or all the calico going on in #20. I love it.

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What else is up? Oh, I've been updating/redesigning the wine blog, if any of you are interested. It's been a while since we've updated in any way, shape, or form. We need to get back in the swing of things with that one. September has two wine festivals coming up, so that will keep us busy.

***

My wrist is hurting again. It comes and goes lately. It was bad last week, fine most of this week, and it started hurting again last night. I really need to go to a doctor about this. I'm 99% sure it's Carpal Tunnel. Booooooooo. But angelchicken showed me her scars over the weekend, so at least I know that if surgery will be an option someday, it's less invasive than before. In the meantime, I have a super-sexxxay powder blue wrist brace.

***

I have no idea what I'm up to this weekend. None of the movies coming out hold any interest to me. The Scientist works all day tomorrow, so I'll probably stay in and do chores. Maybe I can tackle the great closet cleanout. I dunno... Man, I'm boring! Heh.

1) Tonight, Sean Maher and Jewel Staite from Firefly will be guest starring on Warehouse 13. HOORAY!!! Are you not watching Warehouse 13? You should. It's ridiculously fun. sparkeymonster made a list of reasons why the show is awesome. I agree wholeheartedly. This is just FUN TV, people. Go, watch, enjoy.

2) Today is Embrace Your Geekness Day. Go forth and be geeky! Here are just a few things I am geeky about:
a) Firefly/Serenity
b) The Nightmare Before Christmas
c) Mold-A-Rama
d) Devil Ducks
e) InDesign

3) Work is currently stoopid. Nothing that's my fault or really even my problem, but that doesn't make things any less stoopid.

4) I have no A/C in my car. I've been surviving fairly well, but I really need to get that fixed.

5) This weekend is Lilith Fair! I'm excited. Kelly Clarkson dropped off the lineup (boooo), but now Court Yard Hounds, aka 2/3 of the Dixie Chicks, are playing. And Mary J. Blige, Heart, La Roux, and Sarah McLachlan are still on schedule. Also, local artist Katie Todd won a timeslot, which is cool because I like her music.

6) I have a slight headache. That is no good.

7) SEAN MAHER IS BACK ON MY TV TONIGHT!!! The end.

Blah blah blah. My life is BORING right now. Very dull. But the book that wouldn't die has officially been sent off to the printer today, so it is a day for celebration! Huzzah! Of course, I still have a ton of work to do on the corresponding website, followed then by the instructors' CD-ROM o' answers.

It is raining here. Everyone seems to hate the rain, but I love it. Someday I really should move to the Pacific Northwest. Rain = happy eee.

This past weekend was my high school reunion. I was a little... anxious... about it. But it turned out fine. I saw a bunch of people I haven't seen in forever, and everyone was nice. One girl who was kind of snitty in high school apologized to everyone if she was ever mean, which I thought was nice. So I told her that at one point or another, we were ALL mean to someone and so we should just leave it all in the past and be happy we're not in high school anymore. So that's good. It was kind of funny that at the end of the evening, the "popular" kids were upstairs, while us "regular" kids were all downstairs bowling. All these years later, and the factions still stand. Though it makes sense that people would want to talk to the people they knew the best all those years ago. The only problem with the entire event was that there was no AC. OMG, the sweat. The place smelled like a gym for a while. Eeeeech!

What else? On Sunday I saw Prince of Persia. It wasn't as horrible as I expected, but I expected really bad. I could see this being a popular movie amongst boys, what with all the swashbuckling. There needs to be more swashbuckling in movies. I think that's one reason the first Pirates movie was so popular. Also, it's fun to say. SWASHBUCKLING!

Last night the Scientist and I got BBQ for dinner (yum), and then I decided to pop my scifi cherry and finally sit down to watch Dune. He started me on the David Lynch version, as it was a) the shortest, and b) the least like the book. Within the first ten minutes I had to pause the movie and have him explain WTF the narration was about. The movie was okay. I know it's one of those "sci-fi masterpieces," but the pacing was all off. There was so much about Paul getting to the Dune planet, and then once he met up with the Fremen it was like "Wheeee, he's one of us, the movie's almost over!" It was like they just accepted him as their new messiah and he saved everyone and that was that. Too rushed. So now I'll have to watch the miniseries and figure out what I missed.

Anyway, that's it for me. Now back to work.