eee1313 | Entries tagged with friends

It's been a busy couple of days, and it's only Saturday afternoon. Yikes.

On Thursday after work I went to a local school to work the setup for their annual clothing and toy resale. For every two hours of volunteer work you do for the sale, you get to shop before the event actually opens. This year they've sweetened the deal, wherein if you work for six hours you get to shop the VIP sale, which used to only be open for the teachers at the school. Alas, between the Scientist and I we could only give four hours, which meant presale and no VIP sale. That said, we would have needed to take time off work to get to the VIP sale, anyway, so whatever. The only reason I feel I missed out was that someone had a set of four Frozen dolls that my daughter would have lost her shit over had I been able to get them. And they were three dollars. That's insane! I almost wonder if some parent gave those toys up to the resale as some sort of punishment to their child, because I cannot fathom selling four of those dolls for 75 cents a pop.

Anyway, last night was the presale and we got a crap-ton of clothing for VEE for the fall/winter season, which is good because right now I think we have four long-sleeved shirts that fit her. Not anymore! We also got her some books and some basic infant toys for the new baby for Christmas. He'll only be two months old when Christmas hits, so it's not as if he'll know he's missing out, but I'll feel badly if he doesn't get some kind of toy. So three "new" toys for $5 works for me.

So last night was very busy, hauling clothes around a school gym and then over to the Scientist's mom's so that we could leave some of the new stuff there with her, and then VEE would NOT go to sleep last night. She woke up crying twice, which is odd, but she's easily comforted so there you are. This morning she and I hung out and I did laundry while the Scientist hit up the last farmer's market of the year with his dad. Then we ran some errands, had lunch, and then it was his turn to work breakdown at the sale. While he was there, I took VEE to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center, which is part sanctuary for animals who can't be released back into the wild due to injuries, and part hospital for rehabilitating local animals. I used to go here a lot when I was a kid, as it was about a mile from my house. VEE really seemed to enjoy it and was none too happy when we left, but then she fell asleep in the car on the way home and has been out ever since. The Scientist is picking up pizza on the way home, so she'll be happy to see that when she wakes up (especially considering she barely ate her lunch).

Tomorrow we have a party in the afternoon for our friends' anniversary. They don't know the party is happening, so hopefully it'll be a good surprise for them. I got a text from the wife today asking about the resale, and then she informed me that someone broke into their house last night. They couldn't wrestle their giant flatscreen TVs off the walls (that's definitely a bonus for wall-mounting those suckers), but they took all the other electronics and all of her son's DVDs. She's livid about the latter more than anything else. As she said, "Who steals DVDs from a 3-year-old?" Really, how much can you get for an old copy of Elmo in Grouchland or whatever? That totally sucks. So hopefully this party tomorrow will boost their spirits a bit.

And in the meantime, we still have to clean the house before my parents arrive in a week or so. Ack. There needs to be more time in the day. (I say this as I sit here blogging. I am a bad person.)

Once again, I've let way too much time go between updates. I'm sorry about that. As always, I've been reading but not commenting. But hi to all of you who are still here!

Life has been very busy the past few weeks. ( Cut for length. )

Anyway, that's been life around these parts.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Location: Woodridge, IL

I honestly can't tell you how glad I am that spring is finally here. To say this winter was brutal is an understatement. Even for us tough Chicagoans who view winter as a yearly "character growth" opportunity had it with this winter. So I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful it was to have a few days where it was warm enough for short sleeves and no jacket. Hooray! Of course, a cold front blew in early this afternoon and it's been raining ever since, but after all "April showers bring May flowers." And our flowers are starting to come up, which makes me very happy.

Things have been good around here. VEE has thoroughly enjoyed the past few weekends. First there was an Easter Bunny visit and egg hunt/free-for-all at church last weekend. She dressed up in a pretty navy blue with flowers dress of her own choosing and then wore her bunny eared headband. Then this weekend was the Easter Bunny party at our association clubhouse, to which she wore a yellow dress with flowers and her bunny ears again. Both times the Easter Bunny was very excited to see another child with pointy ears, which made VEE very pleased with herself. Next weekend there's yet another egg hunt (sponsored by our local Lions Club) and then Easter itself. Hopefully she won't fuss about wearing her pink smocked dress on Easter Sunday, as it has a matching pink hat that her grandparents gave to her. We'll see.

Yesterday we also went to the zoo again. It was lovely weather; sunny and warm but with a nice breeze to keep anyone from getting hot. I'm sure the crowd was crazy earlier since the weather was so good. Thankfully we didn't get there until nearly 2:30, so a lot of people had already left. VEE was very happy to see her beloved clownfish in the "seas" exhibit.

Today I met with an old high school friend for brunch. She only lives a mile away, but she's always insanely busy so we only see each other about once per year. It turns out she's also a zoo member, so we may end up doing a zoo trip with her now and again. That would be nice.

What else is going on... Work is bonkers, but I'd rather not talk about that.

I'm finally starting to show, pregnancy-wise. As of yesterday I put on my big-paneled pregnancy jeans (so comfortable, OMG) and a maternity shirt, and my belly's definitely changing. I feel much firmer than before, which is weird. Tomorrow I go to the doctor for a check-up and to get the results of the genetic testing (looking for trisomy 13, 18, and 21, aka Down Syndrome). Hopefully all will be well there. I may finally be feeling better, otherwise. I'm able to eat more, which is good seeing as how I was basically eating cereal and juice in the morning, snacking on fruit during the day, eating a small lunch, and then barely choking down a few bites of dinner. Thank God the first trimester is over. TERRIBLE.

So yeah, that's the news around here. Oh, and I saw Captain America: Winter Soldier and loved it. I wanted to go see Noah and Divergent, though I never got around to either of those.

Now I have to go out and try to find new shoes for work. I just want a pair of nice, comfortable day-to-day shoes. It seems all they sell out there these days are flats and wedges. I want neither. Why won't loafers come back into style? Even the name is applicable to my lifestyle: loafer. Oh well.

How's everyone doing? I hope you're all well. Or, if you weren't well the last time you posted, I hope you're doing better. I DO read everyone's posts, I just don't reply to most of them. But I am here, so keep posting!

Things are fine in my world. I just had a nice long Skype chat with my sister,

yakgirl. Her boys got online and started showing their toys to VEE, who in turn showed her toys to them. Seeing as how the cousins get together twice a year if we're lucky, I'm very glad that we're able to Skype. Now that we have a tablet it's super-easy to do so. I think I'll give my parents the webcam that I got a few years ago so that they can get in on the Skype action as well.

Later this week

fava_bean comes home for spring break, as well as her baby shower. Wheeeeee! It'll be good to see her again.

I now have a kid in my lap and am typing one handed so I can keep her from falling off my leg. She's watching Disney on Ice on YouTube. God bless the people who videotape everything so we can watch it for free. Earlier today it was parades from Walt Disney World. Way to help me save on airfare, hotel costs, and park tickets, Internet! (Though we do have a plan for any and all kids when it comes to those parks. The rules are 1) the kids have to be able-bodied enough to walk the parks themselves, 2) they have to be tall enough to ride all the rides, and 3) they have to be old enough to remember it and appreciate how much money it cost us.)

What else is up? Reviews are coming at work. There's a new form we all have to fill out. It has questions on it like "what did you hope to accomplish this past year that didn't happen?" Yikes, way to set us up to fail. There's also a question about where we'd like to be in two years. I asked my boss if I can be a smartass and write ïdependently wealthy so I never have to work again." He said if he were the only one reading it, I could say I wanted to be prima ballerina for the Bolshoi. However, no one higher up the food chain has a sense of humor so I should probably refrain. Poo.

I am so far behind on TV that I barely even watch anything these days. The final episodes of HIMYM are happening, so I try to watch that. Elementary sometimes. Not so much with NCIS since they brought in the Bishop character. Ugh. She just seems so shoehorned in. If it made any sense why Gibbs would want her on the team, then maybe I'd be on board. But it just smacks of "we need a female character -- let's make her quirky!" Ugh. I have seen a bunch of movies: The LEGO Movie, 300: Rise of an Empire, 3 Days to Kill, Monuments Men, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit that I can remember. God bless free movies at my local theater on Wednesday nights. And God bless my in-laws for watching VEE so we can get date night every week or two.

That's really it for now. I need to get some dinner. Have a good weekend, everyone.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: Woodridge, IL
Current Music: Mickey's Soundsational Parade

I was going to post other things, but I just saw it online and all I can say now is "Holy crap, Lou Reed is dead." This makes me sad. :(

In other news, this weekend was super Halloween weekend for us. Yesterday morning we took the kid Trunk-or-Treating, which she enjoyed a lot. However, this also meant that for the rest of the day all she wanted to do was eat her candy. (It's now hidden in the laundry room.) Then we went to our homeowners association Halloween party, where she got pizza and cheesy poofs and then a guy came in from the Wide World of Reptiles and showed off snakes and lizards and frogs. There may have been more, but she was getting tired and cranky so we had to leave early. Then last night was the Halloween party at our friends Cinnamon and Andrew's place, and as always it was lots of fun. This year's theme was "Hallowmeme," so I went as Nyan Cat (warning: annoying music) and the Scientist went as Teabonics. I was not the only Nyan Cat, but oddly the other guy dressed as Nyan Cat and I once had eerily similar costumes at another Halloween party. So I think next year he and I will try to coordinate again. Also in attendance: Rickrolling, the Cinnamon Challenge, dog shaming, Tom Selleck waterfall sandwich, Clean All the Things, lime cat, women laughing alone with salad (two of those), trolololo (warning: annoying and awesome music), and Grumpy Cat, amongst many others.

Today we went back to the zoo to see the dinosaurs one last time. The dino banners are down. The kid will NOT be pleased the next time we visit the zoo. Oh well.

What else? Man, I don't know. Right now I kind of want to nap. What's up with you?

A very very very happy birthday to the wonderful

sunbrae! I hope you've had a great birthday so far. I am so lucky to have you for a friend. Love you, sweetie!

Before I go further, you should all know that I'm typing one-handed while I hold VEE in my lap so she can watch Cookie Monster videos. She also keeps grabbing the mouse and randomly clicking, so...

Things are good in my world. Work is work. VEE is tons of fun. She's now talking in short three-word sentences on occasion. She likes playing on the trampoline (supervised) at her grandparents' house. She can say "stegosaurus,"but not her own name which has the same number of syllables. We should have just named her Stegosaurus. Oh, and she has so many Halloween events that she now has TWO costumes -- Supergirl and a dinosaur. She put the latter on over her jammies this morning and loved it.

This week was the bi-annual clothing/toy resale at the local school. The Scientist and I worked setup on Thursday, we did presale shopping last night, and I hit the half price sale today before helping with breakdown. OMG so hot in that school gym! But we got her a bunch og clothes for good prices, as well as a Sesame Street playset with 10 figures and a Little People plane for Christmas. The cost of both: $11. SCORE!

This morning I got a text from my high school friend Ty, who was in town to help his brother with a speaking engagement. His brother has written a book that's getting really good reviews everywhere, The Wrong Kind of Muslim. It's not so much about religion as it is about persecution and the continuing fight for freedom of choice. (Ty's family is Ahmadi Muslim, which is a Bad Thing according to the Taliban and Ahmadis have been killed over this.) I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. According to Ty, it's not just a religious "Muslims vs. everyone else's opions" book; it's much more about people fighting for the right to believe -- or not believe -- whatever they want. Heck, Ty says some of the biggest supporters of the book that he's met so far have been atheists. I was planning to buy a copy, but Qasim gave me a copy and wrote a really sweet note in the front for me. So that was really nice. And it was great to catch up with Ty and his brothers, as it's been 3 years since I've seen Ty and about ten since I've seen his brothers. So that was a nice surprise for today.

Anyway, VEE is bored with watching Sesame Street videos, so I'm going to go read her some books. I hope you're all well, and I hope I'll have more of a chance to read/catch up with you all soon.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Sesame Street and Will.i.am: What I Am

Yesterday was

fava_bean's second reception, and it was a good time. Not all of the wedding party from NJ could make it, which meant the Scientist got to sit up at the head table with me. Yay! A whole bunch of our friends were there, including our high school friend D and her husband T, as well as the LJ crowd:

fishdoctorpost,

aj,

mei_x, and

xica_s, most of whom I haven't seen in WAY too long. It was really great to see them all. We ended up shutting down the party by dancing the night away. It was a good party.

Of coursse, I'm not used to dancing so much, which meant I woke up achey and stiff this morning. My parents and I ended up Skyping with my sister this morning and by the time that was done and my parents left, it was noon and I hadn't even showered. VEE wouldn't nap even though she desperately needed it. I took her outside to play in the kiddie pool and she finally passed out. Now it's 4:30 and I've done NOTHING with my day. Ooops.

I went to C2E2 on Saturday, had a good time. It gets bigger and bigger every year. I knew it has a bigger budget this year when there was a DJ spinning in the hall for people waiting to buy tickets. At one point I believe Boba Fett was doing the Gangnam Style dance. o_O.

I got to see

fishdoctorpost,

aj, and the annual sighting of

taraljc occurred as well. :) I went with the Scientist and his sister S, and she had never been before. She enjoyed it quite a bit. The two of them went to the Patton Oswalt panel while I walked the floor (and spent waaaaaaay too long at the BPAL booth buying stuff for me and

liquidize). Later I got Ron Perlman's autograph (he was rather curt, but I expected that) and then went to his Q&A, which started slow and crappy but got better as it went on. He said the role he always wanted to play but never got was Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. When his panel ended, they started playing "If I were a Rich Man" and he did the dance, which just blew everyone's minds. WTF, Ron Perlman??? Then more floor walking, more floor walking, meeting people, getting food, gawking at costumes, and finally the Kevin Smith event in the evening. Man, can that dude ramble. Two questions in and over an hour had passed. We ended up cutting out a bit early just to avoid the lines -- and get home to the baby, who'd been with my mother-in-law all day.

So overall, it was once again a good time. If anyone cares to see a few pictures, my flickr set is here. And now, off to bed.

The past couple of weeks have seemed absolutely nuts around here. Last weekend was the culmination of a lot of planning, as it was

fava_bean's bridal shower and bachelorette party. Her mom and I have been planning this for months, and despite all the planning it was still down to the wire. We did a "coastal" theme, as fava will be honeymooning in Cape May. There was a pasta bar with chicken and crabmeat, shrimp cocktail, stuffed clams, as well as sausage and peppers, salad, and TONS of desserts. We had the party at my association clubhouse and decorated in white and aqua. One of my coworkers, a caterer on the side, loaned me her huge silver chafing dishes as well as tons of seashells that she got at the beach down in Florida. So we had some fishnets on the dessert table for decoration with the shells, and tiny aqua lanterns on the tables as centerpieces. fava's dad made a four-and-a-half foot lighthouse out of foam board, and then we put up a huge roll of paper that looked like the ocean. He printed out pictures of boats to go on the "ocean," but also added Serenity flying through the air and all the crew of the ship riding on the other boats. I love that she and her dad are Firefly nerds.

The Scientist was a HUGE help getting things set up and broken down, as were my parents and fava's and my friend D. Overall the party went really well, though we were a bit rushed for time. We hadn't even finished cleaning up when me, fava, and D had to leave to head downtown. That day was a double bill with her bachelorette party starting 2½ hours after the bridal shower finished. With it being St. Patrick's Day weekend, ALL of downtown was riddled with drunken idiots. Thankfully fava wanted to go to Cafe Iberico, which was blessedly nearly-free of idiots in green. The joy of Spanish food on an Irish holiday.

fishdoctorpost had come to the shower earlier, and so we met up with her,

deeablo,

aj,

mei_x, and

xica_s at the restaurant. After lots of good food and sangria, we headed back to the hotel so fava and D could change. We had some quick champagne, fava opened a few gifts, and then we headed to the Baton for the 10:30 show. Man, some of those drag queens haven't changed at all since we first went there for D's bachelorette party all those years ago. We had great seats right up front and had a blast. One of them came out in this crazy catsuit to do a routine to Rihanna's "Diamonds" (a song I hate but will now listen to with a laugh), and I turned to aj and said "Did you ever watch Farscape?" Because the drag queen had on an outfit that looked like a bedazzled Scorpius. A few minutes later, deeablo leaned over and said the exact same thing (she didn't hear me over the volume). We were all DYING. It was a good time.

In other news, while I was at the drag show it seems that VEE was taking her very first steps without any assistance. Yay for her! She likes to walk everywhere now -- but only if you hold her hands. In the past few days she's started walking with a push-toy, but she's not too secure with that yet. Either way, she'll be walking VERY soon and that means we have to baby-proof all the cupboards. Yikes.

This weekend I'm taking her to see the Easter Bunny. Last year she was so young she didn't know what was up. I wonder if she'll freak out this time. I'm going to dress her up in this super-girly, super-springtime, VERY pink dress that my mom got for her. I hope there will be some cute pictures where she's not screaming at the giant bunny. Fingers crossed!

And in other news, work continues to make me want to pull my hair out. OMG. Today I got a 75-page glossary that absolutely MUST fit in no more than 26 pages. Somehow, I made it work. I'm that good. Now give me a raise. ;P

Aaaaaand due to work, my hands are now hurting. Stupid repetitive stress injuries! So I'm signing off now. I hope you're all doing well. I miss you bunches! If I have time, I'll try to catch up this weekend and actually COMMENT BACK to you all. Until then, take care.

I haven't updated in forever. I am a bad person. I just spent a lot of time reading through my flist, so I'm all caught up on your whether I commented or not. Glad to read you all. :)

This weekend has been good. On Thursday I talked with my mom, who informed me that my dad was going on a weekend trip with my cousin. So I said to my mom "Why don't you come down here for the weekend, then? We can go see The Hobbit, you can hang out with VEE, it'll be good times." Mom said she couldn't because she had housework to do and I said the housework could wait, but she insisted she had to stay home. I called her back on Friday after work and totally guilt-tripped her. My parents can drive down here for an afternoon dentist appointment, but Mom can't come in on a weekend where she has no other obligations and spend time with her daughter and granddaughter? (And son-in-law, obviously.) She said she really HAD to do the housework and I guilted her about being retired, and what she can do on the weekend she can do on Monday. Then I laid in about how the movie may not be showing in theaters by the time she visits next and we ALWAYS go to see the LOTR movies together, and she still wouldn't agree to come down. So I used my Sad Voice and we said goodbye. Then a few minutes later she called back and said she would come after all, which made us both very happy. So Mom drove down yesterday morning and was here before 9 a.m., and she got to play with VEE and hang out with us. Then she and I went to the movie which she enjoyed a whole heck of a lot, which made me happy. We all got Asian food for dinner (Thai won ton soup for her, chicken teriyaki for me, Vietnamese spring rolls, etc.) and it was just a really nice visit. I'm so glad Mom could come. She agreed that VEE has changed a lot since Christmas, so I'm glad she was able to visit with her some more.

In other news, I'm trying to plan

fava_bean's wedding shower. That's fun. Her mom still hasn't given me a guest list for her family, which I was hoping to get this weekend so that I could send out invitations. But now that really doesn't matter because the bag containing said invitations (along with a ton of stuff for the shower) has gone missing. I am going bonkers trying to find it. I have no idea what I did with it, because I'm dumb.

Work is stupid. Let's not mention it again.

I don't know what else to write about. It's been so long since I updated that I have no idea what to say. Man, I wish it were easier to update from my phone. Then I could post while at work like I used to. Oh well.

Current Mood: wondering where I put that bag
Current Location: Woodridge, IL

The holidays are mostly over and done with, and all went well. Christmas Eve with the in-laws, Christmas morning with the Scientist and VEE. Christmas late morning with the in-laws, then in the car to drive to Michigan to have Christmas night with my parents and my sister and her family. Then the next day my cousins came in with their families, and then the next day we went up to the Grand Rapids area to have a post-Christmas get-together with my mother-in-law's family. Then back home where I got to see

fava_bean, her guy, and my other BFF Deb and her husband. Then today, we're just hanging out. I was thinking of using the zoo membership that my sister and her family got us for Christmas and taking VEE to see Zoo Lights. However, I'm lazy and it's cold and the baby woke me up at 6:45 so surely I'll pass out before this evening...

Anyway, the holidays were really nice. The big surprise of Christmas morning was that the Scientist got me a bike! Some of you may already know this, but I never really learned to ride a bike. Bikes scared the crap out of me as a child. They still kind of do, because I fear I will fall off and land in traffic and be run over by a car. When I was a kid my parents were nice and bought me a 10-speed bike. It was pretty. However, that's not the kind of bike you start a kid on. It's just too much. So the Scientist got me a bike that's more my speed: a big, sturdy Schwinn with fat tires and only six speeds. (It looks kind of like this one, except it's teal and has no rear rack. Mine also has whitewall tires. Fun!) Since we had no snow, I rode it around the cul-de-sac a few times on Christmas morning. Wheeeeee! So yes, now I need to learn how to PROPERLY ride a bike.

Anyway, I need to go take a shower. I hope you all had nice holidays. Happy New Year to you all as well!

For starters, I just have to say that I absolutely cannot wrap my brain about the school murders, and thus I've been avoiding it all. I just can't comprehend it and thinking about it wrecks me, so I'm avoiding all news of it for right now. I have thoughts but I can't deal with it now.

So I'm going to only talk about happy things. Sorry if that makes me a bad person, but this is how I'm dealing.

Last night we had our annual wine & cheese party for the holidays. The crowd was very thin this year, as one friend was having her 40th birthday and thus got priority amongst our shared friends. Several people came down with terrible bronchitis or other illnesses. But it was still a good time and we all had fun. Thanks to all who came, or tried to come. Yay!

I'm sick. ( I have a cold. )

In other news, I'm waiting to hear back from the county to get V in for a physical evaluation. She's almost a year old and she still doesn't crawl, sit up, or pull herself up. I think she's just lazy, but as

yakgirl pointed out, these are core physical milestones that she should have hit already. Getting her evaluated for PT isn't going to kill anyone (except my ego as a supermom). I found out that it's federal law that all children under 36 months can have developmental evaluations done free of charge. If they think V needs actual PT, then we have to coordinate with insurance to see if they'll cover it. But still, free evaluations for babies -- thanks, Feds!

Oh, and regarding the Feds in general, this election bullshit just makes me roll my eyes. ALL of it. I can't handle hearing about 3/4 of the politicians, and it's just attack ad after attack ad, and by the way Joe Walsh is a SCUMBAG and I'm so glad he's not on the ticket in my district or else I'd scream. I can't wait for this all to be over. I'm so sick of all the negativity. I think almost everyone in America is, but the politicians just pander to those that scream the loudest, and those are usually the ones who are angriest. WHATEVER.

Okay, I need to go now. The baby has been asleep since she came home at 6:00 because she didn't nap at all today. And if we don't wake her up and feed her we'll be dealing with WIDE AWAKE BABY at 11:30 p.m. like we did last night. And that's no fun when you're sick.

Before I forget, love to (in no particular order):

sunbrae,

missrachael,

norabombay,

tenar, and

spasticat.

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: Woodridge, IL

Waiting to meet up with

deeablo and

georgevna at a bar downtown, sipping Jack & ginger ale. Some dude just walked past in a top hat. It's gonna be one of those nights...

I spent the morning with

aj, who took the train out to visit with me and VEE. The three of us ran errands, then the baby got applesauce in her hair, and so aj watched VEE get a bath. Then she fell asleep (the baby, not aj) and she and I talked until it was time to meet the Scientist for lunch. So the three of us had lunch while the baby ate a wafer cookie and got all hepped up on sugar, and then I took aj to the train. Since then, the baby and I have been enjoying a nice day at home. She's currently taking rings off her stacker toy, and she looks to be AMAZED by the whole process.

It's been a good day. I wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow. Eh. Such is life.

Current Mood: content

Hi, everyone! I miss you all. Man, I really wish it weren't so hard to type LJ responses and/or entries on my phone, because it seems like that's the only way I get to check here these days. As always, I want you to know that I'm reading, I'm thinking about you, and I love you. Much, much love to

tenar and

spicedrum right now, and your families.

Things are going well around here. The heat FINALLY broke, so that makes life considerably less awful than it was last week. We had new windows installed on the first floor of our house this past Saturday. The poor Scientist stayed home while the contractors made big holes in the side of our house, which meant no A/C for him. It was 105 in the house that day. Yikes. I took VEE out in search of places with air conditioning. But now we have new windows, and they're lovely, and we finally have a sliding door out to the (nonexistant) back yard area and it can actually be used as a DOOR. I'm happy.

Work continues.

I've been doing a few little design side projects for people, so that's been fun. I enjoy being creative. :D

The baby is great. She's so much fun. She's about 20 pounds now, and while she STILL has no interest in crawling, she can sit for long, long periods of time and play with her toys, and she's eating all sorts of fruits and veggies. She's basically vegan right now. And she has added "ma ma ma" sounds to her repertoire, which makes me happy because it used to be only "da da da." She's ridiculously well-behaved and full of smiles and giggles. I love her to bits.

The Scientist is, as ever, the perfect husband. Every night when we get home from work, he makes dinner while I ~~try to~~ feed the baby, and he always dresses her in the morning while I'm getting ready. And he makes me coffee and a bagel every morning. I am very lucky, and I don't know how this came to be my life, but I'm really glad of it.

Man, I hope I don't sound smug.

What else? Getting shallow, I am NOT HAPPY about Eureka ending. But at least White Collar starts up tomorrow. Yay, Peter and Neal! And Mozzie! And Mrs. Suit! Man, I love that show. I need some White Collar icons. (Have I said that before?)

This weekend we got to see some friends, which was nice. Our friends had a baby a few months ago, and this past weekend was his "social debut." Not the parents' term for it, but it fits. So we got to see them and a bunch of other people we haven't seen in months, so that was nice.

Anyway, it's late and I should get going. OH! I am finally, FINALLY reading the Harry Potter books. I know, right? I always said I wouldn't read them till the movies were done, and now they're done and I put GRRM on the back burner for a while, so HP it is. It was either that or finally reading the LotR books, and the Scientist was like "Read Harry Potter, it'll go faster." So I'm on book #2, having "read" the first via audiobook - in February of 2011. Man, I'm really dragging my feet on this, aren't I? Oh well, better late than never, right? Right.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Woodridge, IL

Congratulations are due to my BFF

fava_bean, who yesterday got engaged to her super-awesome boyfriend G. How awesome is G? He's so awesome that he flew me out to New Jersey to surprise her at the post-proposal party. (It's all about me, obviously.) No, really, I could not be more happy for the two of them. They're one of those couples who just make sense and I'm so glad they're going to get married. Yay!

It's also really fun to be out here with them. So far I've met a bunch of their friends and they're all really nice and funny. I've eaten some great food (Italian and S'Mac's great fig, mushroom, and rosemary mac & cheese). I got to wander around Central Park for a bit and enjoy the great weather.

Tomorrow morning I head home and get to see the Scientist and my little girl again. It makes going home so much easier knowing I'll get to squeeze my little goober in less than 12 hours. Yay!

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Bayonne, NJ

Happy Walpurgis Night, everyone!

Many, many congratulations to my friends N & J on the birth of their new son this morning. Here's wishing them the best, and may their son G enjoy being a big brother!

Current Mood: happy

I need a Hunger Games icon...

So the movie comes out today, and I'm so jealous of all of you who get to see it/have seen it already. My sister is taking a bunch of her students to see it today for a field trip. Lucky! I never got to go to the movies on a field trip when I was in school. Anyway, I can't see it tonight because I have to clean, as an old friend is coming to visit tomorrow night. She's spending the night, and tomorrow evening we're going downtown to meet another friend. I haven't seen either of them since my wedding, so this will be nice.

The only downside is that not only will I not get to see the movie fill at least sunday afternoon, I'll also miss Aileen Quinn hosting Annie at a local theater. Say what you will about it, my sister & I lived and breathed that movie for years. Oh well, the things you do for friends, right? Right!

I had a good weekend. Friday night the Scientist and I went out in search of stuff to complete our Halloween costumes. Then we had dinner (mmmmm, tacos!) and watched the absolutely STUPID Nicolas Cage/Ron Perlman movie Season of the Witch. What WON'T Nic Cage do for a paycheck? Oy vey. Then we stayed up late to wait for a guy to come pick up my old computer that I'd sold to him on Craigslist.

Saturday we got up and bummed around a bit, and then the Scientist went to Argonne to get some stuff out of the incubator. When he came home we went out to run errands. First to Target to buy cat food and stuff, then to See's Candies for chocolate cigars which he'll hand out to grandpas and uncles when the baby comes. Then to Trader Joe's for confetti rice and other random foods, and then to Oberweis Dairy to cash in his free quart coupons. The Scientist gives blood all the time (to the point where one arm has scar tissue from all the time he's been poked by the LifeSource people), and lately they've been giving out coupons for a free quart whenever you donate. So he had three of these that expired soon, so we got cinnamon (my choice), butter pecan (his favorite), and chocolate truffle for us both. Then we came home and my father-in-law took us out for Chinese for lunch. Thanks! After that, J came home with us and did my hair for the wedding. It was INSANE. She gave me pageant queen hair, all ringlets that were piled up on top of my head. Yes, we took pictures, but no, I can't upload them yet because we don't have the software installed on the new computer. I took FAR too long getting ready, but we weren't late for the wedding (thank God). Oh, in case you're wondering the Scientist went as a mobster, all pinstripe suit and fedora. It worked well.

The wedding itself was really nice. The ceremony was held in the reception hall with a friend of the bride and groom officiating. It was a short and sweet ceremony but very touching. The bride had her dress made for her by a friend, and the lace on her dress was taken from her deceased mother's wedding gown. I thought that was very lovely of the bride to include her mom that way. After the ceremony was dinner, followed by the first-ever performance of the groom's band. He and his friends have been messing around with a fake band in one another's basements for YEARS, and they finally decided to play in front of people. Seeing as how they said it would be a disaster, I was pleasantly surprised by how good they sounded. So that was fun to watch them play. And then the rest of the night was just dancing, dancing, and more dancing. A lot of people were in costume, but mostly the younger crowd. One older relative of the bride went as Scarlet O'Hara a la Carol Burnett, complete with curtain rod. I thought it was brilliant, and when I told her so the woman was glad that someone "under 50" knew what her costume was. Heh. There were also a lot of girls in the usual "slutty _____" costumes, from slutty pirate (who was wearing NOTHING under her outfit, I found out later that night) to slutty Snow White to slutty angel to slutty Luigi (she was there with Mario, Wario, and Princess Peach). One girl appeared to be some kind of slutty peacock, and I thought her dress was WAY too short. But then when the dancing started I realized that she and her date must have been some kind of semi-pro ballroom dancers, and her outfit really showcased her dancing. It was all legs, everywhere. VERY impressive to watch. Anyway, the wedding was a really good time.

Today the Scientist slept in late, I did some cross stitch (almost done!), and then took a nap. Woke up around noon -- whoops! So then I carved my pumpkin while the Scientist took a walk, and when he got home he made cheesy garlic bacon bread. Except our yeast was old and didn't rise, so he turned the bread into dinner rolls. Then I made

aj's mom's Apple Brown Betty recipe and took that over to my in-laws' for dessert. And that was my weekend. I hope yours were all good.

Oh, and may you all have a fun, happy, and safe Halloween tomorrow! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Woodridge, IL

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