Well. I've now been sick for four weeks straight. And yes, that does make me whiny. We had a much warmer than usual November, which was helpful on those days when I did leave the house, but there was a long stretch in the middle there where it hardly mattered because we were curled up on the couch fighting for the snuggly comforter. I guess it would have been more miserable running out to the doctor's office if it was cold.
But! Moving on! December holds its own delights and is off to an excellent (whiny) start. SG's bus driver, a sweet, reliable, friendly, RELIABLE driver, has moved to a more coveted route. Today was our first day with a temp driver who was 25 minutes late, apparently because no one told her to avoid a patch of terrible construction traffic. If you think I felt whiny, as I stood breakfast-and-tea-less at the bus stop, you would not believe the whines from SG, who doesn't like to be late to school. She was a non-stop whine factory until I pointed out (about 20 minutes in) my breakfastlessness. Then she reduced her whine level slightly. Slightly.
In anti-whines, we were able to shelter in the foyer of the school where we wait for the bus so we kept warm. I got home in time to eat something before my 9 am meeting. And I didn't just miss my cleaning person (who I feared was going to wait a bit and then drive away) because she was home sick. That isn't really an anti-whine, since we canceled her last visit when we were all sick, so the dust bunnies and grime are building up. But, hey, other than the guilt at not actually wanting to do any cleaning myself, we'll survive. Also, in anti-whines, the sore throat I had last night and this morning seems to have eased. Or is that just the ibuprofen? (The possible whine there being that it may be a side effect of the steroid inhaler for my poor sad lungs and I'm not sure what to do if it is. Except maybe haul myself back to the doctor. Again.)
My upcoming Solstice Holiday woes are minimal because we have only SG and her grandma to shop for, and I've got one gift already and am knitting another. But some of you may be staring down an impossibly long list of impossible to find items, with value exceeding your budget, or trying to bake 500 cookies, or something fun like that. Do share!
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Oh wow Madeleine - how awful! Bad enough to be into week 4 of Teh Bleh, but the bus stop whineage. *shudders*
I am laughing hysterically at the prospect of baking 500 cookies. Me? Bake? I don't think so. Not. Going. To. Happen.
I don't eat them. I don't bake them. I don't exchange them. Not even in a boat, with a goat or in a box with a fox.
Phooey on holiday traditions that make people crazy. I am done with my shopping. We have a thankfully short list and most of it was ordered online. I had to go to a store yesterday and it was insane. I won't go back now until after the new year. (I'm not a big fan of large crowded places containing people with glazed-over zombie eyes rushing about)
Whine: Tie tie - it's only Dec 1st, and I want to sleep for the rest of the month.
Whine: My head hurts - day 8 and counting.
Anti-whine: my office is warm today. (Sorry, that's the best AW I can come up with...)
Sue, so sorry to hear your head is still hurting. Thank goodness your shopping is done -- you have enough professional work this month to keep you busy!
I'm very glad to hear your office is warm today. I am happy to say mine isn't bad either, because I remembered that thing where I close the door all day! And let the south-facing windows heat up the room.
I'm still waiting to hear if we broke the No Snow in November For the First Time Ever record. There were white spots on colder areas this morning, but did they fall before or after midnight? And really it only matters what happens at the official weather station at the airport, not what happens on my block.
oh, madeleine -- sick for 4 weeks, it's cold, dust bunnies piling up, confused bus driver -- bad bad bad.
sue, that is just awful about the headache. but your shopping is done!
i have purchased one [1] item, for the nephew we will see next weekend before they go away. that is it. no ideas; no time. but i may not make it to the festive season anyway, since i am still stuck in the Project of Doom, and something else (with a festive holiday deadline!) is backed up behind that.
want. off. the. train. right. now.
Bah humbug for sickness and headaches and work trains that overstay their welcomes.
My holiday festivities are curtailed this year (AW: no hosting the "Pastor's Open House" this year. Whew. I stink at this pastor's wife business). Have made a few gifts and bought a few more. The rest will be gift cards that I hopefully can obtain online.
AW/W (not sure what to call this): Not wrapped up in preaching and worship and pageants and church decorating this year. Nice, but I miss it.
And, antiwhine: 31 weeks! Everything is looking good. Mark your calendars for Jan 25--that's when Mini Baboo is scheduled to arrive via C Section. There is a fairly large part of my intuition that expects him/her to want to come before that. Hopefully not too much before that.
AW: Done with boards!
W: Man, that was 7 hours of hell.
W: MASSIVE headcold/earache thing.
AW: On an easy rotation this week, so slacking is slightly more acceptable than normal.
AW: Hosea is the cutest toddler ever. Ever. He makes up his won songs and plays them on his ukulele, and is extremely into snuggling right now.
W: He's also totally, completely insane and he never stops. He's like the energizer bunny, but more destructive.
kathy a. - pulling the emergency stop thingy on the train as I write. I hope it helps.
esperanza - we had a "Pastor's Open House" at our new condo last year. It's a good thing hubby is a good Pastor's wife because I was useless.
I was so wiped out after the worship that day (children's pageant - SO cute but oh, SO stressful - see Jenevieve's whine below re: Energizer bunny, only picture it with 20 of them dressed like angels and such) - anywho - I was just hanging around the house waiting for everyone to leave.
I suck at hostessing. Anything.
Now you're all glad you're not coming to my place for Christmas dinner, right? :)
Yay Mini-Baboo!!!!!
Congrats on the Board Jenevieve - 7 hours!!! eeek!!! No wonder you have a headcold - those 7 hours could knock out the immune system of a horse!
yay, mini-baboo, and esperanza too!
yay, jenevieve! except for the head cold/earache.
daughter and i just spent over an hour IM'ing, beginning before 5:00 a.m. her time. she is all freaked out about sleep problems, existential problems, has her period, is deep in the end of semester work, etc. she felt better by the end.
Way to go kathy a. Taking Wednesday whining to a whole new level! I'm glad to hear that your daughter felt better after the heart-to-heart IMing.
Sending virtual chicken soup to all ailing pixies.
We've got a storm front coming in that dumped snow (SNOW, y'all!) on El Paso, Texas, and I *desperately* want them to cancel school. I mean, I just had FIVE days off, and already I'm wishing a tornado and flood would necessitate a day off of school?!? Where are my priorities? Sleeping late in bed, that's where.
I applaud your priorities, KLee. I guess all the snow we should be getting up north is down by you.
oooh, snow day -- i could live with that, klee!
so, i have to get a billing sent in the morning. and i have to go someplace on an emergency at o'dark-thirty. the Project of Doom spent 12 hours on my screen today, and so i do not mind bidding it goodbye for now, but my computer is in the process of crashing, one program at a time, so i have to reboot just to do the billing, which is why i still hate my computer.
on the antiwhine side, my daughter's friend's facebook page has a video showing daughter at her swing dance club! it makes me laugh that she went all the way to japan before she decided to join a swing dance club. badminton club, too. wtf? [yes, she is also doing ikebana and other culturally appropriate things.] the existential angst seems to have subsided, also.
Ugh - computer issues are nasty, especially when one is in the middle of Projects of Doom.
Snow here today KLee- but we need at least a foot before they call a snow day, and even then it's questionable.
Whine: Had to bring my "fancy" winter boots out of the closet for a funeral I'm conducting today. Even after a good cleaning up of the bootage - they suck.
Anti-whine: I definitely need to buy new boots.
Sort of Whine: I know people have no control over these things. I know it's my job and one of the most important things I do. I have a funeral service for a founding matriarch of our church today. I will have at least three more services like today's before Christmas. Something about this time of year....folks hang on until the family arrives, and that's good. Then I get to work.
Advent funerals just make me sad.
Anti-whine: They also inspire me to do a really good funeral service for the surviving family, so that Christmas doesn't remind them of something awful (as in, too bad the minister screwed up).
Gotta to. Time for service.
My sympathies to all the pixies afflicted with various forms of sickness this week.(Or again this week. Ugh...)
Sue: I'm sure it is appreciated by the families; my grandfather died in mid-December and the minister's service was so bad I wondered if I was at the right funeral at one point. Gorgeous footwear is a must for these occasions.
Most typical seasonal whines: writing, marking, shopping, baking, packing, get-togethering.
Anti-whine: I only have typical whines this week, and without the seasonal illness whine. And (thanks to Madeleine for the reminder!) a snow-free November.
And a very happy 31 weeks to Esperanza!
kathy a., I hope your emergency is being well dealt with and your computer is behaving.
Sue, I'm sure you'll give a lovely service today. Then head for the mall to grab some holiday bargains on boots!
Days, thank you for bringing the traditional seasonal whines.
Whine/Anti-whine: the school bus was "only" 15 minutes late today. But it was yet another driver, presumably another sub. So this could go on for a while.
AW: I ate breakfast and drank my tea before heading out, as planned, so I was considerably less cranky. Also, another mom called the bus company while we waited and railed on and on about "unacceptable" blah blah blah, which brings out the nice in me. I'd much rather play good cop. I called after the morning rush was over and gently inquired as to what was up, and gave them my cell number, since I didn't get much use out of the message they left for me at home yesterday morning while I was standing at the bus stop.
Well, I *sort of* got my wish, but true to my school district's screw-up-edness, they didn't cancel school until noon. I finally got to leave at 1:40, when my kids' bus FINALLY arrived.
We've been told to be on the lookout for a possible cancellation tomorrow as well -- possible *woot*! I bet that if they DO cancel school, we end up not getting paid for it, and they make it another "furlough" day.
Thanks Days. Sorry about your grandfather's funeral. There's no excuse for that. The way I see it, I have ONE chance to do right by the deceased person and honour that life. I put a lot of work into funerals because I know how important they are. The ones that happen around the holidays are so tough for the family.
And yes - excellent footwear definitely helps. I wore my good black pumps for the service but had to change into my old boots for the cemetery - definitely time to replace these oldies.
days, hope there are some anti-whines tucked in with the seasonal!
madeleine -- well, progress on the errant school bus front, i guess. ;)
klee -- ugh! well, a partial day and hope for another off are something...
sue -- i personally think that solid and decent enough shoes/boots that have lost the luster but still work are totally appropriate to the cemetary. especially in fall/winter. [if you saw my shoes, you'd know you should never take my shoe advice, however.]
emergency handled. computer is working. i am so up a creek, because the last thing i want to do the rest of the day is the Project of Doom, but there it is.
Boots
Whine 1: Had to get up at 5 am to catch 6.30 train for 9 am presentation.
Whine 2: At 5.35, got flat tire on major highway.
Antiwhine 1: Got car to school parking lot, stopped cab that miraculously appeared, made my train. Sweet husband changed tire to spare for me while I was away.
Whine 3: Lots of rain, miserable traffic while driving to retrieve car.
Whine 4: Discovered leak in living room ceiling.
Antiwhine 2: Thai food delivered, hot toddies.
Elizabeth, if my count is accurate, your whines outnumber your antiwhines. That is not good.
My whine today? Just plain tired. I didn't sleep well last night (AW: thought of Christmas present ideas). Then I didn't get a nap today...phone kept ringing, repairmen came, etc. So tonight my heart wants to go in there and sew up some Christmas gifts. The rest of me just wants to go to bed. The rest of me will win.
AW: another fibronectin test negative, so I'm good for another 14 days. Yippee Mini Baboo!
Elizabeth, what a crappy way to start the day. So sorry.
Esperanza, yahoo for Mini Baboo and another healthy 14 days of gestation. I hope you are sound asleep by now.
Hugs to kathy a. as you continue to plod through the Project of Doom.
Woke up at 0600 to the melifluous sounds of 9 Federal Marshals knocking on the door of the house right next to us, shouting "Hands up! Police!"
Liz wins, hands down.
omg, liz.
Do you know what happened?
Nope. As far as I knew, there were two very nice young women living there with a dog.
I have a clock in my bathroom that runs on a battery. The clock quit keeping time, so I brought it to the kitchen to change the battery, where it miraculously started running again. Cool, I thought, and I returned it to the bathroom. It quit again. I brought it to the kitchen, and it started again, so I took it back to the bathroom again.
Naturally, it is no longer running.
"Liz wins, hands down."
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Amy - good one!! Bwhaahaaaa!
Liz - you SO win this week. Nothing that interesting ever happens around here.
Oh, and nice boots!!!
Amy, I could propose all sorts of scientific explanations, but I prefer to believe that your clock yearns to live in the kitchen with every tick-tock of its little heart.
Madeleine, I couldn't agree more.
So. I'm trying to wrangle the kids into their Christmas sweaters so we can go for pictures. (Normally I tote the clothes and change them there, but really - why would I keep with a tradition that works?) Tater is hungry, but his hair is wet, so I didn't want to nurse him and mess up his hair, so I made him a sippy cup with formula. He chugged it and proceeded to barf everywhere.
Antiwhine: It all landed on me, and not his sweater. Tada! Mommies are made of magic!
Our S@turn won't start unless it feels like it. Really, the key just simply won't turn in the ignition. A guy at work said he solved the same problem by switching to his spare set of keys. Brilliant, right? Except I can't find our spare keys anywhere and I was up for hours last night trying to figure it out.
JenR, you've almost certainly tried this already but, just in case, our key sometimes won't turn if the wheel is turned too far to one side. Yanking on the wheel while turning the key frees it up. I'm hoping your problem is that simple though I doubt it.
JenR, if your keys are related to Amy's clock, maybe you should just take the car to the kitchen and they will work.
What?
I clearly didn't get enough sleep last night after all.
nominate amy [clock] and jenr [car/keys] for old skool!
also, amy's tater brings the bodily fluids. only a mama could love that they landed on her and not the sweater.
esperanza for mullet, for her suggestion that jenr take the car in the kitchen to see if that will work.
captain's log, day 498632 of the Project of Doom: up at 4 a.m. project has achieved respectable length and organization, and is now mostly prose instead of bullet points. Wonderful Colleague has erected shields to protect against death rays. destination in sight.
Awards in progress. Feel free to keep whining with lower chance of prizes.
i just want to thank everyone for putting up with repeated whines about the project of doom. as Wonderful Colleague pointed out, you can keep going, or you can blow up on someone. you all [and he, who doesn't know he is a pixie] have really helped me keep going.
Kathy a -- sorry for the Doom! project. I've had something like that before, and it's seriously no fun at all. you have my sympathies, and a virtual bottle of whatever liquid courage you need to get you through it.
Esperanza -- Congrats on the stick-to-it-ivness of the Mini Baboo! Just think -- this will all be fodder for sibling fighting one day! As in, "Mom and Dad love me more!" "Nuh-uh! They love me the most because I stayed in Mom the longest!" (Or is that just MY family dysfunction rearing its head again?!?)
Amy, I think your clock is madly in love with the toaster. It's making up excuses to go to the kitchen. Sorry about the barf, but hope the pictures come out okay!
JenR -- you might want to see if graphite works in your car ignition. It seems totally odd that a powdery substance would lubricate the inner workings of locks and such, but that's always worked when I had a persnickety lock. I pray that it's nothing more than just a simple lube job, and not anything more serious.
I agree that Liz wins something colossal with the Federal Marshal whine. Cops trump pretty much everything else.
As for me -- no such luck on the extra school day off, but I did hear today that there's a Board of Ed meeting on our last day before Winter Break to decide whether we will get more furlough days tacked onto our calendar or not. So, there may JUST be more days off in my future, just not ones that I want. It would be SO like our board to decide that right before the holidays, and give us all bad news.
My whine is--I haven't been able to whine. Earlier today I tried to post, but it wouldn't show up.
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