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Monday, February 15, 2010

My boy beats my butt at Wii

There may be more snow coming

I haven't had enough coffee today

My favorite living writers don't write fast enough and my favorite dead writers aren't writing anymore.

What's on your mind?

57 comments:

kathy a. said...

yay to liz for hosting! yeah, what IS it with those favorite writers not cranking them out as soon as i want another? ;)

AW: just back from a work conference, and it was great, and i saw tons of people and caught up, and now i'm all fired up, AND i had dinner with my fabulous aunt!

W: but i'm kind of on the exhausted side due to long days and conference overload. and sadly aware of just how far behind i am on some projects.

AW: cats and beloved missed me.
W: i have been informed by both that we are dangerously low on cat food.
Q: does this mean they think i am ruler of the domestic universe, a godess with magical powers? or that "supply cat food" is the most important part of my job description?

Sarah at ratatat said...

Oh Liz, more snow? Many sympathies.

KathyA - Cat food provider...at least they miss you :)

Whine: I missed whining and still feel bereft because my laptop died last Monday. It is a very first world problem to have, especially as we have another computer in the house. But darn it all, I am continually reminded of something I can;'t find do or create because I am without it.

A/W: from the last hard drive disaster we had, I have a pretty good back-up. Except for my bills file. Better to have all the photos of the darling baby, but it has caused many woes.

Whine: I goofed up a bill and underpaid them $2.33, and now have a $40 late payment fee. Fireplace!

Anti-whine: our overly complicated laptop swap between my husband and I will commence this week.

Missed you pixies. Sorry so many of you are snowed in.

kathy a. said...

sarah, call those people [and go upstream] to get that late charge taken off. that's ridiculous. it's not like you were stiffing them. sorry about the computer, too.

esperanza said...

4:30 this afternoon: esperanza is rocking the mother-of-two catbox.

4:35 this afternoon: not so much.

And kathy a--are you the only one with currency available to purchase said cat food? Perhaps the cat food purveyor requires photo id?

Sue said...

Sarah - I'm with kathy - call and get that charge removed.

esperanza - you *always* rock our cat box.

Liz- I totally hear you about the whole author thing. Even worse is when you think you like an author because their first novel is excellent and then the next one sucketh. Wah.

Whine: sad kitteh. Our little girl kitteh is missing her buddy Ouzo. She wanders around looking at the place where his food dish was, where his litter box was (he had his own - she does not share facilities - that would be beneath her particular station in life) and then comes and howls at us for very long periods of time.

At four in the morning.

Poor baby. Poor us. No sleepage.

Anti-whine: I'm off tomorrow.

Whine: Once I'm back on Wednesday it's an insane week including....wait for it....you knew it was coming, right? A Fireplacing Breakfast Meeting.

I have developed a deep hatred of eggs.

Jenevieve said...

Sue, I feel an emergency trip to Scotland coming up that will unfortunately cancel all upcoming breakfast meetings. :) More seriously, I'm sorry your wee girl kitteh is missing her friend. Email me if you ever want some tips for dealing with that, though nothing heals like time.

Esperanza, I feel your pain. H is swinging violently between cherubic delight and demon-spawn. Oy vey.

W: Back out again, head cold, H sick and coughing, sore throats all around.

AW: Took the day odd rotations and have been reading stories and playing with PlayDoh with H, and knitting.

AW: Hosea's determined that he loves chamomile and spiced apple tea, so he can actually drink something soothing.

Trivial whine: After 10 zillion rows of knitting in the round, working stockinette in the flat is so wonky and awkward. Lame.

Madeleine said...

Jenevieve, sorry to hear you are all sick! Love your knitting whine. (Did you know that we have a pixie stitch and whine group on Ravelry? Not to discourage knitting whines here, not at all.)

Jenevieve said...

YES!!!! Though I think I'll have to get my own ravelry account for that, instead of just using Matt's like I always do...

Sue said...

Scotland instead of breakfast in the middle of the fireplacing night? I'm in. Sounds SOOOOO good........but, alas...

Little girl kitty is being showered with treats and company (she's very social and entertained my sisters last night) and seems a bit better every day. Eventually we will have to think about another friend for her, but it's way too soon right now.

Whine/Anti-whine: One hour massage yesterday morning with the Sports Medicine massage therapist. This is no gentle therapeutic massage. It's more like being stretched on a rack for an hour. Today I hurt a bit, but I guess it's a No Pain, No Gain sort of thing.

At least that's what she told me...we'll see. There was a lot of crunching going on in those shoulders. She did say it was better than the last time, so perhaps some progress?

Days said...

I've been up since 2 am and I am perfectly willing to take on late-payment fee assessors, dead laptops, cat food procuring and breakfast meeting planners if somebody else could handle dinner and bedtime tonight.

kathy a. said...

award to days, no question. she had me at "up since 2 a.m." sending virtual take-out for dinner and videos for chilling out.

Madeleine said...

Phone meeting that should have ended 40 minutes ago. Been going 2 hours and 40 minutes. Not sure anything is being achieved. Stop talking and give out assignments or this project will never get off the ground.

Liz Miller said...

Ate most of a box of Samoas today.

Delicious, no doubt.

Feeling a bit sick, though.

And bloated, but that's the CAUSE of eating the Samoas, not the symptom.

And now I've got "Sweet Transvestite" stuck in my head.

kathy a. said...

i think liz ought to take over madeleine's meeting. cookies, yes! 2 hour plus meetings, NO!

Sue said...

madeleine - two hour, 40 minute phone meeting? Are you sure you don't work for the/a church? We do those on a most unfortunately regular basis. My deepest sympathies. I usually get through those phone meetings by putting the phone on speaker and lifting weights or doing crunchies. That way, when the meeting is over - at least SOMETHING has been accomplished. (I keep a set of 5 lb dumbells in my office for just such occasions).

esperanza said...

Sue, really? You don't play solitaire or check your email and facebook? I have a very, very difficult time paying attention on conference calls, much less one that lasts 2 hours and 40 minutes, Madeleine. That is heinous. I also detest the "this is Esperanza" that you have to say so people know who's talking. Unless you're the only woman on the call, which makes that one little thing easier.

Crap, can you tell I ramble when I'm tired? Mr E is finally home and not working tonight, so he's snuggling the cranky Mini Baboo. Sweet Baboo (who was very sweet yesterday and not sweet at all today, sigh) is sleeping peacefully. And I am on my way...at least till MB gets hungry again.

amy said...

GO TO BED, ESPERANZA! HURRY! *HURRY*!

Madeleine said...

Cookies! That's what I need for these meetings. You will note that I was here while it was still going. I always think I should fold laundry during these things but then I never remember. We're doing it again on Friday afternoon. Sigh.

AW: On Sunday afternoon, while SG and I were visiting friends, My Love did two loads of laundry. Thank you, Love.

W: He didn't sort it the way I would have . . .

AW: but the total number of loads needed was the same, and there wasn't anything likely to run, so OK. I got over it. I did two, no, three more loads on Monday. All done! All good!

W: Until tonight, when I got to folding one of "his" baskets, and realized I had two pairs of wool socks in the hamper. Ooops. Not sure if they will fit ever again. (They aren't handknit or anything, but they sure do come in handy on the cold days, if they aren't so tight they cut off my circulation.)

Sue said...

Time I have been in the office today = 1.5 hours.

Time I have been bored into zombie-like lack of productivity of any sort = 1.5 hours.

When's lunch?

kathy a. said...

big fat antiwhine: a good friend from college recently had surgery for intestinal cancer, but she just got the news that it hasn't spread! yay!!!! i think this means no chemo, also yay!


feline whine: once again, the winner is: pook. the duke of earl had massive infections as a rescued kitten; he lost one eye, is blind in the other, and from time to time his internals get out of whack. meds don't help, and i'm not going to subject this sweet frail cat to major interventions, so we are back to sequestering him and trying a restricted diet while things calm down. he is a kibble-fiend, so the baby food diet is not a happy development.

earl is much beloved by the junior cats, who are protesting the incarceration. fortunately, earl is very cheerful and always forgives me.

emily said...

I use a Rx cream on my feet (extremely dry/crack, esp. in winter) which comes in a long thin tube, with a long thin nozzle. (hard to get cream out) I guess I squeezed too hard because it came shooting out--the back side! All over me.

(antiwhine) It landed on my (machine washable) pants and not the too big to launder spread.


Sarah--I did the same thing once, only I underpaid by 10 cents! I had even written the correct number in the box, but when I wrote the words I wrote and 00/100 instead of 10/100. I can't believe they even noticed (and, in the past, when I've made such a doofusy error, the creditor just deposited the check for the correct amount). I was successful in getting the late charges removed, although I had be, um, firm:-). I got a lecture from the customer service person too--"if you hadn't made a mistake, you wouldn't have been charged, would you?". (When did customer service start channeling my mother?:-))

My volunteer travails continue apace. I have never had a problem saying "no" to people, only in this case, the other person doesn't hear it. I've had to resort to passive-aggressive behavior (just ignoring her) which totally goes against my personality (which is more agressive-agressive;-))

Sue said...

kathy - sorry about the pook. I have SO been there. Not nice at all. Snaps for the duke of earl though, for being so patient through it all.

Yay on the friend anti-whine!

emily - I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who does things like getting goop all over the place. As for the volunteer travails - I think the only answer is a well-placed clue-stick.

esperanza said...

snot from the Sweet Baboo's direction. Darn that church nursery. Of course, that might explain the not-so-sweet behavior yesterday...

Liz Miller said...

Anti-whine: My SIL is bringing home her baby boy today!!! They were cleared by the adoption authorities this morning, so she can remove him from the state where he was born to our state.

She's had custody of him since his birth, but this is bigbigbig!!!

Madeleine said...

Hooray for your nephew coming home! Does he like his sweater?

Madeleine said...

esperanza, my neighbor said to me, on the topic of gardening failure, "It's always the weather, never the gardener." I suggest you adopt a modified version of that for parenting a cranky child: "It's always the virus, never the parenting." Substitute teething, lack of sleep, bacterial infection as needed. Though hopefully that last one won't be needed

Liz Miller said...

Haven't given the sweater to him yet.

Jenevieve said...

kathy, have you tried the commercial (prescription) restricted kibbles, like Royal Canin Sensitivity (or RC Intestinal or Hypoallergenic), or Hills d/d, i/d, or z/d? I know the nomenclature is ridiculous, but they all come in kibble form...

JenR said...

My baby boy is turning 2 and I am not ready for him to not be a baby anymore.

A. Nonnie Moose said...

Hugs to all the Pixies!

Nobody needs to hear about familial angst any more, but -- we were getting close to resolving all the stuff again. And the loose-cannon sib just shot off a "fireplace you!" email to the step-sib jerk, copied to all, which is almost certainly going to give us weeks more angst. Months. Years. Who knows, but this was Not A Smart Move. Can we please cluestick this sib, and go back and do it again?

Sue said...

Yay Auntie Liz!!!!!

Sorry about teh snottage esperanza.

JenR - I hear ya. Whenever my boys hit those "milestone" birthdays or occasions (like starting kindergarten) - I would bring out the baby pics and have a good mommy cry. It didn't stop them from growing up too fast, but I always felt better after.

A. Nonnie Moose: Let the multiple clue-sticking begin. We pixies are always up for a good clue-sticking (Why am I suddenly picturing all of the Pixies singing and snapping fingers while wielding clue-sticks? I know - PIXIE GANG CLUE STICKING - THE MUSICAL!!!!!)

redzils said...

Oh, Pixies, I'b sick. It feels like a sinus infection and I am flying to the State Capitol You Cannot Drive To tonight, to give a presentation tomorrow. This is my first business trip in this job, and ... I'b sick.

Whine. Whine. Whine.

[and sympathy - but no hugs (too possible they are contagious)- to everyone].

kathy a. said...

mazel tov to liz's new nephew!

tissues to the sweet baboo! and redzils!

hugs to jenr -- he'll always be your baby, even as he gets bigger.

A. Nonny Moose said...

I'm all on board with CLUESTICKING, THE MUSICAL! My list has expanded, due to the anticipated outbursts in response to the stupid email. It's up in the air on whether the "fireplace you" sib will follow up with a more detailed note -- we're approaching midnight here, the prime time for nastygrams -- if I was a betting person, I'd put money on that. ///headbang///

amy said...

I bought four boxes of GS cookies from a stand at the grocery store because we don't get kids at our door, selling GS cookies. :( But! Thank goodness for the store stand, right?

Except I bought two boxes of our favorite flavor, and I got to eat a grand total of 5 cookies from those two boxes before my husband and daughter finished them all off.

At least there's the half a box of my favorite hidden in the cupboard...

Sue said...

Oh rebzils *sniff* sorry about the code in your node. Dat's rough. Feel better soon.

Whine of Thursday:

Three words - say 'em with me pixies - Breakfast Fireplacing Meeting.

*clunk* (head on desk)

esperanza said...

Really, Mini Baboo? You *need* to eat from midnight to 2:30 AM? Really?

Ugh. Let me at your breakfast meeters, Sue. I'll tell them a thing or two.

Emily said...

Last night, for reasons unimportant to this whine, I got home after the rest of my family had dinner. They had all gone to drop off a child at some activity so I was home alone. My DH had kindly put a plate of dinner (spaghetti and meat sauce) in the fridge for me. I covered it with the lid from a microwave dish (which is square, while the plate is round) and heated up my dinner. For some reason, when I pulled it out of the microwave, I held the round plate/square lid combo in such a way that it opened like a beak and my whole dinner slid off, down the side of the (of course) white cabinets and into a sad pile on the floor.

[Yes, I'm blaming geometry for my mishap.]

My family chose to return at just that moment, to see me, holding my now empty plate and staring sadly at the red smear down the side of the cabinet ending in a pile of meat sauce on the floor.

antiwhine--we had more leftovers, so I did get dinner (after I cleaned up the mess!)

kathy a. said...

oh, emily for mullet!

A. Nonny Moose said...

Can I call 'em, or what? I was copied on 4 emails between midnight and 6:30 a.m. These did not even include the extremely intemperate exchange between loose cannon sib and step-sib jerk in the middle of the night, which was reported in an early-morning phone call. It's a train wreck.

Madeleine said...

A. Nonny Moose, I'll bet you are not happy to be so prescient.

Emily, what a mess. I can exactly imagine your expression. Probably a lot like mine on the night I dropped a glass jar full of homemade salad dressing on the floor. Balsamic-scented oiliness with shards of glass! Fun! I haven't made a new batch of dressing since then, I'm too traumatized.

I'm so glad there were enough leftovers that you still got dinner. Bonus coincidence: Spaghetti and meat sauce at my house last night, too.

Liz Miller said...

Keep the whines coming. I'll get to the awards when I can.

kathy a. said...

amy's GS cookie whine is why i decided to just order a dozen boxes [including 6 of the fabulous thin mints, which i wish i had already, but the cookies aren't in yet locally]. the darned things disappear if you turn your back!

esperanza, hoping that mini-baboo becomes less nocturnal, soon.

Sue said...

Oh Emily - I always did hate geometry.

Oh, and we had spaghetti last night too. Coincidence, pixies? I think not. Pixie Mind-Meld?? - well, ya!!!!

Prescient is a good word.

I need a nap.

Days said...

Spaghetti in this household last night too. Unforunately accompanied by bark. Poor kiddo. I think we can officially call the weaning of the GERD meds a FAIL.

Silver lining: She eats her spaghetti unsauced.

Sue said...

Oh my. Days, I definitely think that any spaghetti fail is bad, sauced or otherwise.

kathy a. said...

days, how sad and ick. the poor kiddo.

my senior cat, who is a complete diva and believes that she owns my desk, just managed to knock a cup of beverage over whilst bathing. apparently there was some yelling during the cleanup operations, because all of the cats are hiding, even though only one of them is guilty.

Sarah at ratatat said...

Well, the pixie mind meld continues. We had spaghetti last night too. And Emily, the sauce all over the white cabinet, oh no. That's just sad.

Thank you for the suggestions to complain. I didn't even think of it.

JenR - hard to believe how fast they grow. Hugs.

Sue - hope the massage worked. And fireplacing breakfast meeting - that's just ridiculous.

A Nonny Moose - wow, the emails. Keep ducking.

Whine: I am losing my memory. I hate it. I purposely worked longer on Monday to leave early today to take my son to his 6 year old checkup. Did I remember that until my mom called at 2 to ask if I was going straight there. So no note to the school. "Emergency" pickup that annoyed the very nice school secretary. And then my older daughter wouldn't let the bus leave after school because no one told her that I had picked him up.

AW: She was very sweet to look for him.

Liz Miller said...

Keep whining. Prizes are delayed due to my ranting elsewhere.

Seems I concentrated on talking about the wrong fireplacing parts of his fireplacing thesis last Summer.

purple_kangaroo said...

Whine: Mira, my service dog in training, growled at one too many people. We have pulled her out of public access training, for good this time. I wrote a long blog post about it, but the gist of it is that she's still afraid of some strangers and situations and thinks she needs to be a guard dog.

Antiwhine: I'm feeling better than I have in years. And when I am doing poorly enough that I need the dog, I generally stay home anyway. So I really don't need her to be doing public access work. Yay, excitotoxin study! I don't feel like I'm missing out on my own life any more so much.

Now, if I could just start getting myself to bed at a reasonable time on a regular basis, that would be good.

Oh, also AJ has an appointment with a neurologist next month. And she's turning 9 next week. I find it flabbergasting. 9 is halfway to 18. How can she be halfway done with childhood already???

amy said...

Pixies! I forgot to tell you about the flowers! The ones that arrived dead last week? I prepped them and put them in a vase anyway. My daughter is 5 and wouldn't comply with any deceit, so I decided I had to be honest with my husband. Anyway, a day and a half later and they perked up. They are still in bloom now and pretty, too! Yay!

Madeleine said...

Hooray for medical science improving PK's health! I'm a big fan of research and I'm so glad it has made a significant difference for you. (Geek pun, sorry. But I do mean it.)

Hooray for flower CPR! And pretty pretty flowers in general!

Nomination for Passive/Aggressive Voice Award for kathy a. for "apparently there was some yelling during the cleanup operations"

That neverending meeting from the other day (and last week)? Part three today from 1 to 3 pm. If it runs over I will walk out the door at 3:20 as per usual. I'm thinking about knitting during it, but I'm on the tricky rows. If I was on the easy rows I'd be all in. Maybe I can do the tricky rows on my "lunch break."

Jenevieve said...

AHHHHH I JUST HAD AN INTERVIEW!!! My first!! With one day notice!!!!! AHHHH!!!

Sorry for the caps. Breathing now.

It went alright, miraculously. They'll get back to me in a week.

kathy a. said...

yay, jeni! fingers crossed!

aw, sarah's daughter is a keeper -- what a good big sis!

PK, so glad things are going well for you!

amy -- who knew that dead flowers could come back to life? yay!

boo on madeleine's neverending meeting. i strongly approve of stepping away at the earliest opportunity, especially once the scheduled time has run.

Madeleine said...

Yay for Jeni! I hope they are smart enough to know how great you are.

My neverending meeting actually ended 20 minutes early this time, and was much better focused, and next week there should start to be work getting done. (We're organizing to write a very large grant proposal involving very many organizations due very soon.)

Sue said...

Yay Jeni!!!!! All appendages crossed for a good outcome!!

Jenevieve said...

Thanks, all! It's in CA, which is approx. 8,000 miles from where I want to stay (Scotland), but it is a great clinic, so we'll see.