I've been on the road for two weeks for work, and it's great to be home. Of course I am a pixie, so there are some little Ws to go along with my great big AWs.
AW: dogs are happy to see me!
W: this happiness requires the puppy to try and climb me and the others to stick very, very close. Like, turn around and step on two dogs close. Hopefully the novelty wears off soon.
AW: I have all day today to move back in to my life. Laundry is done; I made it to the grocery store; and I've got soup simmering in the crockpot.
W: back to work tomorrow.
What is going on in your worlds, Pixies?
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W: I couldn't see Redzils when she was in my neck of the woods. Darn work.
AW: but here she is! thanks, redzils!
W/AW/W/W: oy, things got complicated and i ended up canceling a work trip. after considerable angst. there is still very darned much work left.
AW: yay, i get to read and comment on a mystery book manuscript! [shhhh!]
cat tales: one got stuck in a hard-to-paw-open closet. his cohorts tried to dig him out. oh, well, that carpet didn't look so good anyway.
Yay redzils!!! Liz, too bad about the missed meet-up. There will be other chances for sure.
kathy a - sorry to hear about work and travel complications. And of course, the cat/carpet dilemma. Been there. Not pleasant.
AW: After a GREAT fun service today, I'm officially on VACATION until Feb 8th.
W: I started sneezing on the way home in the car. My head feels like it's full of cotton balls. Yes, I'm on vacation, going to a spa retreat for three glorious days alone - with a head cold. Oh ick.
AW: Cold fx and neocitran. I'm counting on feeling perfectly fine by morning. Either way. Seriously - three days alone at a spa - who cares if it involves kleenex, right?
WooHoo!!!!!!
Have a GREAT week pixies. I'll be thinking of you. May your whines be few and your anti-whines be many. Catcha next week.
The weather!
I know whining about the weather is pointless, but that's never stopped me!
My kids have not had an uninterrupted week of school in what seems like forever. And now a new 2-3(?!?!) day storm is forecast. This could be rain/snow/ice which is an added pleasure.
oh, emily!
consumer report: do not under any circumstances use pr1c@l1n@ or an "airp0rt h0tel guide" service [same outfit, but they don't tell you!] to book a hotel room. i was unable to cancel my room when i had to cancel my trip -- the hotel is not allowed to cancel, and the website is impenetrable. after wading through various layers of "customer service," i learn that there will be no refund. grrr. may as well have set a small stack of twenties on fire.
Grrr for sure, kathy a. I've had the same experience, but it was just a one-night stay, so not so much $$$.
Sue, get rid of that cold. Colds are not welcome on vacations.
Mini is not nursing so much anymore now that she eats more real food than her sister. (I think that's mostly an antiwhine). The whine is that now *I* can't eat anything and everything I want to without consequence.
W/AW: parental and grandparental visitors just left. Nice to have them here, nice to have them go.
The "Beverage" machine in our office breakroom is straight out of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
It makes a beverage almost, but not quite, entirely unlike coffee.
To add insult to injury, the only "milk" we have in the breakroom is powdered non-dairy creamer.
To add further insult, the powdered non-dairy creamer is kept in THE OTHER BREAKROOM, not the one with the offensive beverage machine.
And the erzatz coffee is only barely palatable if drunk scaldingly hot. A temperature at which it is not served.
Which explains why I walked half-a-mile (roundtrip) today to get a cup of mocha from the over-whelmingly over-priced coffee shop near the cafeteria.
liz--clearly it's a conspiracy on the part of the OP coffee shop. At least you got a mocha!
W: Another 16 inches or more of snow predicted here over the next couple days.
arg
W; Neighbor Guy pulled something in his shoulder and something in his back with all the shoveling onto stacks of snow 5ft high. And has a cold coming on. And I have a bad back, plus recurrent vertigo etc.
AW: So, in light of all that, plus--in his words--"You know, we're getting older.....", we broke down and got a snow blower.
What had seemed like a luxury and a carbon-footprint expanding bad idea has now become something that I am very grateful for, just so we can get out of our driveway.
Oh, pixies, I am weary of snow.
Just offer a prayer, please, for intact roofs and nearby trees if you feel so moved.
--Neighbor Lady
ps. whine of having had a mediocre meal out at a french restaurant last night, and a subsequent tummy ache all day today.
pps also, a whine about a certain student I teach who usually misses school whenever there is a test or quiz, and yet decided to come today when was actually, you know, sick...
Liz--I definitely think that walk counts as exercise for the day! Caffeine and exercise at once! Cool!
Hugs to Sue for her cold---hope you have a great spa respite!
Kathy a thanks for the heads up about the hotel bookings! Good to know!
Hi Redzils!
--Neighbor Lady
sue! have a great spa trip! send a postcard!
liz -- what IS it with bad office coffee? liz, it sounds like your breakroom has one of those prison-visiting-room-style vending machines, but without the fake-cream condiment option. what's so hard about supplying quality coffee, and some community milk in the fridge?
oh, neighbor lady! and emily, and everyone else afflicted with snow snow snow this winter. yahoo for the snowblower! cludsticks to the idiot student who can't manage quizzes, but is ever so glad to share the germies.
the day started with bad fog, and two work emails of substance plus one of family angst before i even woke up. but the sunshine has broken through, and i had the joy of connecting someone in need with someone who has answers. yay!
With two hand whisks, and any number of spoons in the house, my husband chose to mix something by hand with one of the electric mixer whisks.
Which is now currently being washed in the dishwasher. I am guessing that that is where it is, because I have in my hand one. Just one.
The mixer needs two.
Being the excellent chef I am, I DID check the utensil drawer to make sure the electric mixer whisks were in there. Seeing one, I was satisfied. Because WHO THE HELL USES JUST ONE? No-one.
Except, of course, my husband.
Who rolled his eyes at me when I asked him please not to do that again.
oh, i'd totally be stopping the dishwasher right now, liz.
I used one of the regular whisks, which was fine for the cake batter. He is darn lucky I wasn't making the frosting at that moment.
he is lucky, yes.
did i whine yet about our health insurance changing? big whine. but i finally negotiated through the new system, i think, and get to see a doctor tomorrow! my primary complaint being the still-swollen toe from that pre-christmas accident with a can. but i also need meds refilled, and have some other small kvetches of a medical nature. overall, i'm rating this an AW, so far.
Snow-megedden! The storm is finally hitting; the hype hit about 6 hours ago. School has already been called. That's an AW, I hope.
Liz - the mixer beater as whisk, wow. I would think it would be too heavy to even be that useful.
Redzils - glad you're home.
KathyA - new insurance is so maddening. Hope there are some upsides when you get used to it.
W: I am being a huge procrastinator on a freelance project. And delaying is dumb. Why can't I make myself start?
W: AS much as a day watching the snow out the window and TV on the boob tube appeals, I doubt it will be TV I want to watch.
Sarah, I rarely find TV I want to watch any more.
W: c-c-c-cold here. At least to us. And our pipes, and our plants. (I did not plant the plants in our yard, and I get resentful having to take care of them. They are covered in sheets, which seems to be The Thing to Do around here, though I can't expect it will help them much).
AW: the Baboos have (admittedly) adorable winter hats that they are finally getting to wear. Strangers and friends alike are admiring them.
The drifts have reached new heights... I'm guessing 4-5 feet in spots around the house and 5-6 smack in the middle of our driveway. AW: Condo. Snow removal is not my problem.... at least not until we sell & move.
W: We are all home, but my husband still has to work b/c his company never closes. Toddlers don't understand why daddy is home but won't/can't play. It's not fair.
Am pretty sure I have a fever.
Am wrapped up in my coat and scarf, at work, still shivering, and everyone else is complaining it's too warm.
And I'm double-booked on work tasks. And took yesterday off due to the ice.
I do NOT have time to be sick today.
I could pencil it in for the 27th.
Hugs to Liz! Take care of yourself and get lots of rest (and maybe some matzah ball soup!)!!
Thinking healthy thoughts your way.
--Neighbor Lady
Oh Liz, that sounds bad. Maybe Dayquil?
We have lovely drifts of snow, but it is a little too cold for my taste to play outside.
W: tried to be smart and wear snow shoes when I took the kids out earlier. Sunk like a pebble in a pond.
hugs to all the freeeeeezing pixies!
liz, hope you are feeling better!
so, kaiser wasn't bad once i figured out how to pick a doctor and make an appointment. the toe was x-rayed, no waiting. Rx refill ordered. appointments lined up for gyn and the mam. blood work on a walk-in basis.
Oh, feel better soon, Liz.
Yay for insurance conquering, kathy a.
W: I do not know how you cold-climate pixies with young children do it. You bundle them up every time you go outside? We are seriously limited in the warm clothes department, so the Baboos had two shirts each today, plus coats, plus hats, plus gloves (promptly removed by both). It took 15 minutes just to get us all dressed to go somewhere in the car. Hats off to you who do this more than 3 days a year.
W/AW: We have a 70% chance of snow Thursday night/Friday morning. My inner child is dancing up and down with glee--snow! But my outer mama is just tired of the cold weather and pretty suspicious that the Baboos are not going to be very thrilled about it.
Oh Esperanza - keeping gloves on the little ones is so frustrating. I don't fully bundle every time - coats and hats are usually my goal. But if they are going to be outside for more then 10 minutes, then, we do it all. Makes me wish I lived somewhere warm. The novelty of snow would be much better.
KathyA - good job mastering the bureacrazy. That's a typo, but I'm leaving it.
sarah for the addition to the lexicon prize!
i'd be beside myself with glee if there was actually snow here. heck, my kids got excited a couple times when it hailed hard enough that it almost looked like snow. but bundling babes through real snow? oy -- much love to the snowbound pixies.
We're in Michigan. Yeah, we stood at the bus stop this morning. Every time the tot goes out, she wears: snow pants, scarf, coat, hat, mittens, snow boots. And she still complains that she is cold. What is more irritating is that she is not usually willing to help put all this gear on or take it off without b!tching. But really, who can blame her? I hated snow pants as a kid, too, but I hated being cold more, by only a slight margin.
Yesterday, the Groundhog's Day Blizzard 2011 both delighted and disappointed. We were promised 12-15 inches. We got probably just shy of 9, so the storm did not make the record books, except perhaps for all the hype. That might have been record hype. So, we were snowed in, but today the world is traversable. As such, the kids had school and we stood at the bus stop in -4*(F) windchill.
To answer the unasked question, no, I do not take Tater out in it if I can help it. Usually, he is still asleep in his crib when I take the tot to the bus stop. Today he was awake, but I just lock him in his high chair with Dinosaur Train (God Bless You, PBS Kids). The stop is just across the street. If I had to bundle him and take him out with us too, I would just drive the tot to school. I'm not standing out there with a toddler in this nonsense.
But playing in it is more fun than standing at the bus stop, right? Sort of. I did take them out to play yesterday for about an hour. The temps were around 20*(F), but the snow was blowing. (Husband worked from home and had a phone meeting, so I had to take them out. Boo.) Tater has a one-piece snowsuit, and he's good at leaving his mittens on. (He's 2.5 years old.) I, however, do not own boots, so I was out there in blue jeans and my running shoes. I was cold but I lived.
My formula for deciding if it is worth it to bundle them and take them out for recreational purposes is this: It takes about ten minutes to dress a child (assuming diaper and/or pottying is already complete). I am willing to dress them *if* we get 15-20 minutes of fun outside for every 10 I spend dressing child(ren). Yesterday, it worked out, thank heavens.
Pixies--we are having one of those kid crazy nights (one kid needs to be in one direction at one time and the other is opposite, at a slightly different time). If you have nights like this--what do you do for dinner? I'm running out of ideas for quick things--we usually do pasta or cold cuts, but I'm bored of these. Leftovers work well, but we're out of them:-).
Any suggestions?
emily -- this will tell you just how bad a parent i was, but those super-crazy nights, we went for fast food. or something frozen that could just be heated and eaten. or rotisserie chicken from the supermarket deli.
fireplace fireplace fireplace. one of my dearest work friends -- oh, the wonderful projects we have done over the years -- just told me that this lung problem she has been struggling with has a 3-8 year prognosis. she is brilliant and generous, involved with a million good things. and she is approaching this with her usual good sense and humor, stepping down from some stressful things, hoping to keep working since she has support there, etc.
(((kathy a)))
Emily. I second the fast food or grocery store chicken. Some nights prepping a dinner is just too much. We have also done popcorn, apples, & cheese... it's filling, not too unhealthy, and fast to put together.
I third the fast food. In fact, that's what I'm feeding the boy tonight since his dad will be at a meeting and I have a fever of unspecified origin.
(((Kathy A.)))
Hugs to Kathy A. and liz!
--Neighbor Lady
ps. I like Amy's frozen burritos for fast stuff. They make lots of different kinds--from bean and cheese to things like Indian Samosa or Indian Spinach (like palak paneer in a burrito wrapper). Also teriyaki. Sorta healthy, super easy (3 min in microwave)
i'm also a fan of frozen veggies -- just the plain kind. even if the rest of a hurried meal is on the nutritionally questionable side, you can nuke up a little broc or corn and feel kinda virtuous.
like emily's well-rounded picnic dinner! and NL's burritos [though my picky eater would not touch a burrito with a stick].
whine:
my arms ache ALREADy and I *just* came in from using a roof rake on my house to try and get some of the unbelievable amounts of snow off it. I am going to be SO sore tomorrow! We have huge ice dams, and are expecting more wet snow on Saturday. And, we already have a leak in a not-so important roof (covers the backyard steps going down into our basement) but it still stinks mightily to hear that awful drip drip.
I keep saying to myself that I am so grateful to have a house to be in, but still the whiny part of me wants to whine about all the stuff that seems to be falling apart. Oh yeah--and I have a leak under my sink too (unrelated).
Come on spring--but slowly, so my basement doesn't flood.
WahhhhhH! Home ownership: a privilege, and a pain.
--Neighbor Lady
antiwhine: while I was outside getting my workout for the month, my husband was inside making dinner even though he has a horrible cold. And, he is making kale. I love kale.
--Neighbor Lady
p.s. Any good pixie thoughts for the integrity of my roof, and also anti-leak thoughts very much appreciated! I do actually believe in pixie power!
Thinking anti-leak thoughts for NL. Crossing my fingers.
KathyA - how incredible sad for your friend.
Emily - I'd totally do fast food when we are crazy busy, but if I wanted to work harder/ do better, I'd either get the slow cooker going in the morning. Something likes BBQ chicken to pulled pork that can be sandwiches whenever. Or soup.
Whine of curiosity - the next wave of pregnant friends has begun. JenR, you are not alone :) And while we are irreversibly done, I am feeling a pang of oh, baby! Very curious.
Women's fancy pants have too many fasteners. Last night, I nearly peed my pants because my black dress pants have four (4!) fasteners to open*, and when you are standing in the bathroom doing the pee-pee dance, your ability to focus and get those fasteners open quickly? Not so much.
*To open my dress pants, I must unbutton a button, unclip a clip, unzip a zipper, and unbutton another button (on the inside).
amy for mullet!
pixies -- the blessed day has come at last! the doc declares me officially menopausal!! cupcakes for all!
WOOT!! Hooray for the Menopause Fairy!
Congrats Kathy!
And Amy - I know hat you mean! Now that i wear work pants and not jeans all the time, what's up with that?
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