We've had a long dry spell, but it poured steadily all night, and rain is supposed to continue for 3 days. So, end of fire season in my area (we just passed the anniversary of the Oakland hills firestorm, so that's a relief), and the mountains are expecting a bundle of snow. Yay!
Demonstrating once again my personal talents, I left the sunroof slightly open on my car. Whoopsie. (A person gets spoiled when it does not rain for 6 months or so.)
Friday was a wonderful party for a fabulous colleague and mentor, who is retiring. Don't know how this is possible, but I've known her 23 years. When things got knotty and we were on big fat deadlines, she would wear red cowboy boots to work and announce, "I'm in a shit-kicking mood today." Brilliant and kind. I wish I could be her when I grow up, but will settle for all that she taught and shared with me. It was also really terrific to see a lot of friends and colleagues from over the years, catch up and trade stories and laugh.
Kitchen Anti-Whine: My beloved fixed the oven! It was just the mumble-mumble part. And he got to it promptly, all things considered: a few months of using a toaster oven was all well and good, but a turkey was not going to fit there, or in the crock-pot, either.
Sports report: I hear the Giants are hoping to win the playoff thingy tonight, but my prediction is a rainout. The A's (favorites amongst those with sports interests in my family) lost their playoff, so at least we can be sure there won't be another Bay Bridge World Series and Earthquake, like '89.
Pet news: Senior cat Persephone has decided that the change in the weather means she MUST sleep on top of me. Which is kind of sweet, except then the hot flashes demand that she NOT. She is coping with the disappointment by choosing the spot directly in front of my computer monitor for her daytime "just want to be close to you" spot. Junior cat Spot has been over-grooming again, so his hindquarters are somewhat bereft of fur; but he is still able to scare Junior dog Cora with the hiss and puffing out what fur he has left.
What's the news at your place?
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27 comments:
My walk this morning got rained upon, too. I probably would have kept going, were it not for the white tshirt.
AW: The Baboos, Mr E, and I are headed out for a family retreat today through Thursday.
W: There is no activity that makes me like my spouse less than packing for a car trip. Sigh. We will make it.
Yay, family outing! Esperanza -- the only solution is for an agreement that both parents get to bring what they deem necessary. (I'm assuming at least one parent will advocate for the most essential parts of a kid's necessaries, because otherwise nobody will be happy.) This makes for a loaded car, but it also makes for peacefulness in the realm. (Relatively speaking, since there is still a car ride involved.)
Hope the family retreat leads to some happy time, too, Esperanza. What is it about packing that brings out the worst?
Whine: I should sleep more. I am completely overtired. And yet I am awake.
Happy trails Esperanza and family! I find that I have to be really intentional about packing drama and anxiety. Once I'm in the car or at the airport I have to tell myself "whatever you forgot or decided not to pack is no longer an option for this trip."
Over. Done. It's one of those times when I could spend time fretting over something I can't change, so I really have to disconnect from it.
After that - WooHoo! Vacay!!!
Sarah - I hear you on the sleeping dilemma. Insomnia here. Gah!
kathy - yay for fixed ovens! I think there was a Cat Memo not long ago that requires cats to claim computer monitors and keyboards as their designated "spot." Persephone is doing her job for the cat kingdom. :)
I'm sitting in the hall outside my classroom, meeting students for midterm conferences. (As a part-timer, I don't have a regular office.) The halls fill and empty as classes end and then begin, and I am unable to ignore the conversations around me.
A girl in the hall: "How do you spell 'mean'? It's, like, M-E-A-N, right?"
A guy in the hall, completely unfazed: "Um... yeah."
*le sigh*
ah, sarah. even if you aren't sleeping, good to settle in for restful time with a book. (i, too, am in the sisterhood of the insomniacs. with Bonus! HotFlashes! still!)
sue -- love your "it's over; move on" mantra! wish i could apply it to more things in life.
this cat? i have had bookends behind my keyboard for years, to discourage the keyboard flop.
oh, amy. they can't find some other space for conferences? ugh. i started thinking of the different definitions of "mean," but it turns out they are all spelled the same. sigh.
Weather Whine: like kathy we have rain tonight. And tomorrow apparently. And the day after that.
I don't mind the rain actually. There is something soothing about the sound of it hitting the windows.
However, I'm at home. It just occurred to me that the water-collecting buckets in the sanctuary were all removed. I'm thinking the church is more like the Ark right about now....
Boo not having a conference room you can use!
Yay family trip!
Boo long trips in the car!
Yay soothing sounds of rain!
Boo leaky roofs and lack of bucketses!
Yay for proving you can, too, fight city hall!
I agree -- a conference room would have been ideal. The adjuncts have an office way far out of the way (none of the students know how to find it), but I didn't use it because someone was using it. Eh, the hall is roomy, with long study tables. There was plenty of room, just too many students, haha.
Under the category of Whining Works: Tater has made phenomenal progress with potty training this past week. Two Wednesdays ago, I lamented. Last Wednesday, he simply decided he wanted "soft underwear". (Naturally, he decided this right before bed. oy vey.) He has only worn a couple of pull ups since then, and he's only had a couple accidents. I foresee pook training will be slow, but he's wearing underwear at night, so if the only diapers/pull ups he's wearing is for pooking, I can live with that. Thank you, pixies, for lifting me up when I felt like it would never end; thank you in advance for your hugs when he has a regression. (It will happen. I'm not that naive.)
I agree with you, Sue, about rain. I love the sound of rain too. *bliss* But, we drive *ahem* high mileage cars (read: old), so rain always means puddles and damp spots the next time we drive. Yuck.
*sings Sarah a lullaby*
Safe travels, esperanza!
Afternoon, Pixies!
LOL Esperanza..you didn't want to rock the wet white T-shirt look?? And that is why I wear an industrial-strength black sports bra when I go walking. Well, one of the reasons ;-)
Yay for Amy and Tater! You'll be done soon and have to look back on your archives to even remember that potty-training was hard. (Having some wine will help this process along.)
Big Ol' Anti-Whine: I finally met with the attorney! For the low, low price of FREE. He very quickly drew up the forms I need to file, and assured me there is no way I'll lose more custody of Ari than I have now, just because I'm going to piss ShowerSac off. He did warn me "he will become a jerk for awhile", and I couldn't hold back the guffaw when I responded "Become??" It does look like a long, slow road with the courts, unless (and this was the lawyer's guess) this is what puts SS over the barrel to finally come to an agreement with me. Little stressed over all the fees that will be incurred, but..oh well!
Whine: I'm sick! Sore throat, icky gunk in my sinuses and throat and body aches. Basically somewhere between "fireplacing annoying" and "I want my Mommy!". Cross fingers I get better stat, and that the Moose doesn't catch this, because..
Whine/Anti-whine/up for grabs: we are all getting into a van at o'dark-thirty on Friday morning to go to Iowa to see Dave's mom and his friends on the farm for a big pumpkin carving party. And by all, I mean me, Moose, Dave, and both girls! Yes, my ex and my current are BFFs, and I'm mostly in danger of being ignored while they discuss engineering, physics and politics in the front seats, while I deal with Crankiness Squared in the back seat. I may have to name this trip "Funny Farm 2012"! But Ari especially is spazzing out for joy at the thought of "beebee goats??", who are friendly and leash-trained! Photos to come via FB, natch ;)
Kathy A...you have a cat named Persephone? Cool! Oh, weird story of the year- James and I were out to dinner on MOnday, and we heard the couple next to us saying "If we have two daughters, we should name them "Arianna" and "Persephone". I about jumped out of my skin!
Going back to bed..passing the Emergen-C and the chicken soup my darling SIL is bringing over. Happy weekend, Pixies!
sue, i'm pretty sure your many duties do not include roaring on over to the leaky church in your jammies, to do bucket brigade. not for a regular storm, anyway.
go, LIZ!
not to jinx anything, but yay, tater! it really is like that; one day, they decide to do something differently. woot!
but sign, amy. way to go, giving y'all a shared conference room in upper mongolia. you're a hero for doing hall duty.
debangel -- yay, about the lawyer! we know you have a righteous position. and yay, about your sweetie and the good ex getting along so well, being there for you and your baboos. (all of which should be sobering to jerkface ex.)
W: the crankiness of the election season. W: beloved thinks i'm cranky, and "obsessed," which might be true but maybe he should just watch that baseball thing and shut up for now.
AW: daughter made cupcakes.
there is a whole W/AW unbloggable work combo. and overall, it might add up to kind of an AW [should i move heaven and earth in the next couple weeks], but getting there required some computer upgrading, which took a lot of the day due to incompetence of the IT person [me], as well as some letters and phone calls, and this unexpected other nasty thing happened, and blah blah blah.
AW: my ancient cat still loves me, fiercely.
Omg, my daughter will not stop talking.
Boo to icky gunk and cold symptoms!
kathy a - yay cupcakes, but double-boo for election stress. I'm way up here in Canada and I have to make myself turn off the news from south of the border. Way. Too. Stressful. It makes me sad that the race is so close.
Meanwhile on the local news, I heard about a new Kitty Sanctuary being set up in town for rescue cats. Yay!!
I didn't end up rescuing the church from the heavy rain. Yes, the sanctuary was soaked, but maybe a few puddles on the floor will convince the property folk to take another look at the roof.
"But we had it patched 5 years ago" - seriously, someone said that.
*epic eye-roll*
sue -- YES! and teh "patches" kept you from Full Frontal Flood!!! (you'll probably want to re-phrase....)
song for sue: "mop, mop, moppin' on heaven's floor..."
Mullet for Amy! Style for Kathy A.!
Sue, make 'em sit in the pews.
Lol!!
I'll second those nominations!
AW: Just hit "send" on the final draft of my sabbatical paper!! Eeeeek. It's done! And I'm happy with it.
Yaaaaay!
Woohoo for Sue!!
Yay for Sue and cluesticks for the people not seeing the need to fix the leaky roof.
Debangle - fingers crossed for the lawyer and that sounds like an interesting pumpkin carving trip. Have a lot of fun!!
Amy - you will forget the trauma of potty training. You will. Mostly ;-) - And I second the whine of non-stop talking...
Kathy - Unbloggable mess! Good luck. May your will prevail.
And yay Liz!
AW: I slept more. Gin did the trick. I still woke up several times, but much less ceiling gazing.
W/AW: some unbloggable things feel like they are moving. That may be a delusion from those 7 hours of sleep. But I'll take it. I'm to the point that change good or bad is welcome.
Yay for Sue and cluesticks for the people not seeing the need to fix the leaky roof.
Debangle - fingers crossed for the lawyer and that sounds like an interesting pumpkin carving trip. Have a lot of fun!!
Amy - you will forget the trauma of potty training. You will. Mostly ;-) - And I second the whine of non-stop talking...
Kathy - Unbloggable mess! Good luck. May your will prevail.
And yay Liz!
AW: I slept more. Gin did the trick. I still woke up several times, but much less ceiling gazing.
W/AW: some unbloggable things feel like they are moving. That may be a delusion from those 7 hours of sleep. But I'll take it. I'm to the point that change good or bad is welcome.
yay, sue! hitting the send button is so satisfying.
i think i've finally gotten dictation software installed! now it is searching my documents to add words. my documents are very word-heavy, so this is taking approximately forever.
have no fears, pixies -- i hate dictated documents, too, but this is perfect for taking fast notes of a very large wad of written material. look for next week's whine to be hoarseness.
awards friday. keep whining!
Last minute whine -- husband's gramma died yesterday. She had fallen ill a couple months ago, so we knew it was coming some time in the next few months, but we had no idea that she was right at the end until the day before yesterday. Here's how we found out: I texted my mil to find out if she can watch the kids next week, and she said no because Gramma only had a couple of days left and she didn't want to commit to anything she wasn't sure she could do.
So, I'm feeling the usual frustration of "that's not how we do it in my family". My mil is the type that withholds information and refuses to ask for help or accept help when it is offered. My family is not that way, so I'm a little out of my element trying to figure out what to do, how to help, etc. I will admit here that I'm mad at my mil because I'm certain that if I had not texted her about watching the kids, we would not have heard anything from her until after Gramma passed.
My husband would have liked to see his Gramma one last time, but mil said not to come. We couldn't have if we had wanted to because we didn't know where Gramma was. She had just moved into an assisted living situation. No idea where. (See above: withholding information.)
So, I'm cranky, but I'm glad I vented here. Much love, pixies!
Oh amy, I'm so sorry. Sending lots of pixie love your way.
((( amy ))) i'm so sorry for your loss, and the frustration of being left out of the loop. xoxo
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