It's been great!

Dear Wednesday Whining Community --  

 WW has been a treasured community to me! I am very grateful, and I'd like that friendship and camaraderie to continue. We have been at this site for almost 11 years, can you believe it?  And some years before that, at Phantom's place. 

After discussion among moderators, we have reached consensus that it's time to start a new iteration of the group, and therefore we are starting a closed (secret) group on Facebook -- with a format more along the lines of no weekly host, anybody can W/AW when they are moved; and members can respond to individual topics, rather than having a running thread about the everything.  It will be called Whines; Anti-Whines; Whatever Works. 

Among the reasons are these.  It has become burdensome to continue the weekly format, with hosts every week.  While this website is not searchable via google, if anybody knows the website address, it is also not entirely private -- and, some of us have held back on posting for that reason.  This site is also not very accessible via mobile devices, and members have mentioned they cannot access it via work computers -- so, it is not convenient to use (unlike FB, which is reportedly easy to use via phone). 

A "secret" facebook page is not searchable, indexed, or viewable by anyone but a member of that group.  Members are invited, and must be approved by an admin or moderator. It is NOT public. Stuff there cannot be “shared” on other FB pages.  That is what we're opting to do. 

Moderators are in FB or other contact with a good many members, current and past.  If you know of someone who has been part of this group, they can be suggested for membership in the new group.  If members are interested but not contacted in the next few days about the new site, please contact a moderator!

It's been an excellent ride.  We're holding everybody in our hearts, and are grateful for the friendships.  xoxoxo

Frazzled Edition

Greetings, Pixies. I hope everyone else's Monday is going more smoothly than mine.

Mine has been rocky and emotional.

First, I woke up to an email from a beloved friend, in response to the news that we'll be visiting her city in August, to tell us that her husband (another beloved friend of ours, who has been dealing with a rare form of cancer for several years now) is heading for one risky surgery this week, and that around when we're planning to visit their city, they'll be in a bigger city, while he has an even riskier procedure. (It's one that they previously said they'd only do as a last-minute life-saving attempt, since there is a survival rate from the procedure itself is low. Plans to do this means that they're out of options and he's doing really poorly.)

So. I started off my day emotional, and I don't know whether this means it's a good or bad idea to travel out there this August now.

And then my morning with E started off okay, until she had a weird, escalating meltdown, which started over something small, and ended up with her behaving in some really scary ways. Bad enough that one part of me wonders if we need to talk with someone about these meltdowns, and another part of me says "So many of my friends have dealt with at least one child who had terrifying meltdowns at 5, and then thought it was age inappropriate and possibly symptomatic of something bigger, because of all the advice stuff out there that says that these things taper off at 5."

It was rough. I don't deal well when my child reacts violently (and makes violent threats!). And then I get terrified that she'll react like this at school, and it'll be an even bigger problem. And it's easy to feel like it's the fault of one's parenting.

We've finally calmed things down, and have talked through a lot, and now she's listening to an Ernie and Bert record from my childhood. (She lost TV for a day or two, because the initial small issue was connected to TV.) But my anxiety levels are still really high. The weird thing is that she behaved so well, and worked so hard to be well-regulated, for the entire time that Mr. Q was out of town. And she immediately developed a bad attitude, the second he walked through the door. And he is at work today, but the bad attitude continues!

And that's my big word vomit for today. How are things going there?

Distracted edition

I may not be around so much this week, as there is a thing that needs doing for work.

Events of national importance are horrifying me presently, especially this morning's unthinkable twit explosion.  

On a brighter note, our son's birthday is tomorrow, and the first anniversary is fast approaching -- so, we'll be seeing the kids sometime soon!

Had a good weekend, especially visiting with my artistic college friend.  The weather is basically perfect just now, too!

Tonight will be chicken tikka masala, and am totally cheating by using a prepared simmer sauce.

What's happening at your house?

Miserable Whining Edition

Well, we made it through the night. E and I are having a recurrence of the stomach virus that hit us a few days ago, triggered by my getting too lax with the gentle food diet, and by going out a bunch on a hot day. Mr. Q is camping, several hours away, with spotty cell coverage, with a group of grade 11 science students, and isn't going to be back until tomorrow night.

E last threw up at midnight, and I still haven't, but my stomach is still sore and angry today. There's a pile of disgusting laundry in my hallway, which I need to clean up immediately, but I'm not sure how to do it when I'm this sick. I'm hoping that my mom and come and help for a while today (I also checked with my in-laws, but they have urgent work today). E screamed at me a lot this morning, when I told her that she can't have any dairy today. (Dairy triggered all of this for her yesterday. Too much too soon.) I confess that I only got her to back down and have food and drinks within the BRAT diet by both sobbing and by threatening to dump out the rest of our milk, since she was trying to take it out of the fridge by herself. I now have her in front of the TV with toast, a banana, and some diluted juice, and I'm making some applesauce on the stovetop.

*Breathes* Okay. Mr. Q called and I whined at him a bunch, and E talked on the phone with him, and promised that she'd eat gentle food, and I'm a little more relaxed. I ignored the applesauce for too long and accidentally scorched it a bit, but I added some brown sugar, and I'll call it "caramel applesauce" and pretend it was on purpose.

Okay. Let's do this thing. How are you all doing?

The long household ordeal...

This is the last week of the big out of town thing for my husband, and not a moment too soon.  The thing started over 6 weeks ago, broken by a two week break in which he worked like heck and was out of town a lot.  Prep for the thing has been pretty intense for months, actually.

What with all the Dog and Dog Man mutual affection and mutual deep sorrow at absences, the short times The Man has been home tend to be complete spoil-fests -- rules are suspended!  From Clyde's end, any minute The Man is on the premises but not immediately adjacent to The Dog leads to alternating barks and pitiful crying.  Mama's looking forward to getting back to a better routine....

Weather is nice!  Not too hot; sunny; everything's growing like crazy.

I'm trying to settle in to my pending project, get some speed up -- but fortunately, I don't have to go anywhere for this one.

What's up with you?  

Hear ye, hear ye: Let the whining commence!

I meant to post earlier, but forgot I signed up!

There's been a disruption in the force at my house, since Mr. Dog Man was home for two weeks, and now (alas) he is gone again.  Our dog Clyde figured out The Man was leaving yesterday due to the packing of bags, hauling of things to the car, garage door opening without loading the dog in the car, etc., and commenced an impressive whine and bark fest.  Things settled down in time, but Le Dog was so eager to go see his doggy pals at day care this morning that he jumped right out of the car before I could grab his leash!  Jeesh. 

AW:  Daughter's in the middle of her last final of the year, yay!  Tomorrow, pizza night with son and my lovely DIL!

Also tomorrow, an exciting visit with the ob/gyn for the pap.  Thus, another spirited day care visit.  That should wear the pup out some.  Maybe he won't bark as much at my son, for no discernible reason.

What's the haps out your way? 

{Insert Creative Title Here} Whining

Yeah, that's right. I've got nothing creative, but I'm willing to host this week, so here we are.

The final month of the school year is my least favorite: so much frantic activity and "fun" at school can get to be overwhelming and too much. So much frantic activity on my part at home, as I rush to get things done which do not need Baboo "help."

Add in the regular tasks which need to be accomplished (cooking, cleaning, laundry, and the &$^&# grocery shopping), and my lists are getting too long.

What about you, pixies?

(End of) April Showers Edition

It is cold and rainy outside today, and I am absolutely thrilled. You see, we had an incredibly long winter, with piles of snow, and a really slow melt, and that left my city covered in snow mold. For the past week, the city has been dusty and windy, and every time I went outside, I came inside with no voice. I had a cold that I just couldn't shake. E was miserable as well (I suspect that a lot of her recent motion sickness issues are similar to the dizziness that my sister and I have been experiencing, thanks to our ears and sinuses).

But, last night, it started raining. And it's still raining today. The whole city is being washed clean. And I woke up with clear sinuses, and with my voice returned. I can get up suddenly without dizziness. I have never been happier to wake up to a cold, dark, drizzly morning.

How are things where you are?

Love love love love, crazy love

While my beloved was home for a couple nights, sharing his Man Cold with me [cough], he kept doing all this stuff.  Like, he washed my car, and then turned it into a Dogmobile!  So, I'm just calling this placement of magnets a love note, and full recognition that I am an alpha dog instead of just a cat lady.  :) 

Clyde the Wonder Dog is adjusting to the absence of the Dog Man.  But when I was all set to go in the car this morning, he knew he was going to Day! Care!! -- and I swear, he bounced around in tiny circles in the kitchen, such was the joy of the moment!  More bouncing when he got there!

Things will be busier, work-wise, for some months.  That's actually good.

 Weather is glorious right now!

And, how are you?

Endless Winter Whining

It's officially mid-April, and it's still. fireplacing. winter here. At least we're getting some more melting happening today, but it's supposed to snow again tonight! I'm trying to keep perspective, and be thankful that the awful drought is over at last, but dear goodness!

I've lost all perspective. I'm so tired of this snow. And it's not even nice snow? It's like the grimy, brownish stuff, as the snow slowly melts and reveals all the grossness that have accumulated since November the Fireplacing First, when we also had our first unseasonably-early heavy snowfall, which never went away. And then we get a little more snow, and then it just gets soupier and grosser.

How are things where you are?

Monday Monday

Hello there Pixies!

How's everyone doing on this Monday evening?

It was a loooong day at Chez Sue yesterday. Hubby has an infection which was not resolving, so off to the ER yesterday afternoon. We didn't have to wait terribly long to get in, but the docs were all very busy, so getting lab results etc took some time. We both had our e-readers with us, thank goodness.

Today was spent napping with intermittent periods of wakey time, mostly to play with bored kittens.

You?

Everybody can relax now...

It is no longer the busiest season in the pastoral profession, and I assume we all got through April Fool's day unscathed.  (Do kids even do that any more?)

Plus -- we of the Northern Hemisphere are all noticing, lots more sunlight!  More every day!  It's like a miracle!

Although many schools had last week as a Spring Break, the local schools are off this week.  So, a teacher friend and another longtime friend and I have a date for breakfast, at a place I've not been before.  Yay!

Hoping for dinner maybe Friday with the returning honeymooners.  My beloved goes out of town Sunday for this big thing that is supposed to last 3 weeks, and he's in the Swamp of Preparation right now.

What's going on up your way?

Hectic Whining

Greetings from Germies Central (the germies seem to have flown away from Kathy A's house, and landed at mine). I'm about to load up on cold medicine, and haul Li'l E to her piano lesson (she's taking a thousand years in the bathroom, and so I have a moment before the lesson to post this), where everyone will be thrilled that I brought the germies.

Hugs to all the clergical pixies, for whom this is an incredibly hectic week.

A brief housekeeping note: I will be only able to use my phone, and not my computer (and will be away from consistent wifi) on the weekend. I can comment from my phone, but can't make/edit blog posts, or moderate comments. On the weekend, can anyone who is around pitch in to help with that?

Run away, little germies...

Got the runny nose, everything aches, exhausted, somewhat queasy thing going on.  Bleah.  Hoping my tax guy can fit me in, once I'm less infested; this was not a good morning for our appointment, after all.

Didn't have enough energy to drive Clyde to day care.  That's probably just as well, since today is sunny, and there will be rain much of the rest of the week -- he's just not into rain.  He acts just like a cat if sunbeams are available, stretching out and absorbing the wonderfulness.  ;)

My beloved has all this work to get ready for a trial in a few weeks, with bonus out-of-town meetings and stuff.

What's the happenings with you?

Is it Spring yet?

I hope it's coming soon!  So very nice to have the days growing longer, and some fruit trees have burst into blossom.

Some more rain is due tonight -- which is good, since we need the moisture, but I've had about enough gloom to last a little while.

Sadly, I have put off organizing my tax stuff, and need to get that together this week.

What's the news with you?

Whining from under a pile of snow

Spring might be coming to other parts of the world, but a significant percentage of my country woke up to a giant pile of snow this morning! So far, I'm a little relieved by it (this ends the driest 15 months in our city's records, and that includes the Dustbowl Dirty Thirties). But parents around the city are scrambling to drive their kids to school, because the school buses aren't running. Our piano lessons were postponed, because between the teacher's need to drive her kids to school, and then to allow much more time to get across town for a later appointment, there's no time for piano today.

Li'l E is in heaven, of course. She's been disappointed by how little snow we've had this year, and with no preschool on Mondays, the only item on her agenda is to play in the yard for as long as possible.

Which means that I'm not getting a lot of indoor cozy time. Think of me, as you go about your warmer days, as I sit in a snowbank, drinking tea from  my travel mug, watching a five year old make her thirtieth snow angel.

Puppy Whining

The puppy would like to whine (literally, piercingly) that the Baboos went to school in that big, loud, yellow thing; and now she can't find them, and she's stuck with boring Mama.

Mama would like to whine that there has been interrupted sleep and a lot of wiping and picking up of unmentionables off the floor. Puppy is about 50% house trained, so I guess that's better than it could be.

Baboos would like to whine that they had to go to school and are missing out on all the fun.

AW: But holy cow, she is cute.

What the what, weather?

We're in a cooling trend, with frost maybe tonight.  But this morning was sunny!

Then, bam.  It sprinkled a little, which is kind of exciting since we have not had enough moisture.  But then BAM, it hailed!  At my house!  Even though it's 50F outside!  That freaked the heck out of all the pets, because we don't have an attic, do have skylights, and so one can hear it all.

Here's what was left on the chaise.  Most of it just melted when it hit the ground.  The dog may never agree to go out again, at least until dinner time.

NL, sending love for tomorrow.  Glad the visitors were good.

What's new at everybody's place?

Will you be my Valentine?

My sweetie and I don't do anything big on Valentine's Day -- maybe a toast, maybe some flowers.  But I loved this day when the kids were little, and everybody in everybody's class exchanged cards.  It was such a lovely reminder to be kind, to look for the good in others, to work past differences.

Oops, I forgot to get cards to send my kids!  Well, on the list for today...

My son and his fabulous wife will be taking a belated honeymoon trip next month, and they'll miss Easter (plus Passover, just a couple days before).  I usually go a little nuts and make Easter baskets for the kids (adulthood does not change some obligations), but none of them will be here!  Plus, we usually invite the in-laws over, but this year I think we'll have a belated Easter feast instead, after the honeymooners return.  My husband's must-do for Easter is cooking his mom's specialties, lamb shish kebab and pilaf, etc., which works better with a small crowd.

What's new with you?

Dreaming of springtime

We are under a giant pile of snow, with temperatures that keep dipping into the Extreme Cold Warning regions, but I am surrounded by packets of seeds and seed catalogues. I spent part of the afternoon coordinating a combined seed order with a friend, and planning out how to save efforts this year (we'll start our seeds together, and then let Mr. Q water them all under the grow lights at school, taking away the temptation to spend lots of money on bedding plants). It's minus a billion outside, and I'm dragging my feet, avoiding the frigid drive to piano lessons, and so I'm filling my brain with daydreams of sunshine and green leaves.

Thank goodness February is such a short month.

Coming up on February

How'd that happen?  So far, this year seems to be flying by.  Which is good, because Spring will start showing up before long!  But it's probably time to take down my Christmas cards.  I like seeing them; they remind me of people I love.  (OK, not the one from my husband's dentist...)

I'm going to try packing and freezing some of the food I cook.  For some reason, I keep cooking like we have a houseful of teenagers; and then we end up bored out of our minds by leftovers that last too long.  More organized people have always done this; I am a slow learner, when it comes to meal planning.  Never too late, right?  The second part of the project is using stuff we have stuffed in the freezer!  I remembered to put some chicken in the refrigerator to thaw, last night.  There is, however, a small lasagna, of an uncertain year of origin ("probably this decade" is best I can do), which I figure needs to be retired.

Not very much excitement planned for this week.  Having lunch with my dad's cousin on Thursday, and we'll probably window shop and catch up a little.

What's happening at your place?

A Bit of Whine & a Bit of Anti-whine

Around here, it's a big AW week - our son is coming for a visit at the end of the week. Yay!

On the other hand, today is (allegedly) my day off, and I must attend two chunky meetings. One via phone, one in person. I designate that as whine-worthy.

Somewhere in between said meetings, I need to do some cleaning around here.

What's new in your world, pixies?

Slip-sliding along

Greetings from Frozen Ice World! It's terribly cold today, and then it's supposed to melt and refreeze midway through this week, and so watch this space for further whining about slippery conditions. (Or maybe it'll melt the thick layer of ice that's currently covering the city, and make it all better? I'm going to hope that it'll melt it and make it go away.)

I'm also fighting a constant headache, and typing this in a hurry, as a 5 year old climbs all over me, asking me when I'll be done and pay attention to her.

How are things where you are?

Oh, oh, it's raining again!

This is a good news kind of thing, because we are now having some decent steady rainfall after this horrible late fire season, one of the worst snowpack reports on record for this time of year, and yadda.   (No, we don't get snow here; but our water comes from the mountains, and not much has happened up there so far.)

I hope the extreme cold and snow and everything is calming down in other sectors of the continent.

It's my baby's birthday today!  She plans to buy textbooks, go play with the animals at the shelter, have some cake, etc. 

The dog had a full weekend, and because he's not fond of rain, he is being a couch potato dog today, watching reruns from a few decades ago.  We have never had a dog this spoiled.  It's a little embarrassing.  He has not, however, cried or barked once since the Dog Man went to work this morning -- proving that particular staple of the weekends is totally a trick to make the Dog Man pay attention to him.  My husband is being emotionally manipulated; or as some might say, "trained."  ;)

Wildlife news:  My sweetie hung a kind of sack of seed from a tree, which has attracted all these tiny yellow finches that I never saw before.  The yellow birds drop some of the offerings on the ground, which attracts bunches of little brown birds who peck around on the patio.  Not happening right now, due to rain, but it's been quite the show!

What's happening at your place?