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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Welcome to the Whiner's Ball!

Welcome to the first Brigadoon edition of Wednesday Whining, dedicated to our Hostess Emerita, the incomparable and fabulous Phantom Scribbler!

When last we met, there was animated discussion about whether and how to continue weekly whining festivities. These new digs and a group of host/administrators were the solution. Those who voted to send WW gentle into that good night are forgiven and welcome.

So, here's how we plan to embark on this new adventure in whining. Each week, a volunteer moderator will be the primary host of the celebration, in charge of setup and cleanup. A Wednesday Whining thread will be posted on Tuesday night. Whining will end Thursday morning and comments will be closed. There will be a brief concluding post on Thursday, awarding limited prizes only: [1] Style; [2] Old School; and [3] "Elevated Risk of Mullet."

Everyone is encouraged to lend support, pass the chips, and nominate prizes in comments, as always.

Let the whining begin!


Update: Please introduce yourselves! We lack the superpowers to correctly identify anonymice. Thanks!

82 comments:

susan said...

Well, I'm whining that I seem to be the only one here.

Phantom Scribbler said...

No, I'm here, too. I just didn't want to be the first one. It takes practice, this handing-it-over stuff.

susan said...

And a more serious whine, about which I really should blog but I can't quite seem to get to it, is that we can't decide whether Curious Girl should repeat pre-K or not. I think I'm not blogging it b/c so many bloggers earlier in the year were pretty down on the "redshirting" phenomenon, and I worry that Politica and I are just ridiculously overanxious parents. But then, CG is really not as mature as many other kids her age, and another year in pre-K would likely be a happy-making thing for her. But there is a good chance we will move, in a year, to a state with a much later age-cutoff for school, which would make CG that much older than other kids in her grade in this other state. Where we don't live now, but might.

Argh. So you can see the dizzying mental loops we are having around here.

susan said...

Hey, we could give you something to whine about by spouting cliches like "if you love something, let it go..."
Or "If you love something, make it its own blog..."

Liz Miller said...

Susan, given CG's size, I'm guessing another year in Pre-K wouldn't hurt. Also, if you move to New State you can just start her right off in Kindergarten there.

Anonymous said...

I am here to whine about the horrific teeth-grinding that is taking place in my house lo these many days nights. Apparently when one is fourteen months old and has recently (finally) gotten a few teeth, one feels the need to constantly exercise them by filing them away against one another all. frickin. day. long. It is driving me teh crazy.

Antiwhine: Said exercises caused the girl to come home with the following oh-so-new-england note from daycare this afternoon: "Wicked grinding today!"

Antiwhine the second: I voted to kill WW and y'all still welcome me. That is truly the greatest.

--michaela

Anonymous said...

It's cavernous, but it seems like an adequate place to whine. It's like we've moved from Phantom's living room to the church or rec center that lets the 12 step group meet in the basement.

Hi, I'm Lisa and I am a habitual whiner.

I don't want a ton of sympathy for this, Bert and I are actually taking an absurd look at our life-
Old news- job loss, dead pool heater, leaking roof with very expensive repair, and loss of company car.
New whine- the catalytic convertor and knock sensor have gone out on our only existing vehicle- an $1800 repair. We actually both started laughing when we were given the news. What's next? Raining frogs like in "Magnolia"? Locusts? We are awfully close to Utah.
My car exhaust smells like rotting apples and is illegal in 46 states, I have six bowls with paper towels (to help with the splashing) in my kitchen, and yesterday one of the kids thought they could heat enough water in the tea kettle to raise the temp of the pool above 62. One kid is missing a tooth and has a bad haircut, and a gash by his eye. Today I noticed that McDonalds pays 55K for a store manager and briefly thought of sending Bert's resume in.
This is not my beautiful life, this is not my beautiful house...

Anti-whine- We really are in good moods for the past few days. I mean this shit is funny. We have to laugh.

We bought a car tonight- 2002 Mazda Protege. It was cheap. Good gas mileage. Consumer reports likes it. When Bert gets a job and we can afford a car payment, the Mazda will become our teenage car for the next 5 years.

Okay, I will quit sucking the air out of the room, and go check out the coffee and donuts in the back.
Everyone say "Thanks Lisa"

S. said...

Whine: I don't sleep, I don't sleep, I don't sleep, and I don't know why.

Anti-whine: 120 Harry Potter pre-orders and counting.

Elizabeth said...

Whine: Typepad isn't letting me into my own blog.

Antiwhine: Wednesday whining lives.

Whine: T is going away from Wednesday night until Sunday. And I have a work meeting on Friday, so I've used every chit I have for babysitting.

Antiwhine: My brother and his family are coming down to visit.

Anonymous said...

Anti-whine: WW lives. Yay!

Whine: The tot has left behind the age of 2, trading it in for age 3. Apparently, part of the trade included giving up all volume control. Egad, are all 3 year olds this loud?

Oh god. Do they [shudder] get louder?

michaela, I had shivers down my spine when I read that. I had repressed all memory of the tooth grinding. I am so sorry.

bridgett said...

Antiwhine: Wednesday whining and you all.

Whine: needle-y breast pain. Very specific to an action (bending forward w/light compression), very localized (left breast outer underside only), very sudden onset (minor bending over, no trauma), and Not Going Away On Its Own.

Antiwhine: I am an expert in the art of Google Fu. I'm pretty sure it's not cancer, though I'm obviously going to have to see a doctor to figure out how to get it to quit hurting.

Whine: I've lived in this location for five years and I still don't have a gynecologist or even a regular physician.

Bigger Whine: I've lived here for five years and I still don't have a female friend or even an acquaintance to recommend someone.

Antiwhine: But at least I have insurance, a phonebook, and time to make some calls.

Looking on the bright side antiwhine: The environmentally more benign furniture stripper stuff works and I tried to learn a new skill.

Whine: The piece I chose to strip was (surprise!) veneer over plywood. It went from crap to craptastic and only cost me 4 hours of labor and $15 for the very very sticky goo. (Katamari Damacy, anyone?)

Unknown said...

Thanks, Lisa!

My whine is the following:
At the same time that our family doctor has instructed me to lose weight, she has instructed me to work with my teenage son to gain weight. I have never been good at patting my head and rubbing my tummy. Seriously.

PPB said...

My whine?
Stolen keys.
Stolen car.
Replace apartment locks.
Car found.
Keys still lost.
Keys located.
Big fine.
Insurance dude comes.
Springs car.
I have no way of getting there, and then returning the rental car.
Close friend dies.
Feminist luminary dies.
And yet, still, the chewing on tin-foil fun of an administrative retreat--otherwise known as spending all day at the Quaker meeting house, pretending this is fun because the Dean is wearing sneakers and therefore discussing our "mission statement" is fun. Because of the sneakers, you know.
And I also really need to find some shoes.
Hey, but other than that, I'm good.

Anti-whine: bloggers that helped me figure out everything I needed to know to survive the Jewish funeral of my very observant friend, and who clipped obituaries for me, and read interminable eulogies on my blog. Y'all are nice. And you don't steal cars, either.

susan said...

Antiwhine: refreshing the WW screen and seeing more whines pop up.

PPB and Lisa both should get some kind of award just because.... Potential mullet territory in:
And yet, still, the chewing on tin-foil fun of an administrative retreat--otherwise known as spending all day at the Quaker meeting house, pretending this is fun because the Dean is wearing sneakers and therefore discussing our "mission statement" is fun. Because of the sneakers, you know.

Rev Dr Mom said...

Early nominations for LisaV and PPB.

My whine: Elder Son is being a royal pain in the rump about the travel plans LD#2and I have been trying to make to go to his engagement party in a couple of weeks. Too complicated --and really, too stupid, to explain all the details. Just a pain in the ass.

Phantom Scribbler said...

Whine: I can't whine over here about any of the stuff I couldn't whine about on my own blog. Sigh.

But anti-whine: I'm so glad to see y'all here. And could I get a standing ovation for all the Wednesday whining administrators? They rock.

Susan, I don't think any of us would judge you one way or the other. Half of us are second-guessing ourselves, and the other half can think of some damn good and valid reasons for holding back that extra year.

Anonymous said...

[applause for administrators!]

Whine: I wasn't even gonna show up here! I was gonna pout! What the hell am I dong here?

Antiwhine: I brought blackberry pie!

Anonymous said...

I vote for PPB, it's pretty much the worst week ever.

Susan, have you talked to CG's teachers? It's not an easy decision either way. And you don't impress me as redshirting and trying to give her a leg up over other kids, rather you seem concerened about your child.

S. said...

Anti-whine:

What Susan said about hitting refresh, and... alla y'all w/blogger id's just got faces. How cool is that?* Phantom, you should have made us all get haloscan avatars in the old place.

And thanks, Lisa V! I'm giving you my own private best-use-of-Talking-Heads-lyrics award. Maybe I'll give it for real when my week rolls around! Oh, the power is going to my head already.

(*Ummm, except that my blogger ID isn't my name so I suddenly got all anonymouse-y. I'll try to remember to sign my whines. --Sheila)

kathy a. said...

hi, everyone! hugs all around. especially to ppb, who has had a heck of a week. and phantom, who isn't fessing up, but she got this site started, even as she let go of the weekly whining at her place.

rachel, you brought pie? yum! passing some virtual chocolate cake.

Anonymous said...

Early votes for bridgett, Lisa V and PPB. You guys are having a rough week!

Biggest antiwhine: WW rises from the temporary dead... which I wish Dumbledore would do too... Oh, mixed metaphors and all that. Sorry. It's on my mind.

Whine: My children this week seem to have forgotten that they live here. They are gone all day, then at night. Nothing is getting done. Chores are piling up. I'm back to washing dishes and doing laundry. This sucks.

Antiwhine: My CHILDREN ARE GONE ALL DAY! It is quiet. Peaceful. Serene.

Whine: Medicare made a huge mistake billing me, and rectified it by taking it all out of my SSDI check this month. Check was short almost $600. My entire food bill. My phone bill. My electric bill. Gas money. Nope, not one cent for any of it. We are down to almost nothing to eat. I'm making bread in this heat. And now we're out of flour. No eggs. No cheese. It's bad.

Whine: Went to food pantry last week and the guy 'helping' us refused to give us enough food for a family of 3. He would only give us enough for one adult, even though the 2 kids were there with me.

Whine: Food pantry changed hours without telling us, making me wait 2.5 hours in this heat, then another 45 minutes in line for almost no food. Other food pantry is closed for summer. WHAT THE Fireplace?

Whine: My son was very unpleasant on my birthday.

Antiwhine: My kids made me a great cake for my B'day which was good. And I got presents. And a hibiscus plant.

Anti-whine: My very absent and disinterested brother called me on my b'day and offered to sell me his daughter's car, with 15K miles, 1.5 yrs old, for the rest of the loan, which is about 7K.

Anti-whine: Got a nice new AC on freecycle.

Whine: don't have extension cord for ac and can't afford one until next months so it's sitting on the landing on the stairs.

Whine: Not only do we have no money, but car broke down and I had to spend money we don't have on getting it fixed, thus bouncing a check.

Anti-whine: My garden is doing well and we ate the first 3 tomatoes.

Anti-whine: My son's latin teacher came over to help him finish up his Pericles project...in latin.

Anti-whine: I'm getting totally into my city's politics and having a blast. It's as if I finally found a voice.

Huge Anti-Whine: HARRY POTTER ON SAT! WOOT!

And that's about it, Pixies.

Anonymous said...

Whew, Wednesday whining. Glad to see Phantom here. It is a whiny month for me.

Whine: I miscarried the pregnancy that had the wonky ultrasound from a few weeks ago. It has been 2 weeks since the D&C. I am still off-kilter.

Anti-whine: my new OB turned out to be very nice and efficient and kind during the whole ordeal.

Whine: My parent's finally got an offer on their house. The inspection period ends today. The inspector's report wasn't bad. Some known issues, some other small issues. All thing that my parents will fix. BUT, the buyer's seemingly estranged husband is trying to get a new roof and is threatening to pull out of the deal (even though he isn't a party to the offer). The inspector liked the roof. It is not a defect. And although it seems like it might still work, all of my spidey-senses are tingling that this is just going to be trouble.

Anti-whine: my husband voiced his spidey-senses days ago and prevented my parents from signing a lease.

Anti-whine: not being pregnant, I can paint the 3-4 rooms that I really want to paint at our new house. Is that an anti-whine?

Votes for Lisa V and PPB.

Miranda said...

Pie sounds divine, Rachel. Yum!

Hugs to Phantom for having unbloggable whines. That really bites.

PPB: May the bureaucratic maze be short and reletively direct.

Lisa V: Many votes.

Kathy A: Thanks for starting this off.

As for me....Well, I had a change in caregiver schedule of the unplanned variety.

antiwhine: I have one less day of the dreaded class from Hades than expected. A most wonderful gift from deity who monitors my and my classmates sanity levels.

antiwhine even better: This scheduling gift will mean that my other instructor can schedule our final for the former last day of class and I will not be forced to take two final exams in less than five consecutive hours.

Leslie M-B said...

My transition from one job to another on the same campus seems, to me, to be going swimmingly, but rumor has it someone of significance has been bad-mouthing me. And if I want to get a raise this year, this someone must testify to my good works.

Grrrrrr.

debangel said...

LisaV gets my "Plucky Comic Relief" vote! (from the movie "Galaxy Quest"). Margalit, I have a great solution for you. Get in that new car, which undoubtedly has AC that works, and drive it all the way to San Diego. I have eggs and milk and butter and flour and you can teach me how to make a proper loaf of bread. I will then feed you a homemade cannelloni dinner that will make you weep ;)

Whine: DH lost his house keys a few days ago and didn't remind me to take mine when we went out for dinner tonight (I never take them with me when we are both together. I have enough to carry, what with the diapers, wipes, sippy cup, toddler silverware, and his glasses case. Harrumph.) We got home and he was wide-eyed and stupefied that we couldn't get in the house, because, "You KNEW I didn't have my keys!!". He couldn't find the key he supposedly hid in the garage, and our neighbor with the spare set of keys was not at home.

Antiwhine: Since losing all my weight, the rickety, rusty, wired-shut gate that is no longer sturdily cemented to the ground, didn't fall when I climbed over it it the dark to break into the yard and enter our house through a window.

Bonus antiwhine: I neither scraped myself on said rusty gate (whew, b/c I am way overdue for a tetanus shot), nor did I tear my cute linen sweater.

One more antiwhine...my writer's block is finally (knock wood!) starting to let up! And you are all invited to my blog to share in the Weird Wednesday contest. This evening's topic is "Creature Feature", in honor of our Brave Leader and her Close Encounter of the Worst Kind with a disgusting, lettuce-loving bug.

Anyone want some virtual cannelloni? How about some hazelnut biscotti?

Queen of West Procrastination said...

(((((Sarah)))))

Many small whines:

* I'm flying home (to where I live, and where Mr. QWP is) tomorrow afternoon, after three weeks home (with my parents). And it did not seem long enough.

* And it did not feel like three weeks, except that now I'm three weeks behind in work and in blog-reading! (Trillwing, does this mean you got that other job?) And also because I miiiiiiiiss Mr. QWP. So much that I deserves many "i"s. (This is the longest we've been apart since we got married.)

* My baby goddaughter has pneumonia.

* My New Graduate Secretary forgot to mail my fellowship cheque to me for several weeks, which meant that we went for several weeks without very necessary money. While I was on vacation.

Anti-whines:
* I've been home!

* It's really good to see how well my Dad really is doing now, health-wise. He has more than recovered from the winter.

* On the weekend, I lived every Formerly Teenaged Nerdy Girl's Dream: I went to a wedding of high school friends, and wore a super-cute little black dress and had self-confidence and danced with my high school crush.

* I'll get to see Mr. QWP and my quirky little city tomorrow!

* Baby's pneumonia turns out to be minor and she's already getting better!

* I now have my fellowship cheque money in the bank, and it looks like none of our cheques bounced!

* Hooray for Whining Wednesday and for pixies and for the administrators!

Anonymous said...

Whine: the tech who was here last Wednesday and told us we needed our A/C was dead? he then went on vacation without leaving any paperwork with his boss, so no one else at the company knew any of our info. Nothing I like better than a sweltering weekend, unless it's an unnecessary sweltering weekend.

Antiwhine: A/C replaced today. Ah, we revel in the coolth! (What? it's like warmth, right?)

Antiwhine: awesome-sounding HP party on Friday. So looking forward to it. And if the kiddo can't make it till midnight (he insists he can and will), I'll bring him home before it's over and go get the book at one of the bookstores I can walk to instead.

Whine: I can't believe Warner Bros. is shutting down some HP parties. What spoilsports.

Votes for Lisa V, ppb, Sarah, Susan and margalit. Mullet for ppb for chewing on the tin-foil. And I love the "Plucky Comic Relief" award. Also, I propose the "Pithy Sum-Up" award for songbird's " I have never been good at patting my head and rubbing my tummy."

Jenevieve said...

Aw Sarah, that sucks.

Whine: I woke up this morning with a Very Sore Throat. Blech.

Antiwhine: Only got up 2x to pee last night. Yes!

Whine: The presence of houseguests makes the blind 2 a.m. stumble to the bathroom require so much more awareness, such as "Am I wearing clothes?" and "Did I just run into a person in the hallway?"

Anonymous said...

Thank you for making this happen....it's a huge anti whine in itself.
And hugs to Sarah and ppb and phantom with her secret woes...
Whine - I feel fat and hideous and none of my clothes fit
Anti whine - part of this is because beautiful daughter is home from uni, and looks so wonderful in my clothes that I know she ought to wear them all the time. And she's home. Here. In this house :-)
Whine - have just been signed off by Relate, after 6 months of no progress
Anti whine- I get back my Fridays
Anti whine - I guess that means some sort of decision soon
Whine - and I'll have to do the deciding.
Whine some more - I'll have to be anonymous and I'd really like to talk to you pixies about this..but I daren't. Aaargh.

timna said...

no whines, just eating the pie.
ppb -- what a week!
Lisa V -- there was a time when I would have sent mr. t.'s resume to McDonald's. no, but I did suggest that I saw an ad for a physicist for a project at the South Pole. well, he'd been unemployed for over a year at that point.

a/k/a Nadine said...

Votes for Sarah.

Whine: I am a chronic leg crosser. I always have my legs crossed. Always. Now I am trying to break the habit because it could be causing my lower back pain, and it is definitey causing vein issues in my knee pits. I need someone to follow me around and pinch me every time I start to cross my legs.

Anonymous said...

Sarah ... I'm so sorry.

As for me... the first-trimester sleepiness has hit me completely unprepared. I have a huge project at work and my body wants desperately to fall asleep at 9 am. And at 1pm. And at 4pm.

Antiwhine: At least I can just get up and go home at 4pm. And the brief walk to the car seems to be enough to wake me up for the drive home.

Marie said...

Oh yay! We're still pixies!

Huge hugs for Sarah. I'm so sorry. Early votes for those who are broke: Margalit and LisaV, Bridgett with the scary breast pain and PPB with the week from hell. I mean really. Love the Pithy Sum-Up award for Songbird and the Plucky Comic Relief award as well. And a shout-out to LisaV for giving me an earworm that I LIKE. Love, love, love David Byrne.

Whine: Is it because I am over 40 that I have to make notes about what I want to say in the comments or is it just that I have a terrible memory?

Antiwhine: I am creating a liturgy for the final project for my queer theologies class that I took last month. It is coming along wonderfully.

Whine: The case study for the leading congregational change class? Not so much coming along.

Antiwhine: This brigadoon whining. Even though I only barely know what that means. Applause to the hosts!!!

Jenny F. Scientist said...

Whine: I want Haloscan back!

Antiwhine: Wednesday whining rises from the ashes! Three cheers for the admins!!!!

(P.S. I would be happy to *install* Haloscan.)

Margi said...

Shame on me for thinking even for a minute that the whining pixies could/should be stopped!

My whine is that I'm starting to crack under my current stressor trifecta: within the next 4 weeks, I have to move my family across country, finish a book manuscript and prep three new courses. Pixies, I'm not sure Ima gonna make it.

Can I also whine that I'm really getting tired of teh petty fighting with teh husband? We both know it's all about the stress, but, man, you'd think by now we'd be better at NOT flying off the handle at the drop of a hat.

Liz Miller said...

((((Sarah))))

S. said...

Sarah, so so sorry.

Elizabeth said...

Whine: Now that I'm officially done with the paper that I've been writing for the past 4 months, one of my colleagues has popped up with suggestions for a major addition to it. And we're not officially releasing the paper until Labor Day, so I can't say "sorry, too late." And I do think some of her points (although not all) are good ones that will make the paper better. But why the fireplace couldn't she have made these comments on any of the half dozen earlier drafts that I've offered up for reivew.

Susan Anne MacKenna said...

Ugh for Sarah - many hugs. And, frankly, tears from me. I'm so sorry sweetie.

Whine: The damnbar is in 6 days. I am pregnant, and I am stupid, and I am not in shape to take this thing. Ugh.
Antiwhine: The damnbar will be over in a week and a few hours. Pass or fail, it will be done, and I won't have to worry about it unless I decide to retake it upon failing.
Antiwhine II: I saw an e-mail my husband received confirming reservations at a schwank restaurant for dinner at 8 pm next wed, giving me time to nap before a nice evening. Plus they were for a party of 8 people, which means he's invited friends. I heart him.
Antiwhine III: A dear friend is taking me to fancy lunch on Monday and then for pedicures to help me relax. I heart her too.


That is all. I must go memorize stuff.

Mrs. Coulter said...

Whee!

I spent *hours* writing a "memo" on economic aid to Tajikistan as part of a job application, for a job that I am quite confident that I will not get. I did this because I hope that the same employer will offer me a different job that I am better suited for but is apparently not posted online yet (though I've been told by my contact that it is coming).

I had a great interview last week (my first!), but I will not know anything for weeks, because the main decision-maker dude is on vacation for two weeks.

Bonus whine: I unthinkingly used an SAT word in the interview--something that is really part of my vocabulary, so it wasn't showing off--but it's something that I've seen in print more than I've heard actually spoken aloud. And I think I mispronounced it. ARGH. I'm just hoping that the interviewer didn't know the difference.

Anonymous said...

((((Sarah))))

Cos I was on vacation I missed the death of WW. And I was even lazy about catching up on the backlog such that the sqvirrel had to tell me of it. I thought that was kinda funny! But I am glad I am here for it's re-birth, phoenix like. (I just saw HP movie yesterday and really liked the rendition of Fawkes in DD's office, too cool...okay, that's way aside).

whine: it's hot. The temperature is not really all that high, but the humidity. oy. Hate it! I need to make zucchini bread (due to presence of overly large zucchini) but don't want to turn on oven so that the sweat can pour down my back while I stand in my very own kitchen!

DaniGirl said...

Oh, hugs and votes for Sarah,and for PPB. Sigh.

Just sticking my head in to say hi to the whiners, and to say that I'm (touch wood) simply happy and have nothing to whine about. And even though I voted to bid a fond adieu to WW, I'm glad to see it carrying on here.

And I second Jenny's call for Haloscan. I've always hated blogger comments.

elswhere said...

Anti-Whine: the Mermaid Girl had her first playdate at her first Vancouver friend's house yesterday, and it seemed to go great. They like the same things, they got along swimmingly, and the friend has a trampoline.

Corollary Whine the First: MG sassed me in front of said friend (and friend's dad) to such an extent that I was embarrassed. I didn't want to bring it up in front of them, but I had to talk to her about it at bedtime.

Corollary Whine the Second: I always have hated the word "playdate;" I lived my whole childhood without it, and still managed to have a pretty active social life (for a nerd, I mean). And yet somehow I can't avoid using it now. Oh, the humanity!

Julia said...

Sarah, I am so sorry.

Whine: BFN. 'nough said.

Micro anti-whine: cocktails tonight. Now that I can.

Anonymous said...

Whine: I'm so backed up at work from my vacation last week that I don't have adequate blog surfing time!!!!

Whine: and coming back from vacation to Office 2007 is not fun in anyway shape or form.

BroccoliEater said...

(((Sarah)))

Unbloggable whines of my own:

My FIL means well, so well.
But I spent much of his visit wanting to scream, because about every third thing he did set my teeth on edge.

He pronounces confidently on that which he knows nothing about.

He tries to "help" DH with house and garden tasks by offering his advice, yet see my first point above.

Having grown up with a dad who *does* know a great deal about house and garden issues means I get to be the one to say, "um, no, thank you, it doesn't work that way."

When he's not making projects messier and more expensive, he's silently or not so silently commenting on our childrearing by comparing it not to how he raised DH and BIL, but how wife #2 is raising her son.

WIfe #2's son is Not All That. I just deleted a description of why. Just believe me when I say I'd NEVER EMULATE HIS UPBRINGING, because it does not seem to have produced a functional member of society in any way, shape or form.

Anonymous said...

Votes for Sarah and Julia. The "I'm not/no longer pregnant" whines get my vote every time.

Whine here is that I'm tired. Big surprise, I know. Two weeks with junior high kids, then a quick trip to the parents' house. Tired. And no catch-up naps in sight.

Antiwhine is that our air conditioner in our house works. This was not the case last Wednesday, when I was unavailable for whining, but makes me even more grateful for the humongously expensive machine this week.

Jody said...

Susan, When in doubt, I would hold your daughter back. I mean, check with parents in your district, talk to Curious Girl's current teachers, and make the right decision for your family, but in the end: kindergarten is the new first grade. Our neighbor's daughter was on the fence for age and readiness, they sent her, and now she's in summer school and they're fielding pressure to have her repeat. Almost none of the boys with summer birthdays (the ones just turning six now) did that well with the curriculum. They didn't embrace the joy of learning, as a group, to put it mildly. The ONLY doubts I've heard from fellow kindergarten parents (and I've birthday-partied with three sets of them) have been about sending too soon.

FWIW.

My whine is that I'm so distracted that I can't get anything done while the kids are in science camp. I'm so distracted, I can't even remember my own whines.

My anti-whine is that FINALLY I'll have an avatar for these threads....

S. said...

Whine of the morning: the a/c is now off because it was blowing mold through the house and now we are melting, meeeeehlting. For A. this would be redeemed by the anti-whine of allergy relief, but this is *my* whine and in my whine there is no redemption, just suffering.

Anti-whine of the mid-day: The Houseguest Who Came Back Too Soon And Stayed Too Long is! finally! going!

Anti-whine of the week: unbloggable. But the door to my office is now locked.

--Sheila

Sue said...

Definitely LisaV for Plucky Comic Relief, and ppb and Sarah for hugs and substance.

Anti-whine: Harry Potter on Saturday!!!!

Sue said...

Oh, and *applause applause applause* for the new administrators of WW!!!

Phantom Scribbler said...

I have a huge anti-whine, which is that Mr. Blue said I should just go ahead and blog about whatever I need to get off my chest, and he'll deal with whatever needs to be dealt with afterwards. God, he totally rocks.

Sarah and Julia, I'm so damn sorry.

Sara, I love your avatar!

Uccellina said...

Oh, Sarah. I'm so, so sorry.

I whine the whine of suspense, though I really can't be too whiny. The IVF went as well as it could have - we transferred two day 5 blastocysts on Saturday. Now we wait. I dream of babies each night, and every twinge whispers "I could be a pregnancy symptom!"

Mykal said...

I've got the hovering wants updates every day annoying boss thing going on at work and it's really getting on my nerves. Even worse, my boss took me aside to talk to me and explicity stated she would not do what she is doing. Why do so many people bother to say they won't do something but just go ahead and do it anyway.

To top it off the annoying snorter down the cubicle row from me is still snorting all day long. Gross.

Everywhere I live I am followed by loud annoying people or their loud annoying pets. There are FOUR huge dogs that live next door. They are always outside and they start the day off by a nice round a of incessant barking at 6AM. I can't wait until it's cold out again and I can sleep with the windows shut.

KLee said...

Whine of substance vote to Sarah. I'm so, so sorry.

Whine of "It Never Rains, But Pours" to Lisa V. (My own favored style of neverending/ "oh God, please just let it stop!" whine. Lisa, if there's anything we can do, please let us know.

Mulleticious votes to Margalit for the following: "WW rises from the temporary dead... which I wish Dumbledore would do too..." I am RIGHT there with you on that wish!

I feel sure that next week's WW will be HEAVILY laces with HP related whines.

My own late-breaking whine: My mother just called me to say that a cousin of mine has gotten engaged. That's wonderful for her, and I'm so glad. But. The ceremony is due to take place the same weekend as my birthday. Going to her wedding would mean missing all of my OWN celebrations in order to attend hers, PLUS travelling five and a half hours to get there, and sleeping on air mattresses in the "family compound" where we hold our Thanksgiving hoo-ha every year. (Which I've been avoiding like the Black Death.) If I *don't* go, that puts me firmly on the shit list, earning yet another strike for missing a family get together. I don't see how I can escape. Crap.

Anti-whines: Just a few more days 'til HP7!

Anonymous said...

Hugs to Sarah and the other whining pixies! Thanks to the administrators of said new whining spot. This rocks! And on to the whines:

Whine #1: Yet another job woe. When we last left our heroine, she was enjoying her new job. Now she is wondering what the F she wants to do with her life and how she could be so screwed up in the head to take two bad jobs in one year.

Whine #2: Said job woes are leaving me feeling an anxious as can be. Not to mention my brother is making life extremely difficult and driving my mother and I crazy! Ugh!

Antiwhine #1: Maine this weekend. Cottage on the coast. Even if it rains I don't care. I will knit and read and eat yummy food.

Antiwhine #2: The colleague I just had lunch with is awesome in every way. If only I could work with her...

Anonymous said...

A vote for Uccellina, because a whine of suspense is a whine indeed. Hoping, hoping, hoping for you.

kathy a. said...

big hugs to sarah. i'm so sorry.

also thinking of bridgette, margalit, margi, sara, and everyone else. crossing fingers for DMD and uccelina!

whine: ants. again.

anitwhine: wooo hooo! wednesday whining lives, and pixies came to the party! the other hosts are great, and i haven't crashed the site yet!

phantom is truly awesome, so i'm raising a toast and passing the fancy appetizers in her honor.

Andy said...

All of my jeans have suddenly become significantly tighter. I think they shrank in the wash, because my weight is right where it always is, and I'm positive that my routine of walking around all day and night while forgetting to eat hasn't led to any increase in my waistline, but is it even possible for jeans to shrink? I surely do not know; I just know that it's a pain.

The other whine I have is that my jean size is W31 L36, which is next to impossible to find, even in the gigantic factory outlet malls that I'd have to drive to in order to even stand a chance. Buying jeans is an all day event for me.

Maddy said...

I do not whine [ever] but I enjoy and fully appreciate the whining of others so that I able to buff my superiority medal.
Cheers

Anonymous said...

votes and lots of sympathy for sarah.

anti-whine: Wednesday Whining lives, and Harry Potter is coming, and we're going on vacation next week!

whine (which really is a follow-up whine from two or three weeks ago): my grandma died last Tuesday. It's what she wanted, but that doesn't make it any less painful or sad. I can't begin to imagine how my granddad's feeling. There's always one of his children (they're six siblings) with him now, but still.


anti-whine: all the support I and we got through all of this. The family's been great, really supportive of each other; discussions, tough ones, but no serious fighting. Friends have listened, offered advice, cried with me. So have you. It helps a lot.

kathy a. said...

(((( thea )))))

Liz Miller said...

My five year old son
My much-loved little one
Has two pairs of shoes that stink
I've washed them in bleach
And scrubbed them each
In the black porcelain kitchen sink
The stench they emit
Is not normal foot sh*t
They smell strongly of pee from a cat
I have no idea
How feline urea
Appeared as we are petless and all that.

KLee said...

Score one for liz's Stinky Shoe Smell Verse!

Sorry that the shoes stink. It's amazing that feet that small can smell so bad. When Offspring was a baby, she had the sweatiest little feet, and therefore stinky socks and shoes. I can only imagine it being compounded by a urine-like smell. Blech!

Ianqui said...

I don't really have much to whine about, except the fact that the summer is going much faster than it should be. You know, as usual.

Whine: I'm revising a paper--it's the second round of reviews, and one reviewer *still* had like 4 pages worth of crap for me.

Antiwhine: When I whittled through it all, I realized that entire pages were dedicated to individual complaints that could be addressed without much fuss.

Antiwhine: WW is great because you get to read about things that people can't post on their own blogs.

Whine: WW kind of seems like "Weight Watchers" to me, and that's not a very pleasant association at all.

Anonymous said...

liz...my son went through a phase where his shoes smelled like cat pee too. We do have a cat, but he only pees on floors, not on things. So it wasn't really cat pee.. it was just stinky weird feet stench. I used Natures miracle on the shoes and it helped a lot. It wasn't perfect, but several applications made the difference between shoes only being allowed outside and shoes actually being allowed back in the house!

Scrivener said...

Whine: Got home last night from Florida feeling drained and exhausted. Despite lots of nice people, including my therapist, telling me to give myself credit in person and through blog-comments, I am finding it exceedingly difficult to do so. Any other person in the world telling me about a similar trip would have loads of sympathy and respect from me, but when I do it myself, well, mostly I just feel inadequate for not having done more. Fireplacing dysfunction.

Antiwhine: I'm home and I don't have to worry about the impending trip to Florida anymore for a while.

Whine: I'm s'posed to be helping out with the WW administrating, but have only just now, at 7:15 pm, managed to even so much as read the comment thread.

Susan Anne MacKenna said...

Oh Ianqui - I'm glad you see the same thing I do in WW.

Funny whine/antiwhine - awful noises emanating from the patio. Cat rowr-ing loudly and making all sorts of angry kitty noises. All poofed up in his beige kitty glory.

Lo and behold, a fierce turtle. A fierce box turtle, pixies! All tucked in, so really at this stage, just a fierce box turtle shell.

Whine: I can't/won't touch the things in my pregnant state (plus, turtles are gross and I associate them with hog lagoons, which, well, makes me even less likely to touch them).

Antiwhine: Mr. Mac rescued our dear "Fred" (as I'd named him by the time Mr. Mac got home) to the front yard, where Fred the Turtle sits happily, amongst the weeds.

Scrivener said...

Antiwhine: I get to leave whine #69!

Anonymous said...

odd, I keep pushing the 'publish your comment' button and nothing happens. grrrr. wrote a longish thing saying I'm so sorry to thea and commiserating with andy on the jean issue. but. you can't read it.

Anonymous said...

can i whine that i really miss my blog? and that i am regretting having given it up, but have no idea how to resurrect it in a manner that better suits my family and my general wellbeing?

if so, then i guess i could antiwhine that i have actually already reserved another blog (or "blogsite," as my aunt-in-law likes to call it) and just need to, y'know, start posting there. but i am afraid that comment-obsession will soon become self-obsession and i will return to dwelling on the drama and not the good stuff.

but... but yet since i quit ye olde blogge, i have started ye quite fabulous antidepressants, and the girl has started using words and sleeping through the night. so maybe there would not be so much drama in the new blog?

seriously, y'all, i need someone else to figure this out for me.

michaela
again
this time with wine (white, thankyouveddymuch)

Anonymous said...

also, i think andy should get some sort of award for the avatar alone.

michaela
yet again
but the glass is empty

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Late-breaking whine: I whined too soon.

I'm still. in. fireplacing. Regina.

My plane got delayed, and then I missed my connection, and so I am not home right now as I'm supposed to be.

Poor, poor Mr. QWP. He was so excited about me coming home tonight that he scrubbed the kitchen floor by hand. And now, because I'm flying in at 8:30am, he doesn't get to pick me up at the airport.

Anti-whine: WestJet handled it really well, and tried really hard to hold my connecting flight. Also, they gave me the choice of going on to my connecting city and staying there, or just pulling my luggage, staying overnight at my Mommy's house and taking the first flight of the morning. It could be much, much worse right now. I could be stuck in Edmonton.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the sympathy. My parents got the offer on their house the day after my D&C so that ups and downs feel tied for me. And the offer seems to be falling through today. Ugh--so rotten.

But I am mostly commenting to say--oh Liz--stinky kid feet. I found it hard to believe that my daughter could make shoes smell so bad at 5. She went through a "no socks" (for about the entire sock wearing season last winter) phase. And the stink was unbearable.

Scrivener said...

Michaela, if you ask me the choice is easy: start blogging again. I'd start reading again.

kathy a. said...

hugs to scrivener.

liz, your stinky-foot poetry is a wonder! DMD, loving your story of an epic battle between the cat and the fierce! box! turtle! michaela, have another glass of whine, on the house.

Rev Dr Mom said...

Michaela, what Scrivener said: me too.

S. said...

Thea--I'm sorry, I know it was hard for you. I hope your grandfather has lots of support around him.

--Sheila

Kristen said...

I found the whining! Thank you - whoever set up this website. How brilliant!

Sadly, it took me a while to figure out how to post a comment. (OH, so that's what the "post a comment" line is for!)

Susan - my conclusion is that ONLY YOU know what is best for your kid/s. Do what you think is best for Curious Girl. the rest of the bloggers don't know! And your "ridiculously overanxious" is another person's "laid back/slacker" so really, you can't win! : )

Sarah - ((hugs))

No whines for me this week. Except that I can't figure out quite how to make a cool picture appear by my name!

debangel said...

:::whine::: Nobody posted any stories for my 1st "Weird Wednesday" contest. Rats. (It was even about disgusting vermin, too!)

I guess the antiwhine would be..easy prizes tomorrow morning?

Pretty please, anyone want to come over and play??

purple_kangaroo said...

Hi, everyone! I'm glad to see WW isn't ending. This new format could be good, although I'll miss it being at Phantom Scribbler's place.

I have two whines--well, more like one little whine and one big sighing worry.

The whine: I'm realizing, as the summer progresses, that I know even less about gardening than I thought I did. And it's less easy than I thought it would be. And I have a lot of dumb questions and nobody to come look at my garden and say, "Oh, you need to do this."

The more substantial worry is that DH's dad had to be rushed to the hospital this morning.

First they were thinking heart attack, then pneumonia, now it appears to be heart issues again. MIL e-mailed a little while ago to say his heart is racing (fibrillation or tachycardia). I'm not sure what exactly that means or how serious it is, but we're going to go and see him tomorrow.

Since he has blood cancer (multiple myeloma), previous heart issues (something to do with the valve opening only a fraction as much as it's supposed to), and is in his 80s, it's really a matter of time. But this week is the big family reunion and we had all hoped he'd be able to attend. I'm sad, and worried. :(

kathy a. said...

oh, PK -- many hugs to you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
pixies, it is good to see you all! thanks for joining us here this week.