It's a Brave New World Whining

Last week one day, during the peaceful and quiet naptime, the Sweet Baboo opened her door and said, ever so sweetly, "No sleep, Mommy." She's been in a big girl bed for several months, has been able to climb out of it for several months, has been able to open the door for several months, and has been staying awake during naptime most of the time for several months. She just now put it all together and is popping out of bed like a jack in the box. The one day she did fall asleep, she was up two hours past bedtime, popping out of her room periodically. We keep sending her back to bed, to no avail.

Alas, the end of la siesta.

This morning, on my way to get an awake and talking Mini up from her crib, I glanced over at Sweet's room. Her door was open. Her bed was empty. After I recovered from my someone has stolen my child! momentary panic attack, I looked around. She was sound asleep, on the couch. I had not heard her over the monitor, nor could/would she tell me if she had been up playing in the middle of the night. I guess I'm sleeping on the couch for a few nights.

Sigh.

In antiwhines (she dooms herself by posting this on Teh Internets), it is Day Sixteen of No Potty Accidents. Dare we hope that she may be declared potty trained? Not exactly, as she's missing the part where she announces that she needs to go. It's only been a year, what's the hurry?

What's happening in your new worlds, pixies?

Fireworks Edition

Happy Canada Day! Happy Fourth of July! Here's to a great long weekend for all, and the kickoff to official summer! How do you plan to celebrate? We have a barbeque planned, and our city hosts its annual music festival and fair on Monday, just a couple blocks from the house.

Bon Voyage to KLee, who is on the plane for the fabulous GS trip to London and Paris! Woooo hoooo! We are jealous, and eagerly awaiting a report after her return.

The coveted Elevated Risk of Mullet Award goes to Sue, who confesses a small addiction to an ongoing criminal trial -- she can stop at any time, really -- and remarks: "My favourite is still the Fifth Amendment statement when it starts with "On advice of council..." People listen to their lawyers! How cool is that???" HA hahahaha ha. Oh sure, it happens sometimes, but let's just point out that the world would be a happier place if people consulted lawyers before they did things that brought them to the attention of law enforcement.

It was Fajita Week here at the Whiner's Ball. Esperanza wins the Best Anti-Whine Award for "leftover pie," the consequence of spending the weekend cleaning and cooking for guests who never showed. The Cluestick Posse has been dispatched to visit the errant guests. The Old Skool Award goes to Days, who forgot the cerveza for the traditional end-of-school celebration dinner. We hope that emergency supplies were acquired. Hooray for end of school!

Sue wins the Earworm Award, for You Are My Sunshine. Thanks for sharing, Sue. Bad Bad Leroy Brown. MacArthur Park. Anything by Neil Diamond. You're welcome.

Kudos to Esperanza's Sweet Baboo, for nearly 2 weeks accident free!

Bad Day (TM) Award to Amy, who is juggling summer-addled children, a cat who does not respect boundaries regarding bodily fluids, and a job. At Sue's suggestion, this award comes with complimentary margharitas. We are very relieved that the cat only managed to destroy something of little sentimental value.

Proving again that Pixies Rock, JenR stepped up with useful allergy med advice for Esperanza. Sue practiced self-care by sending regrets to an unnecessary meeting. Esperanza faced the fact she cannot care for one more mammal at this time. Much kindness and caring was dispensed. Y'all are great.

Hugs and a cheer for Days, whose donkey finally arrived with the test results, and things are holding steady. Plus, she reports a hot getaway with her beloved, complete with grandparental babysittage! Have fun!

Thoughts, prayers, and crossed fingers for KLee's JF in his job hunt. Sounds like an excellent interview this week.

And he's not the only one -- Liz reports a good one, too. Yay!

Condolences to all facing flaky guests, workplace woes, summer juggling, tiredness, crankiness, financial matters, black thumbs, tantrums, food issues, illnesses, losses, and any other woes.

See you next week!

Up in the Treetops

There are a lot of trees in our neighborhood. Our house backs up to a hillside nature area, a piece of semi-wilderness in the middle of suburbia. Two grand old trees in our yard are huge, ancient, and they're coming down. The pine shown above is 60-80 feet and probably 80 years old. Last week, its hugest limb cracked and started falling on the neighbor's house. So, today we are supporting full employment -- the yard is full of energetic tree guys and chain saws.

We think that it and the other tree were planted as part of a windbreak for a quarry that went out of business many decades ago. It's been a good tree, and we will miss it. (Yes, this is a tree eulogy.)

W/AW: My cat with digestive problems became very committed to getting on my desk to sit beside the computer. Arrived at the very elegant solution of putting a big insulated bag from TJ's right in his preferred spot. We have tres stylish decor here at the home office.

AW: Wednesday is my birthday, and my beloved refurbished this garden bench that we got in about 1985 -- crafted and stained new slats, refinished the heavy iron sides. Just what I wanted! (A "hint" was dropped.)

What's happening in your ecosystem?

New Tools for the Posse!

Once again, this forum proves to be a fountain of wisdom, even on the topic of bugs.

Sue wins the Fearless Warrior Award for encountering a bug on her desk, and refusing to scream. ~~ Wild Applause ~~

Liz wins the Terminator Award for sending Sue a virtual size 13 shoe, and also sharing the gripping tale of using junk mail and jumping thereon to squash a bug right into flatness, impressing her son with real-life skillz, a vision that will no doubt affect him for his lifetime.

Esperanza earns the Stingie Extinction Award for an impressive two dozen wasps flyswatted to oblivion so far this season. Wasps!

Days and her daughter win the Summer Bummer Award, for finally achieving warm weather only to be bitten unto distraction by hordes of black flies. Not! Fair!

The Ms. Manners Award for best suggestion about houseguests who have overstayed their welcome goes to Liz and Amy, who advocate starting a rumor about LICE. ~shudder~

But this week's top prize, the coveted Wonders of Technology Award, goes to Purple Kangaroo, who alerted us to the existence of the electric flyswatter, a powerful step forward in household bug elimination which we only wish came in In-Law size.

Naturally, all this talk of Death to Bugs led us to some collective contemplation about theological matters, namely that many of us suspect we'd make lousy Buddhists so far as indoor bugs are concerned, as Sue first mentioned. Liz wins the Style Award for her fabulous link.

Sarah wins an Old Skool Award for too much summer chauffering, and Neighbor Lady for an ouchy fingertip next to her nail.

The Cluestick Posse's first stop, of course, is to Esperanza's Outlaws, who managed to arrive early, disrupt whatever harmony they used to have, and keep extending their stay at 3 p.m. each afternoon. 700 years is long enough, we think.

While we're on the subject of annoying persons, The Posse announces the following Public Service Message for People (including but not limited to Days' Caller) Who Do Not Leave Messages: Would it kill you to leave your name and number like a person who seriously wants contact with the person you are calling, over and over?

That's Just Wrong Award for Liz, who had to spork her own.

Anti-Whine of the Week Award goes to Sue, who got her insurance to review her meds, and they admitted a mistake, plus are giving her the supply she needs in case. Great work, Sue!

Congratulations to Esperanza, for [a] getting a steady job offer, and [b] recognizing that it's not right for her now!

Hugs and Crossed Fingers for Days, who is waiting on test results which apparently need to be hand-carved into stone and delivered via donkey, and PK, who is waiting for various medical mysteries to be unraveled.

Refreshments of choice to all who have suffered from the weather, relatives, illnesses of any sort, scheduling problems, miscommunications, disappointments, ill temper, etc. Cheers to all!

June bugs

No, we don't have an insect infestation. But June is bugging me, anyway.

First, there's the heat. This is the first time our house has hit 80 degrees in forever. My melting point is substantially below that, and someone carted off my office fan. We have no AC. I already have Texas-style internal thermodynamics going on -- the hot flashes are back with a vengeance. Send ice. Next: work behindness; yadda.

W/AW: Remember how our car got stolen? All this mail has been coming to my husband, since the cop only managed to take his name down, even though we both owned the car and both talked to the cop. I'm sending in my 2 cents to the probation department anyway -- they prepare sentencing reports. But only my beloved is under subpoena to testify at the trial next month. Ha.

The funny whine is on behalf of my son. Someone broke into his worthless car and stole some worthless things. How did they get in? They used his radio antenna, conveniently fashioned out of a coat hanger, to reach through the window that won't quite close. AW: they didn't break a window to find out there were only worthless things inside! Yay!

What's bugging you?

Father's Day Awards

Here they are, late but here.

A fierce competition for Old Skool has resulted in an award for JenR, because pregnant women should not have to deal with itchy tags. If I were making the rules, that would be one. Honorable mentions to Kathy a.’s mayo woes and Sue’s hubby’s golf pool going off in the weeds. (That was an attempt at golf humor, but I realize that I know so little about golf that it may be way off).

Medical Detective Award goes to purple_kangaroo, both for the research into her own condition(s), but for tracking down the bunny illnesses too. Half-baked Medical Detective to p_k’s hubby, for his secretive tallying of her energy level.

People! Respect Sue’s Time! Award goes to Sue, for people (once again) intruding on her day off, and for being late for a meeting. You’re grown-ups. Act that way.

Hugs to everyone having close encounters with the medical community this week, including Sue’s hubby, amy’s preemie friends, Sarah’s daughter (though kudos for the understanding psychiatrist).

Hugs also because of Father’s Day and the many families that can’t find the Dysfunctional Section at Hallmark.

Short, yes. Sweet? Probably not. Sorry for any whines and whiners I missed.

Strange Things Are Happenin'

We now have the house back to ourselves, which is mostly an antiwhine. Except where are those people who were cooking dinner and unloading the dishwasher and entertaining the children? Harumph.

Strange Thing, Whine Division: Mini and Sweet were fighting over a book today. Fighting is not the strange thing; it happens frequently. I should be pleased they both wanted the book, right? Anyway, Sweet won the tug-of-war and immediately raised the book over her head like a trophy. Not coincidentally, Mini cannot reach over Sweet's head. She could reach Sweet's triceps area, and BIT her there. Ugh. Mini got shut in her crib and screamed her head off. Sweet got cuddled and a little talking-to about sharing.

Strange Thing, Antiwhine Division: Sweet just started "swimming school" tonight (we're calling it that instead of "lessons," because she *loves* school of any sort. I was talking it up all day, but not expecting much positive to happen on the first day. Was I surprised. She put her face in the water and made chipmunk cheeks (to hold her breath) and *jumped* off the edge of the pool, multiple times (she really can't jump, but the effort was there), and kicked her legs and moved her arms and generally rocked the lesson. We were both on cloud nine. (I was in the water with her, as it was a Mommy & Me class. Small whine on behalf of Mini, who was not amused that she had to stay home.

What Strange Things are going on in your world, pixies?