A week to go ... so far I've had a cold this week, and the kids have had mild colds which have hung on into tonight. Three kids went home from Jake's class yesterday with "the throwup bug" so I am waiting to see if we have missed that bullet.
Went to the office Christmas party for Steve's crew last night. Very nice setup at a country club in Danbury, and it was nice to see everyone. The usual games and folderol went on about 45 minutes too long, though -- it was 11:30 before we left and I was getting that evil achytired feeling. Slept all the way home and then drove Alice home. Jake talked her into letting him open one of the Christmas presents (it was in an amazon.com bag tied with a ribbon, but after he said we had told him it was okay, he told her that they had to make sure to put it back in the bag!!! I laughed hysterically at that one. Oh well.
Have a good start on wrapping gifts for the kids, and am hoping to get most of it done tonight. Then all I have to worry about it cleaning the fridge and the house this week ( a little bit every night). Jake and I delivered gifts to the neighbors today, and that was fun. I still need two extension cords for my lightup houses and the nativity scene, and I need a basket or box to put Charlotte's tea set and tea linens in. I think Marshall's had boxes that were fabric covered and nice looking, but who knows if they still have any. I'm going to try to get out in the morning and get there early.
Have decided that Christmas Eve morning is going to be the Kessey family gift morning for the kids. I figure there will be a lot going on with Steve's family, and I'd like them to have a chance to enjoy without getting overwhelmed. We'll see -- if there are still too many we'll put off some until the day after Christmas or something like that.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Mama Ball Says
Well, it's mid December and the house is still at the half-baked stage. We did get the tree up, and this year decided NOT to put up any breakable ornaments -- only the ones that would survive everything short of a nuclear blast. Replaced the tinsel with red wooden beaded garland so Jaws wouldn't snarf up the tinsel and choke herself. I thought we had somewhat babyproofed things ...
And then Jake shoved his pirate ship under the tree, got it stuck somehow, and in attempting to yank it out, dumped the whole tree ass over teakettles on top of himself. All we saw were feet and ankles sticking out from the mess for a minute. I have no idea how he did it -- the base of the tree was full of water and it was heavy as hell -- not like he was swinging on the top branches or anything. Who knows. Anyway, after minor flooding and major cleanup, I found the two of them attempting to jump rope with the red bead garland that they had taken off the tree again.
I'm ready for an S&M Christmas, with a naked tree tied to the walls. I need my new meds to kick in soon.
With luck, I will have this place somewhat presentable by Christmas, ready for all the relations to show up and destroy it. I did get a few of my china houses up in the dining room, on the top shelf, and they look nice. I found the pieces for a nativity scene that I actually like, the stockings are up, and the Christmas books are out. I have the family boxes packed and ready to ship (even in the truck!) and the Christmas cards all mailed. What remains is to organize the gifts on this end and get wrapping/packaging, and then get everything else put away. That will be the real trick.
And then Jake shoved his pirate ship under the tree, got it stuck somehow, and in attempting to yank it out, dumped the whole tree ass over teakettles on top of himself. All we saw were feet and ankles sticking out from the mess for a minute. I have no idea how he did it -- the base of the tree was full of water and it was heavy as hell -- not like he was swinging on the top branches or anything. Who knows. Anyway, after minor flooding and major cleanup, I found the two of them attempting to jump rope with the red bead garland that they had taken off the tree again.
I'm ready for an S&M Christmas, with a naked tree tied to the walls. I need my new meds to kick in soon.
With luck, I will have this place somewhat presentable by Christmas, ready for all the relations to show up and destroy it. I did get a few of my china houses up in the dining room, on the top shelf, and they look nice. I found the pieces for a nativity scene that I actually like, the stockings are up, and the Christmas books are out. I have the family boxes packed and ready to ship (even in the truck!) and the Christmas cards all mailed. What remains is to organize the gifts on this end and get wrapping/packaging, and then get everything else put away. That will be the real trick.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Mama Ball Says
Thanksgiving was relatively easy here, once we got out of the house. Steve fried turkeys with friends and neighbors, Jake helped me make two cherry pies (which unfortunately didn't set up -- they were obviously juicier than the cookbook folks planned on). The kids looked cute when we went to Uncle Mike and Aunt Deb's house. They loved playing in Debbie and Mike's basement, whcih was toy heaven when they arrived and toy hell when they left. They had help -- Mike and Debs' two grandkids, Hunter and Meadow, were both there, so the four of them teamed up for destruction patrol. Other than a few howls of "Mine! Mine!" from Sadie and Meadow, things went very well and they had a good time. Amazingly, they ate dinner too!
I took a few pictures before the batteries died in my camera, and I didn't get around to replacing them while we were there. The pics are definitely not up to snuff, but at least you can see the kids. Pics are on the website
Finished the new Jonathan Stroud book Ptolemy's Gate, which is 3rd in the Bartimaeus trilogy and not yet out here in the states. Freya's friends and family across the pond are sending books our way, and boy is it fun to read them before anyone else can get them here! Ptolemy's Gate is excellent: well plotted, with dashes of Bartimaeus' trademark sarcasm and wit, especially in the footnotes. The book wraps up some of the other books' loose ends and answers questions I hadn't even considered (like why Bartimaeus keeps showing up in the form of an Egyptian boy). Great action, fantastic scenes with battles for London. Kitty Jones is backagain too, so this book is the most gender neutral out of the three as she plays an important role in the events and cataclysmic ending. Nice to have a leading lady who's intelligent on multiple levels, daring, and also a wiseass! Doormats need not apply for this one.
New reads coming up -- Michael Morpugo's collection of war short stories, Crank, and I have to finish Frankenstein this weekend so Dylan can stop bugging me about what I think!!
Took Jake to see Chicken Little this afternoon (too cold and windy to go do anything else) and he liked it a lot.
I took a few pictures before the batteries died in my camera, and I didn't get around to replacing them while we were there. The pics are definitely not up to snuff, but at least you can see the kids. Pics are on the website
Finished the new Jonathan Stroud book Ptolemy's Gate, which is 3rd in the Bartimaeus trilogy and not yet out here in the states. Freya's friends and family across the pond are sending books our way, and boy is it fun to read them before anyone else can get them here! Ptolemy's Gate is excellent: well plotted, with dashes of Bartimaeus' trademark sarcasm and wit, especially in the footnotes. The book wraps up some of the other books' loose ends and answers questions I hadn't even considered (like why Bartimaeus keeps showing up in the form of an Egyptian boy). Great action, fantastic scenes with battles for London. Kitty Jones is backagain too, so this book is the most gender neutral out of the three as she plays an important role in the events and cataclysmic ending. Nice to have a leading lady who's intelligent on multiple levels, daring, and also a wiseass! Doormats need not apply for this one.
New reads coming up -- Michael Morpugo's collection of war short stories, Crank, and I have to finish Frankenstein this weekend so Dylan can stop bugging me about what I think!!
Took Jake to see Chicken Little this afternoon (too cold and windy to go do anything else) and he liked it a lot.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Mama Ball Says
November 20
Where has this fall gone? I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving. On a good note, cooking Thursday will be minimal as we are headed to Stamford to the Lombardo house. We've donated through CMS and CDS to the local food bank, the kids have been coming home with mutant construction paper turkeys, and it FINALLY got cold here. The cats are eating like we never feed them and they are getting ahem...fluffier. Daisy's going to have to watch it or we're going to tattoo "WIDE LOAD" on her ass. The last time she got really fat, she couldn't get through the cat door to the basement, which is kind of a necessity as the litterbox is down there.
Jake and I just finished building a monster Thomas track all over the toy room floor: one giant hill, four bridges, two waterfalls and about eight intersecting loops. This will last until Godzilla gets up from her nap and goes on a rampage.
Saw the new Harry Potter flick on Friday, and LOVED it! There were things I wish they had included from the book, but if they had added everything I wanted to see, the movie would have been longer than "Gone With the Wind". The Media/CMS girls all went together to the theater in Greenwich. I have decided that I'm going to stick to the theater in Port Chester -- it is soooooo much nicer. They have stadium seating, better movie munchies, more parking that's free, and a cleaner place in general. Steve doesn't know it yet but I'm going to make him go see "Walk the Line" with me (revenge for "Jarhead").
Good reads lately: am in the middle of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, recommended by one of my 8th grade boys. Good stuff -- what a twist on the original tale! Very creepy.
Am almost ready to unveil the project I've been working on with Justine Domuracki's 8th graders: a website of their book reviews. So far, most of them are pretty good -- a couple outstanding, and the garbage ones didn't make it to the posting. I did get some of those kids back in to work with me on them, and most of those made the cut once they figured out what was wrong with what they had originally.
Have to get Isabel's 7th graders to come put their genetics projects in the media center display cases. Izzy had them take dominant and submissive genetic traits and create stuffed animal "children" from different stuffed animal "parents". Great idea, and they were very creative about it!
Tellebration went well, and the entire 6th grade took the day to tell their tales in small groups, in front of parents and staff. I think this is still officially the largest tellebration event for this age group, even though EMS is doing it with 7th grade. I don't know if they actually schedule it for the official Tellebration Day.
Where has this fall gone? I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving. On a good note, cooking Thursday will be minimal as we are headed to Stamford to the Lombardo house. We've donated through CMS and CDS to the local food bank, the kids have been coming home with mutant construction paper turkeys, and it FINALLY got cold here. The cats are eating like we never feed them and they are getting ahem...fluffier. Daisy's going to have to watch it or we're going to tattoo "WIDE LOAD" on her ass. The last time she got really fat, she couldn't get through the cat door to the basement, which is kind of a necessity as the litterbox is down there.
Jake and I just finished building a monster Thomas track all over the toy room floor: one giant hill, four bridges, two waterfalls and about eight intersecting loops. This will last until Godzilla gets up from her nap and goes on a rampage.
Saw the new Harry Potter flick on Friday, and LOVED it! There were things I wish they had included from the book, but if they had added everything I wanted to see, the movie would have been longer than "Gone With the Wind". The Media/CMS girls all went together to the theater in Greenwich. I have decided that I'm going to stick to the theater in Port Chester -- it is soooooo much nicer. They have stadium seating, better movie munchies, more parking that's free, and a cleaner place in general. Steve doesn't know it yet but I'm going to make him go see "Walk the Line" with me (revenge for "Jarhead").
Good reads lately: am in the middle of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, recommended by one of my 8th grade boys. Good stuff -- what a twist on the original tale! Very creepy.
Am almost ready to unveil the project I've been working on with Justine Domuracki's 8th graders: a website of their book reviews. So far, most of them are pretty good -- a couple outstanding, and the garbage ones didn't make it to the posting. I did get some of those kids back in to work with me on them, and most of those made the cut once they figured out what was wrong with what they had originally.
Have to get Isabel's 7th graders to come put their genetics projects in the media center display cases. Izzy had them take dominant and submissive genetic traits and create stuffed animal "children" from different stuffed animal "parents". Great idea, and they were very creative about it!
Tellebration went well, and the entire 6th grade took the day to tell their tales in small groups, in front of parents and staff. I think this is still officially the largest tellebration event for this age group, even though EMS is doing it with 7th grade. I don't know if they actually schedule it for the official Tellebration Day.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Mama Ball Says
October 18
Well, Halloween is a'comin, and we finally have all our ducks in a row. All I have left to do is put the star on my magic wand and hem Jake's dragon pants. Sadie's all set to be Chicken Little, Jake's thrilled to pieces with his red dragon costume, and I have all the pieces to the Fairy GodMama costume which will likely be my Halloween mainstay for the next several years. Steve? Well, I have a feeling he will put on his Cowboys jersey and be happiest handing out the candy. Last year we had some father trolling the neighborhood with his kids, and he was dressed in full Batman gear -- what fun! Jake is very excited about this, and as an added bonus, one of his classmates has a birthday party the day before which of course will be Halloween themed. Then there's the day at school with the costume parade, and then the evening events cuminating the whole shebang. The cats are the only ones who hate Halloween around here, because the damn doorbell rings all night and they freak out and run down the cellar stairs every time.
Read a couple of fantastic books this past weekend. Caroline Cooney's The Girl Who Invented Romance was funny! Girl trying to figure out the difference between love and romance builds a board game around that question and uses it as a project in her sociology class. Lots of fun, and she learns a lot watching the situations around her with family and friends. The board game is included in the back of the book -- we are laminating it this week and we'll be playing it in the media center soon. Twilight was another romance -- wonderful and unexpected. It's a high school romance/vampire/suspense story, and doesn't fit neatly into any box you try to shove it in! Great for my 8th grade girls -- excellent writing and plotting, and it's CLEAN! Unusual as most writers who are trying for a little edginess tend to throw at least one fairly graphic sex scene in for that purpose, and it doesn't always work. This works on so many levels -- I want to ditch everything and read it again!
The Radioactive Boy Scout was good too. Heavy on the science material, but that's necessary to understand how a kid with a Boy Scout Handbook and a 1950's era Golden Book of Chemistry could attempt to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard and have to have the EPA come do a fullscale cleanup. I just HAD to find out what in the world he read that made him think he could pull that off -- and how he got hold of radioactive stuff to boot. I ended the weekend with another Caroline Cooney book, her new one, Code Orange. High school procrastinator tries to pull together 10 pages of notes on a biology project on a virus, using old books his decorator mother bought from a doctor's estate, and winds up exposing himself to smallpox via some old powdery scabs in an envelope from the 1918 smallpox epidemic in Boston. Are they still viable? How can he tell? Now he HAS to do his research in order to figure out if he's going to die or not ... and in posting some of his information online he becomes a target for terrorists who see his potential as a biological weapon of mass destruction. Whew! What a ride!
It finally stopped raining here and Noah didn't show up, but the town got worried enough about the dams on the Byram River to call the state in the middle of the night last week, so we DID get a lot of rain (12 1/2 inches) and it did make things dicey here and there. The weather is now much better, the kids have been outside playing every day and wearing themselves out, and it looks like it will be dry for a while now. Can't believe we have ANOTHER hurricane brewing (Wilma). Enough already! At least it doesn't appear that it will head for the upper Gulf Coast (yet).
Powerball is tomorrow night, and there are lines all over Greenwich with people from all over making stops to buy their tickets for the 340 millionish jackpot. I'm going to ask Steve to go buy a couple quick picks tomorrow just for fun, as there probably won't be lines up in Danbury like there are here. Wish us luck! Maybe if we win a little we can afford chairs to go with the dining room table we ordered last weekend!! :)
Well, Halloween is a'comin, and we finally have all our ducks in a row. All I have left to do is put the star on my magic wand and hem Jake's dragon pants. Sadie's all set to be Chicken Little, Jake's thrilled to pieces with his red dragon costume, and I have all the pieces to the Fairy GodMama costume which will likely be my Halloween mainstay for the next several years. Steve? Well, I have a feeling he will put on his Cowboys jersey and be happiest handing out the candy. Last year we had some father trolling the neighborhood with his kids, and he was dressed in full Batman gear -- what fun! Jake is very excited about this, and as an added bonus, one of his classmates has a birthday party the day before which of course will be Halloween themed. Then there's the day at school with the costume parade, and then the evening events cuminating the whole shebang. The cats are the only ones who hate Halloween around here, because the damn doorbell rings all night and they freak out and run down the cellar stairs every time.
Read a couple of fantastic books this past weekend. Caroline Cooney's The Girl Who Invented Romance was funny! Girl trying to figure out the difference between love and romance builds a board game around that question and uses it as a project in her sociology class. Lots of fun, and she learns a lot watching the situations around her with family and friends. The board game is included in the back of the book -- we are laminating it this week and we'll be playing it in the media center soon. Twilight was another romance -- wonderful and unexpected. It's a high school romance/vampire/suspense story, and doesn't fit neatly into any box you try to shove it in! Great for my 8th grade girls -- excellent writing and plotting, and it's CLEAN! Unusual as most writers who are trying for a little edginess tend to throw at least one fairly graphic sex scene in for that purpose, and it doesn't always work. This works on so many levels -- I want to ditch everything and read it again!
The Radioactive Boy Scout was good too. Heavy on the science material, but that's necessary to understand how a kid with a Boy Scout Handbook and a 1950's era Golden Book of Chemistry could attempt to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard and have to have the EPA come do a fullscale cleanup. I just HAD to find out what in the world he read that made him think he could pull that off -- and how he got hold of radioactive stuff to boot. I ended the weekend with another Caroline Cooney book, her new one, Code Orange. High school procrastinator tries to pull together 10 pages of notes on a biology project on a virus, using old books his decorator mother bought from a doctor's estate, and winds up exposing himself to smallpox via some old powdery scabs in an envelope from the 1918 smallpox epidemic in Boston. Are they still viable? How can he tell? Now he HAS to do his research in order to figure out if he's going to die or not ... and in posting some of his information online he becomes a target for terrorists who see his potential as a biological weapon of mass destruction. Whew! What a ride!
It finally stopped raining here and Noah didn't show up, but the town got worried enough about the dams on the Byram River to call the state in the middle of the night last week, so we DID get a lot of rain (12 1/2 inches) and it did make things dicey here and there. The weather is now much better, the kids have been outside playing every day and wearing themselves out, and it looks like it will be dry for a while now. Can't believe we have ANOTHER hurricane brewing (Wilma). Enough already! At least it doesn't appear that it will head for the upper Gulf Coast (yet).
Powerball is tomorrow night, and there are lines all over Greenwich with people from all over making stops to buy their tickets for the 340 millionish jackpot. I'm going to ask Steve to go buy a couple quick picks tomorrow just for fun, as there probably won't be lines up in Danbury like there are here. Wish us luck! Maybe if we win a little we can afford chairs to go with the dining room table we ordered last weekend!! :)
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Mama Ball Says
Had Open House for the 7th and 8th grade parents tonight. I think it went very well overall, but it was a pain in the neck late this afternoon because we couldn't begin the presentation setups for the teams until after all the kids had left, and then I had to leave to go pick up my munchkins. I think I have just been getting too tired lately and I can't seem to catch up -- feel like I'm constantly playing catchup which is irritating. I don't mind doing that occasionally but on a constant basis it is pretty wearing. I decided tonight that I am going to start having "Guilt-free No Days" where I say no to everything until I have caught up on what I already have on my plate. Tomorrow should be a good starting off point for that.
Jake finally decided on his Halloween costume this weekend ( a dragon) and we found two on ebay: a red one and a green one. He liked the red one (his favorite color), so we bid on that one and won it. He was thrilled to pieces! So we are all literary characters for Halloween this year: Sadie is going as Chicken Little, Jake will be the dragon Thorn (from the cover of Christopher Paolini's newest book, Eldest), and I get to be the Fairy GodMama. I decided that this year I was going to put together a really fun costume, and when I found a really funky fancy gold lace dress on ebay, it made sense to do this ... so now I have the tiara, dress, and makings of a magic wand, which is this weekend's project. When you work in a middle school, you can still do this sort of thing and get away with it! I love Halloween.
We had our first "real" playdate at our house yesterday. Jake's friend Chris came over with his older brother and they all played together for a couple hours. It was nice because I got to have some grownup conversation with Marilyn, Chris' mother! I was amazed that the boys really didn't trash the house. They were all great! I think the chocolate chip cookies helped. Sadie kept checking them out, but she was good too -- didn't get in their way or do her Godzilla act, which was nothing short of miraculous.
We measured the kids last night on the basement door. Jake grew just over an inch since June, and Sadie grew two and a half inches. Whew! The amazing part is that Jake did all that growing eating next to nothing for the most part, and Sadie has been eating everything in sight. They are both among the taller kids in their respective classes.
Found two new Robert Sabuda pop-up books at Costco, so I picked them up for the kids for Christmas. I love his pop-ups -- they are absolutely ART. I got the Winter's Tale book for Charlotte and Sadie, and the Dinosaur book for Jake and Owen. I really like getting each kid a book for Christmas. Must be that inner librarian coming out of me. ;)
It's going to be a busy next couple of weeks for us, but I am hoping that things will settle down a bit in November. Steve told me that we are doing Christmas Day here at our house this year again, so we have to get busy and figure out what we're doing for dining room furniture. I don't want to have folding tables and folding chairs again this year! We found a nice table at the Lillian August outlet in Norwalk, and the price was reasonable, but the chairs were *ahem* an arm and a leg, as were the china cabinet and server pieces. We'll see what I can get him to agree to. Wish me luck.
Jake finally decided on his Halloween costume this weekend ( a dragon) and we found two on ebay: a red one and a green one. He liked the red one (his favorite color), so we bid on that one and won it. He was thrilled to pieces! So we are all literary characters for Halloween this year: Sadie is going as Chicken Little, Jake will be the dragon Thorn (from the cover of Christopher Paolini's newest book, Eldest), and I get to be the Fairy GodMama. I decided that this year I was going to put together a really fun costume, and when I found a really funky fancy gold lace dress on ebay, it made sense to do this ... so now I have the tiara, dress, and makings of a magic wand, which is this weekend's project. When you work in a middle school, you can still do this sort of thing and get away with it! I love Halloween.
We had our first "real" playdate at our house yesterday. Jake's friend Chris came over with his older brother and they all played together for a couple hours. It was nice because I got to have some grownup conversation with Marilyn, Chris' mother! I was amazed that the boys really didn't trash the house. They were all great! I think the chocolate chip cookies helped. Sadie kept checking them out, but she was good too -- didn't get in their way or do her Godzilla act, which was nothing short of miraculous.
We measured the kids last night on the basement door. Jake grew just over an inch since June, and Sadie grew two and a half inches. Whew! The amazing part is that Jake did all that growing eating next to nothing for the most part, and Sadie has been eating everything in sight. They are both among the taller kids in their respective classes.
Found two new Robert Sabuda pop-up books at Costco, so I picked them up for the kids for Christmas. I love his pop-ups -- they are absolutely ART. I got the Winter's Tale book for Charlotte and Sadie, and the Dinosaur book for Jake and Owen. I really like getting each kid a book for Christmas. Must be that inner librarian coming out of me. ;)
It's going to be a busy next couple of weeks for us, but I am hoping that things will settle down a bit in November. Steve told me that we are doing Christmas Day here at our house this year again, so we have to get busy and figure out what we're doing for dining room furniture. I don't want to have folding tables and folding chairs again this year! We found a nice table at the Lillian August outlet in Norwalk, and the price was reasonable, but the chairs were *ahem* an arm and a leg, as were the china cabinet and server pieces. We'll see what I can get him to agree to. Wish me luck.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Mama Ball Says
Can't believe it's October already. Everyone down south is fine, and Mom and Dad are getting ready to spend most of this month traveling -- first to Arkansas for flyfishing, then on to Texas to visit friends and family. They are supposed to go to Austin and see cousin Scharon's boys play football, so that ought to be an experience. There's no high school football like Texas high school football.
Jake and Sadie have had mild colds all week (and were nice enough to share with us, so we've all been hitting the cold meds and Kleenex). Hopefully we will get a break from that soon. Steve went into the city with Peter and Ross to go out to dinner at Sparks last night. They had a good time and met the mayor of Bridgeport there. Jake and Sadie and I were all in bed VERY EARLY!
I spent the night Friday night at school -- we had our second annual Student Government Constitution Convention and sleepover in the media center. Much less constituting this year (just amending last year's) and a lot more fun stuff! This year it was the boys who were up all night, so I got a lot less sleep, but we still had a really good time. This is my major time contribution to the group as their meetings mostly take place when I can't be there. I think this year I'll be doing more with them, though, as they've started asking if they can have their own website (of course the answer was a resounding yes from me) and they will need a lot of guidance on that part. Great group of kids!
Jake and Sadie have had mild colds all week (and were nice enough to share with us, so we've all been hitting the cold meds and Kleenex). Hopefully we will get a break from that soon. Steve went into the city with Peter and Ross to go out to dinner at Sparks last night. They had a good time and met the mayor of Bridgeport there. Jake and Sadie and I were all in bed VERY EARLY!
I spent the night Friday night at school -- we had our second annual Student Government Constitution Convention and sleepover in the media center. Much less constituting this year (just amending last year's) and a lot more fun stuff! This year it was the boys who were up all night, so I got a lot less sleep, but we still had a really good time. This is my major time contribution to the group as their meetings mostly take place when I can't be there. I think this year I'll be doing more with them, though, as they've started asking if they can have their own website (of course the answer was a resounding yes from me) and they will need a lot of guidance on that part. Great group of kids!
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Mama Ball Says
Been worrying a bit about the family down in Texas. I think most of them have the sense to get out of Rita's way, but who knows. Looks like Port Arthur may take a direct hit, but we are still a day and half away from that and anything can happen. Hope Dad's coonass relations get the hell out of Dodge.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Mama Ball Says
Sunday ...
Great quote from Jake yesterday. He and Steve were getting ready to drive to a birthday party in Norwalk, and he turned to Steve and said, "Do you have a erection?" To which Steve replied, "No, but I do have THE DIRECTIONS." It took everything I had not to burst out laughing.
Sadie has begun making a high pitched squealing noise today that elicits the "nails-down-the-chalkboard" reaction in most humans. I know this because she was doing it through Super Stop and Shop this morning, and I got to see a variety of people having the same experience, including one poor hungover guy whom I really felt sorry for. I'm thinking I should investigate whether or not I can record the noise and sell it to Hollywood horror/alien/slasher flick makers. I'm sure they could dream up some bloodthirsty psychotic bizarro thing that would be expected to make this sound.
Sadie has also started doing the "I Want" dance, which is her dancing up and down on her toes until she gets what she wants. Most of the time we can figure out what that is, but if not, the I Want Dance devolves quickly into the I'm Pissed Tantrum, which involves lying facefirst on the floor or driveway, screaming and crying and kicking feet. Stepping over her and ignoring this tends to work best.
I am drowning in laundry, mostly because it was just too hot and sticky to get it done yesterday. Hopefully we will all have enough clothes done by tonight to make it through the week.
The fridge crisis is over, with the old one off to the dump. The one from the old upstairs apartment is now in our kitchen, and it is a good bit smaller than the old one so I am going to have to pay attention to things and probably go to the grocery store for perishables more often. On the up side of this, I cleaned out an amazing amount of science-projectish items from the fridge and realized that I hadn't done a total cleanout in at least two years. Spill wipeups, yes, total take everything out and disinfect the whole thing, no. Yeeeeccchhhhhh. Gotta put that on my calandar every couple of months. It was beyond nasty.
Great quote from Jake yesterday. He and Steve were getting ready to drive to a birthday party in Norwalk, and he turned to Steve and said, "Do you have a erection?" To which Steve replied, "No, but I do have THE DIRECTIONS." It took everything I had not to burst out laughing.
Sadie has begun making a high pitched squealing noise today that elicits the "nails-down-the-chalkboard" reaction in most humans. I know this because she was doing it through Super Stop and Shop this morning, and I got to see a variety of people having the same experience, including one poor hungover guy whom I really felt sorry for. I'm thinking I should investigate whether or not I can record the noise and sell it to Hollywood horror/alien/slasher flick makers. I'm sure they could dream up some bloodthirsty psychotic bizarro thing that would be expected to make this sound.
Sadie has also started doing the "I Want" dance, which is her dancing up and down on her toes until she gets what she wants. Most of the time we can figure out what that is, but if not, the I Want Dance devolves quickly into the I'm Pissed Tantrum, which involves lying facefirst on the floor or driveway, screaming and crying and kicking feet. Stepping over her and ignoring this tends to work best.
I am drowning in laundry, mostly because it was just too hot and sticky to get it done yesterday. Hopefully we will all have enough clothes done by tonight to make it through the week.
The fridge crisis is over, with the old one off to the dump. The one from the old upstairs apartment is now in our kitchen, and it is a good bit smaller than the old one so I am going to have to pay attention to things and probably go to the grocery store for perishables more often. On the up side of this, I cleaned out an amazing amount of science-projectish items from the fridge and realized that I hadn't done a total cleanout in at least two years. Spill wipeups, yes, total take everything out and disinfect the whole thing, no. Yeeeeccchhhhhh. Gotta put that on my calandar every couple of months. It was beyond nasty.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Mama Ball Says
September 17
Well, we started soccer again, this time at the field at Byram Beach. Jake's team this go-round is the Storms, but today they were more the Passing Showers. They didn't score a single goal! They did have lots of fun with us though. Coach Mickey is the official head coach of our team, and I just run around and shout encouragements (and occasionally kick the ball back into the field for the kids). Jake had a good time. Coach Lame came over to harass me about needing to run around and run off some of my lunches, so I laughed and smacked him. Coach Lame is really Richard Lane, who is on staff at CMS and works with me. He's running the soccer program for the town.
The refrigerator is working on a slow death, so Mike is coming over this afternoon to help Steve move the upstairs apartment fridge down from the attic. I really want a big freezer for the basement so I don't have to crowd the kitchen one or cross my fingers that the garage fridge will stay cold enough. We'll see is vacuuming out the coils and cleaning the outside pieces of the fridge will resurrect it for a little while -- it may become my basement fridge if that happens.
Sadie is doing better with Miss Lillian at preschool. She didn't cry at all Friday when I dropped her off, mostly because Lillian had her holding hands with Maeve and the three of them went to go see the fish tank in the office to say good morning to the fishies. :)
Work was a disaster zone all this week. I never want to hear "Read 180" or "corrupt printer groups" ever again. Our nice new Tiger servers are apparently eating our new staff preferences and new student information for midnight snacks, as I haven't been able to keep those stable at all. Scarlett keeps popping into my head: "After all, tomorrow IS another day!" Naturally, Rhett shows up when everyone starts moaning about things: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." With luck, things will settle out some over the next week or so. If I didn't have Nicole and Freya, I would be so far down the rabbit hole I don't think I'd ever surface again. I'm loading some new software, OmniGraffle, on my laptop for use in building websites, so we'll see how that works. The new machines at school have the new version of Dreamweaver on them and there are plenty of quirky little differences. We'll see if we can find all the things the kids need to build their websites.
Good reads this week: Finished The Riddle, which is the second book in the Pellinor series (sequel to The Gift). Excellent fantasy, very strong female protagonist who is shaping up to make some difficult choices in the next book and looks to have some amazing powers/abilities and secrets at her disposal. I've also loved Eldest, sequel to Eragon. My kids who have read it have more often than not been disappointed at the ending and mad about part of it, but it seemed very much like The Empire Strikes Back to me. Definitely necessary for the progression of the story and pretty much a setup for the third book rather than a story on its own. This is one that you really have to read Eragon first to understand and "get". Have started the third book in the Mortal Engines series, Infernal Devices,which is shaping up to be another roaring adventure like Mortal Engines and Predator's Gold. I'll let you know what I think.
Well, we started soccer again, this time at the field at Byram Beach. Jake's team this go-round is the Storms, but today they were more the Passing Showers. They didn't score a single goal! They did have lots of fun with us though. Coach Mickey is the official head coach of our team, and I just run around and shout encouragements (and occasionally kick the ball back into the field for the kids). Jake had a good time. Coach Lame came over to harass me about needing to run around and run off some of my lunches, so I laughed and smacked him. Coach Lame is really Richard Lane, who is on staff at CMS and works with me. He's running the soccer program for the town.
The refrigerator is working on a slow death, so Mike is coming over this afternoon to help Steve move the upstairs apartment fridge down from the attic. I really want a big freezer for the basement so I don't have to crowd the kitchen one or cross my fingers that the garage fridge will stay cold enough. We'll see is vacuuming out the coils and cleaning the outside pieces of the fridge will resurrect it for a little while -- it may become my basement fridge if that happens.
Sadie is doing better with Miss Lillian at preschool. She didn't cry at all Friday when I dropped her off, mostly because Lillian had her holding hands with Maeve and the three of them went to go see the fish tank in the office to say good morning to the fishies. :)
Work was a disaster zone all this week. I never want to hear "Read 180" or "corrupt printer groups" ever again. Our nice new Tiger servers are apparently eating our new staff preferences and new student information for midnight snacks, as I haven't been able to keep those stable at all. Scarlett keeps popping into my head: "After all, tomorrow IS another day!" Naturally, Rhett shows up when everyone starts moaning about things: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." With luck, things will settle out some over the next week or so. If I didn't have Nicole and Freya, I would be so far down the rabbit hole I don't think I'd ever surface again. I'm loading some new software, OmniGraffle, on my laptop for use in building websites, so we'll see how that works. The new machines at school have the new version of Dreamweaver on them and there are plenty of quirky little differences. We'll see if we can find all the things the kids need to build their websites.
Good reads this week: Finished The Riddle, which is the second book in the Pellinor series (sequel to The Gift). Excellent fantasy, very strong female protagonist who is shaping up to make some difficult choices in the next book and looks to have some amazing powers/abilities and secrets at her disposal. I've also loved Eldest, sequel to Eragon. My kids who have read it have more often than not been disappointed at the ending and mad about part of it, but it seemed very much like The Empire Strikes Back to me. Definitely necessary for the progression of the story and pretty much a setup for the third book rather than a story on its own. This is one that you really have to read Eragon first to understand and "get". Have started the third book in the Mortal Engines series, Infernal Devices,which is shaping up to be another roaring adventure like Mortal Engines and Predator's Gold. I'll let you know what I think.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Mama Ball Says
Sept 10, 2005
Took the kids to the Bronx Zoo for the first time today. Once we were at the zoo, it was great -- took the overhead tram ride and rode the new bug carousel, and saw lots of animals. Getting to the zoo was...interesting. The NYPD had shut down Pelham Parkway westbound so we took a very scenic detour through the Bronx in an attempt to find the zoo through the 'hood. We discovered that on every block in the Bronx there is a nail salon, a bodega or deli, some sort of physician's office(often for odd ailments), and at least one storefront law firm. We liked the one that listed all problems it dealt with on the window: "bankruptcy, wills, divorce, slip and fall." What if you just slip and don't really fall? Will they still take your case? From the looks of the storefront, they probably take chickens in payment for services.
Anyway, the kids had fun at the zoo. It is so big we couldn't do everything! I think we maybe saw about a third to a fourth of the zoo. The new bug carousel is a hoot! Jake rode the praying mantis, Sadie rode the grasshopper and I rode some weird blue bug. one of the bench seats that doesn't move up and down on the carousel is carved into a ball of dung being pushed by a dung beetle! Someone had a sense of humor when they designed this.
Took the kids to the Bronx Zoo for the first time today. Once we were at the zoo, it was great -- took the overhead tram ride and rode the new bug carousel, and saw lots of animals. Getting to the zoo was...interesting. The NYPD had shut down Pelham Parkway westbound so we took a very scenic detour through the Bronx in an attempt to find the zoo through the 'hood. We discovered that on every block in the Bronx there is a nail salon, a bodega or deli, some sort of physician's office(often for odd ailments), and at least one storefront law firm. We liked the one that listed all problems it dealt with on the window: "bankruptcy, wills, divorce, slip and fall." What if you just slip and don't really fall? Will they still take your case? From the looks of the storefront, they probably take chickens in payment for services.
Anyway, the kids had fun at the zoo. It is so big we couldn't do everything! I think we maybe saw about a third to a fourth of the zoo. The new bug carousel is a hoot! Jake rode the praying mantis, Sadie rode the grasshopper and I rode some weird blue bug. one of the bench seats that doesn't move up and down on the carousel is carved into a ball of dung being pushed by a dung beetle! Someone had a sense of humor when they designed this.
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