Rock the Vote

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Flushed Away

Setting: On the Elmo potty, playing with "Shark" C-man: Shark has to poop. Me: Great, do you have to go too? C-man: Yes, but not when I'm at school. Me: Why won't you go at school? Your teachers are there to help you. C-man: Because I'll fall in. Me: You won't fall in. It's a little kid's toilet. C-man: But I'm a big kid. Me: That's right, so you won't fall in. C-man: But yes I will. I'll fall in and Kelsie will flush me away. ********************* By the way, no shit:

Oh my...

Remember when you had a navel ring and then all the high school girls started to get them? Yeah, not so cool anymore. Well, my mom is blogging. Holy balls. Check her out at: seniorreport.blogspot.com. I'm taking C-man to finally get his 3 year-old photo this afternoon. He's relatively scratch-free, so hopefully he'll maintain that throughout the day. I totally forgot about the appointment until I got to work, so I will have to go home, steam his clothes, race to daycare, make sure his hair is down, and then get him to the picture. Awesome. I love when I plan so well. And can someone tell me how this equates? Are China, Myanmar, Darfur, and Tibet no longer news? Because this is quite a stretch... http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/29/news/companies/dunkin_donuts.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes + =

Reusable Wednesday

With the weather being all haywire, it's just one more reason to be earth conscious. So here are a few of my favorite "green" items:

• Reusable shopping totes
• 100% recycled plastic garbage bags
• Our compost bin
• The brand new butterfly garden in front of our house
• Organic vegetable garden along my house

So do you part to get this crazy pneumonia front to go away so I can get some sleep!

Memorial Day

I don't think that plant is going to fit...

After a fabulous breakfast at the corner VIP table at the local IHOP, we went geocaching again. Just two quick ones before we started planting again. Then we went to the local garden center to get MORE plants. I got my butterfly bush, though, which should be cool. Now I have to figure out where in the hell to put it! I've started on a new knitting project to use up some extra yarn I had leftover. I've decided since I'm done with all the baby knitting, I should use up the yarn I have before buying new stashes of crap I won't get to for months. We'll see how long this lasts. I seem to have a lot of "leftovers" lying about. My chocolate ice cream turned out. Guess reading the instruction manual does help. Who knew? I'm so thankful I have one more day off before needing to go back to work. This 3 1/2 day weekend stuff is what it's all about.

Ice Cream Madness

So I decided yesterday on my way home from work at noon (had a half-day) that it'd be great to make ice cream with C-man. So I went and got a machine before my massage (heaven), and then we started to make it. Except, I proved Beerman's point that despite writing technical manuals for 5 years, don't ever read them myself. Yes, I screwed it up and it took all night to finish. So we've decided to try again, this time C-man wants chocolate ice cream. We'll see if I can screw this up again.

This morning we read that smart people have gardens. So, off we went to an herb and heirloom fair. (Okay, it was already in the plans for the last 2 months, but it made me feel better to justify that I was improving my IQ while lightening my wallet). It opened at 9, and we got there at 9:30. Holy crap! People had brought their own wagons and carts and dollies! As we were checking out, at 10:30, about half of the 14,000 plants they had for sale were totally wiped out. Beerman said next year we're there waiting at the door at 8:30. And I had to agree with him. The plants were great, and pretty cheap.

Then, of course, we picked up a few geocaches. All of the travel bugs we got up north are now distributed. I have one to set out, but only picked it up last weekend. Hey Mom, we're at 69...Well, off to finish off the chocolate ice cream mixture before C-man gets up and wants to put it in the machine and ask, "Is it ready now? Can I eat it now? Mommy, I want ice cream!"

Wondering things

So every day I come home, Mr. Squirrel runs across the power line at the same spot on my drive home. How do I know it's MY Mr. Squirrel? Because he has a stub of a tail, that's how. So here are my thoughts on the possibilities as to how this is happening:

• There are a gazillion stubby-tailed squirrels at Range Line and Mill
• Mr. Squirrel has a job, quitting time is 5:30, and he needs to run back to Mrs. Squirrel
• Mr. Squirrel is neurotic, spending his whole day running back and forth over the power line
• It's a vast squirrel-wing conspiracy to drive me nuts (pun intended)

Feel free to submit your own thoughts...

Hanging on by a thread

Happy Wednesday!

It was pointed out to me this morning that the crazies at my work don't greet you with "good morning," as a normal human would do, but cheerily proclaim, "Happy Wednesday!" with a giant smile. Now, I know one of our service standards is "Smile and say hi," but this is a bit out of control. So I proclaim to not fall into the cult, and will continue to just utter a polite "good morning" to those I meet. **************************** So West Virginia and Kentucky voted for Hillary. Hmmmm... low education, racism in the South, and the fact that their delegates don't matter anymore... Hardly a "victory" if you know what I mean. Hillary is starting to look like Huckabee these days. **************************** I watched Idol last night. I still love David Cook, but he sure didn't bring any excitement last night. Not that it matters, anyone see Fantasia sing the other week? Wow. Anyhow, dialidol.com is predicting a major Cook win, which is a bit surprising to me. Good, but surprising.

Tuesday in a Tizzy

Beerman has a BFD all-day technical presentation today. He was finishing it late-late last night. This morning I proofed it. He went to save it and the whole thing froze. Enter: official panic mode. We scrambled to get my edits back in, but the poor thing had to then re-create everything he did late last night. I'm not sure why somewhere in the middle of all that work the save button wasn't ever hit... but I've done dumber things. Anyhow, mix that with C-man whining "I want to take my Baby to school!" and you have my morning. Late for my early team meeting, which was okay, but still in a bit of a frazzle when I arrived. Luckily, they had coffee waiting for me. Nothing says Calm-me-down like a cup of caffeine. In knitting k-news (I'm so funny), I finished a baby girl shrug. I'll take a photo of the one I did and post it. It's sooo-oooo cute. I have another one to go, and then to finish a cute little hat. Then I can ship them out to the new babies of friends we've recently had born. American Idol is on tonight. Let's hope America gets it right and sends that little kid straight to the Disney channel where he belongs.

Must-Have Monday

Here are my latest must-haves: For all those ticks the dogs picked up while at my parents despite of the Frontline we used: To keep C-man busy while we were planting. This way he can "help" us dig while we plant. (Thank you Mom and Dad for this one!)

The Garmin GPSMap 60cx we purchased last summer. Geocaches run scared:

And this website to help us plant this weekend:http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/easy/butterfly-garden-plan/

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Today is my 7th wedding anniversary with Beerman. He has to work late. Boo. At least we celebrated last weekend and this weekend, so I can't complain. Plus, daycare is running a late-night on Friday, so we'll go out again. All in all, we've celebrated our anniversary a lot.

But wow, 7 years already. Isn't it the 7 year Itch? In the immortal words of my mother, "Better not be!" Like sands through the hourglass...

Behold... A Butterfly Garden

You wouldn't think this took much work to build. Well, you'd be wrong. I have some more plants I want to add yet (butterfly bush, native grasses, a few lilies, and 2 more rose bushes), as well as a walkway and border, but man, it's such a large gob of clay space to fill. Here's to fast growin' and getting rid of the torn up Sanford and Son look!

Happy Sunday

We had a lazy day today. After breakfast and buying a new rototiller (happy anniversary to us) for the butterfly garden we're building, we went geocaching. We got 3 today, and 1 was a multi-cache. Beerman got the find on this ridiculous one. Let's see if you can find it! Hint: he's looking at it. It was a great morning to get out and breathe some air.

He had to bend the tree across the stream so I could open it!

Funny Friday

Only I could be this ridiculous...

I Heart John Edwards

I know he's not a presidential candidate anymore, but hearing him speak again last night made me realize how much I'd missed him. Maybe Attorney General?

I'm getting my hair cut later today by another new stylist. This one came recommended, but by someone who has straight hair. I'm always skeptical about that. I really liked my last cut, but the man was so violent with those scissors, I was a bit frightened. Plus, there was no head massage. I'm not paying that much for a haircut without the head massage. So, hopefully this goes well. If not, it grows.

So here's some crappy stuff. I've been hurting a lot lately. I try not to talk about it because it depresses me, and when I say something people either act like I'm making it up or they try to "fix" it. But I'm getting so depressed about how quickly it's sliding downhill, that I figured writing it out wouldn't make it any worse. I have my next rheumatologist visit this summer. And I think I've come to terms with my life of being drug-free as over. The mere thought of sitting down for a 2-hour IV of poison every other week makes me ill. But the obscene lack of sleep I've been getting, piled on top of the fact that I can't even open a damn jar anymore is not doing anyone any good. I think this is what is called leaving the state of denial/anger and moving into depression/acceptance. See, recognizing it means I'm out of denial. Now don't we all feel better?

Good News Wednesday

With all the bad crap happening in the world, it's time for something positive. Here are my top 3 today: 1. Gagne successfully closed a game. 2.

3. The sweater I made for my Mom actually fit:

Return from Tickville or A Fisherman is Born

Beerman and I had differing thoughts on the title of this post. I think it's because he wasn't the one finding all the ticks! Either way, sadly, the long weekend is over.

Everything's going haywire

In addition to every fiber in my being collapsing into itself, I can't stop sneezing, and my hair is a complete wreck. To add to the fun, after months of a work project, it is hanging on the precipice because it doesn't "feel right" to someone. I had a gargantuan cream cheese frosted cinnamon roll for breakfast to help make me feel better. And then I just felt crappy because I know sugar aids inflammation. And thus is the vicious circle of my life. The really phenomonal news is I'm heading out of work to pick up C-man and go grocery and booze shopping. (Not necessarily in that order.) Then we're packing and heading north tomorrow morning. 5 days of non-work, non-responsibile living. Yippee! ******************************** So I have a new hated thing people say... "flush that out". Um... no, it's "flesh out" something. You flush a toilet. To “flesh out” an idea is to give it substance, as a sculptor adds clay flesh to a skeletal armature. To “flush out” a criminal is to drive him or her out into the open. The latter term is derived from bird-hunting, in which one flushes out a covey of quail. If you are trying to develop something further, use “flesh”; but if you are trying to reveal something hitherto concealed, use “flush.”

Post-Birthday Taco Tuesday

Yes, yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, but if Taco Johns says today is Taco Tuesday, then who am I to argue with that? I got soooo many birthday wishes yesterday from all over the world. Just when I was getting all woeful about not having a good enough circle of friends (Real Age told me that, after all, so it must be true!), I have an e-mail box full of well-wishers. So that was a nice little pick-me-up out of my well of self-pity. A co-worker took me out for Indian food at lunch, which was nice. Today, my team is taking me out. There really is something to this birthday week thing. I went to knitting last night. I'm starting a new cap-sleeve cardigan pattern with this yarn. It looks great knitted up, but man is it a pain to knit. The pattern is super detailed, so 12 hours in the car this weekend should help with some good concentration time so I don't end up with a cable in the wrong direction. Well, enjoy your beautiful day!

Happy Cinco de Me

Happy Birthday to me. And so it begins... or ends, depending on how you look at it. As a kid, I, oh, I don’t know what you call it… dream sounds so flaky, and visions happen only to crazy ladies named Aleta who have shrines in their entryways and annually make the pilgrimage to Madjagoria. Anyhow, as a kid I became convinced that the last birthday I’d ever see was 32. And so this is it. Scoff if you may, I dont' really give a shit. I've had better people than you try to convince me otherwise. Anyhow, I brought bagels to work to celebrate, and am going to meet friends to knit tonight. Beerman had no plans, so I figured, what the hell, I might as well at least celebrate. And for the record, if I do make it to 33, it’ll be one hell of a fiesta.

Fine Day of Perfection

Apparently the Dopper 8000 doesn't know what it's talking about. There is no rain. Anyhow, after a great breakfast of Greek honey yogurt and poached eggs (C-man of course had bacon), we went to get some seeds and dirt for my new greenhouse. Then we went to the lake to hang out for a bit while C-man threw rocks into the water. Afterward, I came home and planted my seeds (cucumber, eggplant, beans, sunflowers, microgreens and spinach). Ahhh... Pre-birthday bliss... Checking out a ladybug: Throwing rocks:

Not to be outdone by C-man:

Pure Joy

This week, leaves sprung out onto the trees. I have to say that the morning I wake up and see leaves on the trees is one of the most blissful days of the year. It never ceases to put me into a place of hope, awe, and pure joy over the wonder of it. We went to Trader Joe's today. C-man, of course, got a balloon. Then he lost it in the parking garage. And then Beerman retrieved it again. The wails of horror became squeals of joy. Oh, to be young again. Another moment of joy came when the Taylorfornians sent an awesome edible bouquet. C-man was so excited, that despite having just thrown down approximately a pound of bacon, proceeded to go to town on the grapes. A chocolate-covered strawberry got thrown in for good measure.

The Presents are Coming! The Presents are Coming!

It's a little slice of heaven to come home each day and see that the UPS guy had been there earlier. I feel such a close and personal bond with UPS guy, that it's so nice to know that he has remembered my birthday. I haven't been able to open several of them, as instructed by Beerman, but I did get a fabulous set of dishes yesterday from my mom.

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It's Friday, which is always delightful. I had breakfast with a co-worker this morning. When the day starts off with scrambled eggs, pancakes and bacon, what can go wrong? Well, maybe the impending storms of doom that are coming, but we'll worry about that later when I'm immobile.

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Once upon a time, Hemingway was challenged to write someone's life story in 6 words. He did so, by writing: "For sale, baby shoes, never worn". A book has been created out of this, and it's popping up all over the web to create your own six-word memoir. I've been trying to figure mine out, but can't quite hit on it. So far, this is what I've got for drafts:

• Having the time of my life
• Fragile body, whole soul, uncertain future
• Should have traveled the world more

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Yesterday I took the Real Age test. It says I'm one year older than I really am. How can someone who never exercises and has an autoimmune disorder that means almost-certain lymphoma or leukemia later in life be considered only one year older than I am? I don't care if it was on Oprah. That test is bunk.

Stand Up Kind of Guy

C-man now stands to pee. He learned how at the Brewers game the other day when there was no other option, and he loves it. "Look at it splash!" Great. I now have a new addiction to add to the long list of addictions: http://play.typeracer.com/. 95 wpm is my fastest so far. I vow to break 100! Mwah-ha-ha-ha! Yes, my life is lame. I went out last night to the Milwaukee Rep to see Armadale. The drinks ahead of time and meeting some new people was fabulous fun. The play itself was really lame. I think the combination of not having slept the night before (damn these storms), having been up on my feet all day long for work, and then sitting down in one spot uncomfortably for 2 hours was a recipe for disaster. But it was fun getting out with people. C-man, of course, was still up when I got home, but then again, I didn't really expect him not to be. On a political note, Joe Andrew is switching to be an Obama Bar-acker. Could Hillary just please do the same so we can stop handing McCain this election on a silver platter. Did anyone hear this joker on CNN this morning? He wouldn't talk about his policies, only about his hatred for Tom Friedman. Really?!? And Hillary, I have a life-sized cutout of you in my basement. I used to love you. Wanted to be you. Worshipped you and your ability to stand up for who you were. No more. You and your ugly old-school 3 a.m. politics should go back to New York Arkansas Chicago Pennsylvania wherever the hell you are claiming to be from today and stop "Perot-ing" this election!