2/27/2005

What have you been up to?

Hey, all! What have you guys been doing lately? I’ve been dealing with house, kids, bills, hubby, blah, blah, blah, and waiting to color my hair. :-D I did get it cut shorter - and now it’s time for the color! Yay! That should be sometime this week. As for this weekend, well, on Friday Phillip moved from a Bear to a Jr. Webelo in Cub Scouts - AND - he moved up a rank in Tae Kwon Do. They changed the curriculum or he would be considered a green belt - but under the new system, he’s just now an advanced belt. The next test he’ll earn a stripe and so on until he has six stripes, then he’ll be ready to test for black belt. So he was pretty excited this weekend - if a bit tired and a smidge grumpy. LOL! And that’s about all, really, I haven’t been working on my NaNoWriMo work as I suppose I should be if I ever want to send it off, but then there’s not that much of a rush is there? The next NaNoWriMo isn’t for months. :-)

But enough about us - how are you all?

sparta at 12:17 pm

Comments (3)

2/21/2005

RIP: Hunter S. Thompson 1937-2005

In case you haven’t heard, Hunter S. Thompson is gone. Suicide. I’m not all that surprised, but I sure am disappointed. Have to post this - perhaps one of his most famous quotes:

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

sparta at 9:18 pm

Comments Off

2/20/2005

Dilemma

So, I have a dilemma. I need to do something with my hair. But what to do? Well, I know I want to go red again - I love my hair red. And I don’t mean, Maureen O’Hara red - I mean red-red. I’m thinking of going shorter with the hair. I guess we’ll see. For those who know me personally - you know I’ve already been red before. :-) It’s that urge to just “chop it all off” that I’m wrestling with. I’ll let you know what happens - as I’m supposed to make an appointment this week. Feel free, of course, to offer your comments (who could stop you? LOL!) - but ultimately, it’s between my hair stylist and me. ;-)

sparta at 8:37 pm

Comments (2)

2/17/2005

Living with John, Earthdate 1413

So, I’m talking on my cell phone. Someone needs an address, so I look up the address, call them back. I lose signal, so I decide to make another call on my “land line” - while on that call, my cell rings again. I chat with the various people and hang up. Total time on phone less than 5 minutes. Then I see my nearly 4-year old standing there. He proudly announces, “I’m cooking Pop Tarts!” I smile. It’s that sort of smile that says, “Sure, you are, honey.” It’s the smile you give before you eat invisible food and drink invisible tea. My smile faded soon after when I realized there was an empty Pop Tart wrapper on the counter that wasn’t there before - and the box was moved - I didn’t know he could reach that far. Thinking he had just managed to open the wrapper and take out the Pop Tarts - I looked for them. He said, “No, Mommy, they’re in the toaster. Silly.” Great, I think, he just dropped them in. I’ll see if I can get them out - or I could fix them if he wants a snack. That’s when I realize that the toaster is pulled out and ~ON~!!!!! And in the toaster - in the right slot even (I have a 4 slice toaster; 2 in one side, 2 in the other) - are the Pop Tarts! The setting is on the right setting - the lever is down - HE IS COOKING POP TARTS!!! AUGH! He’s only 1 1/2 months shy of FOUR and he’s COOKING!!! I am still standing there in shock when they “pop.” He asks me if I could help him get them on a plate and cooled down. I do. While I’m breaking them up so they will cool faster, he gets into the fridge to grab an apple juice. Plate and juice box in hand, he sits down to watch some t.v. Quite proud of himself….as he should be….and his mom has another example of why living with John is not for the faint of heart and never boring!

sparta at 1:43 pm

Comments Off

2/14/2005

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day, dear readers! Whether you have a special someone to celebrate with or not - or whether you and your SO do that kind of thing or not - there it is - my greeting/wish for you. Today will be a low key day for hubby and I. There are the typical exchanges - but we’ll save going out to dinner and/or a movie for when it’s not (a) so busy and overcrowded and (b) not so hyped up. I’m not going to bore you with the meaning and explanations and history of Valentine’s Day. You can google that for yourselves. I was going to post some poetry or some fancy quote, but the truth is that how I feel about my AJ - and how I feel about my friends - cannot be expressed by others’ words - and right now, I am fresh out of any words that would adequately express my feelings anyway. And so to my AJ I say “Roomag!” (He’ll get that) and to everyone else I say “Thanks!” and “Love ya’!” Gotta go - my youngest is still recovering, though the fever’s gone, and he needs some TLC. :-)

sparta at 12:16 pm

Comments (2)

2/9/2005

Tarot for Geeks

So, in my wanderings I came across some sites devoted to reading tarot cards - get your FREE reading - anywho, I can’t pass up a good laugh, so I stopped by a few. One site has you think real hard about your question and then pick 6 cards. It also tells you your personality card. I am the Queen of Swords, shown here:

And in my “reading” was this card:

I had to read the explanation. Apparently, this hermit is to warn me not to make a hasty decision. Huh? Are they saying that all hermits have made bad decisions - or at least one? If that’s not it, how is a hermit indicative of a bad decision?

Confused, I kept wandering and stumbled upon tarot for the rest of us, yes, it’s:

Silicon Valley Tarot!

That’s right! You guessed it! Tarot for Geeks. You have to read the descriptions of the cards - they’re pretty good
- I liked “The Garage”. After reading the descriptions, click on “See Your Fortune - Silicon Valley Style”. This is where
you can get your on-line reading. They are -um- interesting, and like all tarot, it is left to you to decide what the heck
that just meant. Still, it’s a great way to waste time.

sparta at 1:20 pm

Comments (2)

2/6/2005

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!

Sadly, my sweetie is on a plane right now - heading back to CA for a company meeting. Actually, I should say company meetings - a week’s worth. Bleech. We went out last night to dinner and had a great time. We’ve been married 11 years now, although while it doesn’t seem like it’s been 11 years - it simultaneously feels like it’s just always been. :-)

Here is my anniversary gift from AJ:

iPod Shuffle

Actually - that one isn’t mine - it’s just a picture of one. But mine will be on the way soon. I got the 1GB model, so supposedly I can have 240 songs loaded to listen to. :-) I will post more info when it actually arrives and I actually get to play with it.

sparta at 5:16 pm

Comments (5)

2/4/2005

Announcement from John

nnbnbkbnnjjg jijii u uuuijigjhi jhijigjhijh jijhihjhihjidjsidwidwi jyiwuieifjh kjkjojojo. gkfhkghkgjoojkk okokoj ok oko i io uioo ioioioi oi u wducdwcw pod figgi if fsdfofi oiu i ififdcsc k dk. kfpiodvvlf l, dpfl;pvfldp ;vflpdlpl szflkegh;lkyfl lflkbdlb ;fl lgl; l;lkkllk.

sparta at 1:31 pm

Comments (4)

Falling through clouds, or why you should check for bug updates

So, I bought a new game, Project Nomads. I loaded it on the eMac - and when I ran it…black screen. Ooooookay. I moved the mouse around and found that the cursor changed as though something was there. Having no idea what I was clicking on, I clicked. The game started! Hooray! Well, maybe not hooray. The character was jerking around like an early American-made CGI drawing. Ugh. So, I stopped for a second - thinking maybe something was processing in the background. When I started moving her again, though, she was moving the same way. Stilted - and sometimes frozen - and just as I was getting frustrated with her herky-jerky polka - she was falling through the clouds. Huh? How did that happen? So fine, I hit “esc” - nothing; “apple-Q” - nothing; a whole range of shortcuts that normally quit a program - nothing. I had to big red switch it. *sigh* Jerk. Freeze. Fall. Add. Rinse. Repeat. Now I find out that something in Mac OS X 10.3.6 breaks something in their code and there’s a patch. And just as I was getting used to seeing how long I could have her jerking around like a marionette before watching her freeze and fall through the clouds. Guess I’ll have to patch it so I can see what other fun parts there are to the game.

sparta at 1:29 pm

Comments (1)

It happens to everyone…right?

Last Tuesday was a bit…er…exciting - and not necessarily in a good way. I was taking Allison to a doctor’s appointment. Nothing exciting there - but when I backed out into the street - I hit something BAM!! I get out, and to my horror, what is sitting there? THE MAIL TRUCK! Yes, I hit the mail truck. I was almost shaking. What from, I’m not sure, but shaking nonetheless. There was the mail carrier. Oh, boy. He bent down and looked over the damage to his bumper. There wasn’t any. There was a scuff, but it actually looked more like salt residue than evidence of an accident. And then we looked at my bumper. Scuffed much worse - but it’s a plastic bumper. Andrew came down the driveway, and we all three looked over the damage again. The mail carrier said that he wouldn’t report it unless we wanted him to - as the damage to the mail truck wasn’t really anything. He looks a bit sympathetically at our bumper. I can tell what he’s thinking - this damage isn’t anything - but yours is - and hey, you hit me technically, so it’s your call. We thanked him and said we’d just have ours fixed. :( So, my poor station wagon has an owie - and it’s my own fault. I know I looked both directions and behind, but with all the snow, that white truck of his hid in my blindspot very well. *sigh* But hey, you’ve all hit a mail truck at one point or another, right? Right? Guys? Anyone? Bueller?

Here’s a pic of our bumper:

—Pics coming—

sparta at 1:05 pm

Comments Off

2/2/2005

A wonderful day with John

I spent a wonderful day with John. Oh, I still had appointments and errands and so on, but John was in a very good (and lovable) mood, and it made the day so nice. First we dropped his brother at school; next we headed to the Ace Hardware to get John some PVC pipe (5 pieces of different lengths), 2 pipe elbows, a cap, and a T-joint. The guy at Ace gave me the oddest look, but I ignored him. I can’t help it if his mother never did anything as cool as buy him some pipe and pieces to put together. Cost of pipe & pipe accesories: $2.27; Seeing John dance down the aisle and tell everyone about his “pipe”: Priceless. He was so excited. He told everyone about it. I guess I could explain where this whole pipe-thing came from. His brother went to Cub Scout camp this past summer, and they made marshmellow guns using PVC pipe. John had gotten Phil’s from his room - without permission - although I thought he had permission. He played with it in the bath and was SO happy. He could use it like a telescope, a bullhorn, or - well - pipe. Then big brother found out and demanded it back. There were HUGE tears then - until I promised to buy him his own…which I did…this morning. He barely let go of it all day. After that, we headed off to my doctor’s office for a check on my Coumadin (blood thinner because of the clot) level. I am glad I’ll only be on this stuff for one more month. He was very good there - the nurse gave him a sticker - after he had shown her the pipe, of course. Then we went outside where - little boy’s rapture - the construction guys were clearing a section out for work. The digger was digging and piling the dirt; the front loader was scooping and dumping the dirt into the trucks; the trucks were taking it away. He was mesmerized. So we sat on a bench and watched the dance of the construction vehicles for about -oh- 25 to 30 minutes. I couldn’t help myself. It was chilly sure - 39 degrees isn’t really that warm - but his smile made me feel warm. And when he snuggled up to me, clutching his pipe, and said, “You’re the best mommy. You’re my mommy.” I thought I would cry. So we sat. He showed his pipe to anyone who would pay him any attention and commented loudly on what was going on. I was proud. Then finally we agreed it was time to go to the store, so off we went hand-in-hand back to the car. And even Target was fun. He helped me push the cart - he sang to me - he tried to tell me jokes - he kissed my nose - and gave me hugs…all when he wasn’t showing off his pipe, mind you. Finally, we ran the groceries home before getting Allison and Phillip from their schools. He helped me carry in things and put some of them away. And I got another big hug before we got back into the car. *sigh* It was a busy, but good day. He won’t be this way forever, so I’m enjoying this day until the last minute (which is 32 minutes from now, CST). In fact, it was so good - I think I’ll read this tomorrow, and enjoy it again.

sparta at 11:29 pm

Comments (1)