And a happy birthday to my finally-a-teenager.
He’s my baby, and he’s already three inches taller than I am. Makes me feel a bit old. And short.
We had a fine day together, and added yet another video game system to his collection.
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The coolest thing we did this weekend was on Saturday night. But the most unusual (for us, anyway) was during the day. Moon and I drove to Rockford to join my mom for a benefit tea party, with the theme “All Things Girly.” I know! But it made her so happy to introduce us to her DAR friends, and we did have a nice time together. One thing for sure, Moon is a phenomenal daughter (and granddaughter). I don’t think it even occurred to her to complain, and she was very cooperative when her grandma wanted to squirt her with perfume before the event.
Both of us are eligible to become Daughters of the American Revolution someday if we ever decide to do that sort of thing. They get to wear medals, and I do like shiny things.
In the evening, we went to a concert — something called a kirtan, although we really had no idea what that meant. That was a tiny bit nervewracking, since even Peter opted to join us, and we weren’t sure he’d last if it ended up being boring for him. The main performer was a woman named Ragani, and she was joined by a bass player, two percussionists, a guitarist and a group of backup singers. Except in a sense we were ALL backup singers, as kirtan involves call-and-response chanting. It doesn’t sound anywhere near as awesome as it was, because I can’t begin to describe the awesomeness. Let’s just say that three hours went by very quickly, we were all energized and happy, and I connected with the singing in an astonishing way.
After the kirtan, we bought a CD and asked Ragani to sign it. She is personable and lovely, and has a terrific sense of humor. I’d totally want to hang with her. Peter took this photo, as well as one of her harmonium. (When was the last time you saw one of those?)
Anyway, I feel so blessed to have had such a fun experience. And doubly blessed that Pete and I have such cool kids. No one ever prepared me for how great teenagers could be. (Peter will be 13 exactly one week from today, so he’s not an official teen yet. But close enough.)
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This week, the atmosphere over Madison, Wisconsin seems to have had multiple personalities. Hot. Cold. Rain. Sun. At least the snow has melted and doesn’t seem to be coming back.
Last night, we all went to a concert — but Moon decided at the last minute not to go. As we were buying our tickets, my cell phone started vibrating; I saw the call was from ‘Home,’ so I answered. “There’s a tornado warning,” Moon said. I asked her if she was freaking out. “No,” she lied. I assured her that we were in a safe location, and told her to stay put in the basement.
After we hung up, her friend Brooke (who lives two houses away) arrived, having braved the storm to keep Moon company. They brought all the animals to the basement with them, and set up camp at the computers. Where they happily surfed and IM’d, venturing upstairs only when their provisions had run out. Fortunately, the storm passed without incident. I’m glad Moon has such a good friend.
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Ugh, Television Without Pity has been acting up all day, and I’m going through withdrawal because I can’t see what they wrote about last night’s American Idol.
So here are my way-important thoughts on the subject.
KiKi: Great voice, but needs to mix things up a bit or she’s going to get boring.
Chris S.: I loved him during auditions, but I’m not as impressed with how he’s done since Hollywood. And he seems kind of insincere. Plus, he shouldn’t let his stylists put so much fro-taming goop in his hair. Next he’ll be using Jeri-Curl.
Haley: Blech. I had hoped she’d be gone by now.
Gina: Wow, her performance was spectacular. She’s sort of a hometown girl (by way of Naperville, a few hours from here) so I’ve been rooting for her all along. She cried a lot when Leslie Hunt left, which made me like her even more.
Sanjaya: What can I say? He entertains me. I don’t think he expected to still be in the competition at this point, and has decided to throw caution to the wind. The competition won’t be quite as interesting when he’s gone. I’m glad he made it to the top 10. (Because you know I’ll be seeing the concert.)
Phil: Has improved quite a bit, in my opinion. I liked last night’s hat a lot better than some of his previous styling choices, too.
Jordin: I really, really like her. Hope she’ll be sticking around for a while.
Blake: Is kind of my favorite to win the whole thing. The judges haven’t praised him enough — he’s been good every week.
Melinda: The best voice in the competition, but I’m having a hard time picturing what her CD sales will be like. I do think she’s awesome and would love to hang out with her and her Gayles.
Chris R.: He’s cute, and sings pretty well. Sometimes his nasally ways annoy me, though. He reminds me of BIL #2, so I can’t help but like him.
I know. I’m not snarky enough.
Did you see the “Sanjaya”‘ sighting on SNL? Here you go.
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We saw my parents last weekend (birthday stuff) … and my mom made an awesome offer to the kids. She wants to take them to Seattle in August to visit my brother and his family. Super cool, because we probably wouldn’t be able to do a plane trip ourselves this year. Not for four people, anyway.
It’ll be interesting for the kids to spend some time with their extended family without us. And Pete and I will have five days to ourselves. Wacky!
And now for the not-so-cool news. The dog just threw up on the stairs. Gotta go.
First, the new hair. A week ago, I was sick sick sick of pushing hair out of my face and having to clip it back. So I went for bangs and had a bunch of the length chopped off. Kind of a mom ‘do, but hopefully a little cooler than that.
On the other hand, a year ago I was in court getting my name changed. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year, but Moon says it feels like it’s been longer than that.
It’s been one of those weeks. I’ve been feeling spring-fevery, restless, bored, down, blah. Pre-menstrual? Maybe. Coincidentally, I went to see Menopause, the Musical last night with (of course) a bunch of my female friends. Because I was the youngest in the group, it reminded me of being on the cusp of puberty, hanging with the cool girls who all had started having periods and knew all about tampons and stuff.
Anyway, we all laughed a lot and had bunches of fun. Which was exactly what I needed. Now I’d love to score some corned beef on my first St. Paddy’s as a non-vegetarian.
FIL is home safe and sound, and the snow has stopped. Moon is getting better (she was sick and missed school Thursday and Friday). The weekend with Matthew Fox (theologian, not actor) is a memory – Pete was a major part of the planning, so preparations had occupied us in one way or another for months.
I haven’t neglected my knitting. Here are a few quick snapshots of recent finished projects:
The doctors looked at FIL’s arteries yesterday, and one was very blocked — but they were able to wiggle a wire in there and insert a stent. And it worked very well. I saw pictures!
So they’re going home today. FIL is better off now than he was before, because oxygen is getting to all of his heart. He had problems breathing before and was using an inhaler, but now they’re thinking maybe that was a symptom of the blockage. Also, the heartburn he’s been prone to having probably was angina all along.
I’m sure they will be so glad to be home again. MIL can come and stay with us anytime. She’s a great guest.
*relief*
It kinda looked like spring was here last week — but not now. When we picked up MIL from the hospital Friday night, the snow had already started. Saturday it kept coming, so Sister #3 and her boyfriend packed up some stuff for my in-laws and drove to the hospital to meet them with it. (She has a Jeep, which is rather handy.) So MIL is staying with us until FIL is released from the hospital. He’s actually doing pretty well, but the tests indicated that he had a mild heart attack Friday morning.
Today we’re all staying put, because almost everything in the area (church services, etc.) has been cancelled, it’s windy and drifty outside, and it’s still snowing. I already made brownies, and there’s beef vegetable soup cooking in the crock pot. Pete is baking bread, and I’m planning to make walnut cookies later. MIL is sitting in the comfy chair sewing on buttons and doing various repairs for us. The kids have been chatting with her, and it’s just a comfy day being here together.
FIL is calling periodically to check in. Some of the hospital staff didn’t even make it to work today, so he’d rather we stay put for the time being. Sister #3 brought him his portable DVD player, some DVDs and books yesterday, so at least he has some entertainment.
In other news, I ordered a new knitting bag after about a week of pining for it online. (It’s from Persnickity Design.) Check out how groovy it is. Glad those mail carriers are willing to come through rain, snow, sleet, dead of night and so on.
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Yes, February is heart month. And coincidentally, Terry and her rom each ‘celebrated’ by having their own scary trips to the ER. (Get well soon! Haven’t forgotten about those socks!)
Today my FIL had a scare, too. Although they live an hour away, MIL drove him to the hospital here in Madison. I don’t like to think about that trip, even though everything turned out fine. We’re actually just about to head over there to say hello and bring MIL to our house for the night. (FIL is staying for a look-see. They haven’t confirmed yet that it was a heart attack, although it sure sounds like it was.)
It’s all very surreal. My dad, who’s about 15 years older than my FIL, had his first heart attack more than 20 years ago. At the time, angioplasty was a pretty new procedure, and he had two of them in liu of a bypass. He even had his picture in the newspaper. I remember being so scared, and not really thinking about how young he was. I guess late 50s seemed older to me then than it does now. Anyway, he had a second heart attack maybe 10 years later. A mild one, as I recall. He’s been doing pretty well since then. Next month he’ll be 79 years old. (Give me another 25 years, and I bet 79 will sound kinda young.)
Appreciate your tickers, guys. They’re important.
Just over a week ago, I decided it was time to carve out an office space for myself. It’ll be some time before we can add on a sunroom, and I’d been a kitchen table nomad for too long.
So that day, I bought a desk and office chair, cleaned out a corner of the basement, and put everything together (with help from Pete, of course). When I make a decision, I don’t waste time.
Anyway, Foxxi decided to check out what we were up to. She bounded down the stairs as usual, curled up under my new desk, and … started bleeding. Freaky! I called our neighbor (a vet), who turned out to be at the emergency clinic where she works. She said to bring Foxxi in, so we did. All four of us. I held the dog and tried not to get blood everywhere.
Two hours later, we went home with our bandaged up pup. She had snagged a claw on the stairs’ carpet, and pulled it most of the way out. Our vet neighbor gave her a painkiller and removed the claw. (It’ll grow back.) Foxxi got her share of spoiling afterwards. She also was a bit reluctant to go back to the scene of the accident.
My pal Terry asked me about the current American Idol season, and guess what? I’ve been watching. I missed a few of the tryouts (convention, etc.) but I still have a few early favorites.
Fave #1: Sundance Head, who auditioned in Memphis. Awesome voice, awesome presence. Just a cool guy. I hope he goes far.
Fave #2: Chris Sligh. He looks kind of goofy, which totally added to his charm when he turned out to be sharp and funny. And a good singer.
Fave #3: Sean Michel, who looks a bit like Jesus.
I don’t have any favorite female singers yet. A lot of them seem very similar to one another. I’m pretty psyched for Hollywood Week, though. Always an interesting time.
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Annnnnnnd, she’s back! It was a hectic week, but everything went pretty smoothly. Since I can’t really write about the actual work, I’ll focus on the food. Which was glorious, because eating in steak houses and German restaurants is so much better when you’re not a vegetarian. I had a wonderful steak on Monday, and an absolutely superb filet mignon on Thursday. Yum.
My room was quite comfortable, and I slept well. No doubt because I asked for an extra sheet to drape over the bedroom mirror. (Feng shui. I’m sure the housekeeping staff was impressed.)
It’s good to be back, though. The only thing is that soon I really will need to focus on my own business, and that’s a little scary again.
I’m surprisingly calm, considering I’m about to head into the fray of convention management for a week. (A 5-day work week, that is.) Today was Packing Day, which involved various lists and containers. (I’m bringing Bammo ingredients, Bammo being my daily lemon-maple-cayenne water beverage. Pete renamed it because he thought I might like it better with a catchier name. It worked, because I actually do look forward to it.)
I also ended up buying a few outfits, because I have so little that (a) fits, (b) is businesslike, and (c) was purchased in this century. But I caught some awesome deals, so it wasn’t as expensive a proposition as it may sound.
In knitting news, I made a set of handwarmers for Moon, from a pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. They were very quick, actually.
A few weeks ago, I finally made myself some socks out of the yarn Sis#4 gave me for my birthday in 2005. (Or was it Christmas a year ago? Either way, it was a while back.) I had made a water bottle caddy out of the skein earlier, but had more than enough for socks as well. Gotta love gift yarn!
I’m going to bring yarn and needles for my second Jaywalker sock with me this week. I made the first sock eons ago, and never got around to casting on for the second one. Mostly because it was knit on size 1 needles, and I much prefer doing socks on size 2 or 3.
Of course knitting stuff had a prominent place on my What to Bring list. I’d go through withdrawal without it.
We welcomed the new year in a different way — at someone else’s house. But we still didn’t have to venture far. Moon’s friend Brooke talked her mom into inviting our whole family over. They live two houses away, so we carried our games and white chocolate dipped pretzels. No driving for us! We all made it to midnight without falling asleep (I’d cleaned myself up enough to pass for ‘recovering from cold’ as opposed to ‘scary and infectious-looking.’)
Peter was the clear winner in Ticket to Ride, which didn’t surprise me because he’s had quite the winning streak since we pulled that game out last week. I’m hoping this means he’ll be excelling in social studies this quarter.
We took the tree down and put away the ornaments this morning. Rearranged the sofas and washed the blankets to make room for my glorious new quilt rack. I’m rather enjoying having moved my knitting chair two feet to the right. It’s at a jaunty new angle, and I can still see the TV.
Which reminds me. NBC should not promote a “marathon” of past Heroes episodes if they’re only planning on showing the three middle shows. (I watched anyway, because when it comes to Heroes I can’t help myself.)
I’m still thinking about resolutions, because I kind of forgot to do it earlier. But I did ask everyone last night to name the most significant thing that they did in 2006. I had more than one thing:
I wonder how I’ll top all that in 2007?
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Yep, I’m sick. Moon actually came down with a pretty bad cold on Christmas day, and apparently it was passed to me. Merry Christmas! It’s been hard to fall asleep, but once I do, it’s just as tough trying to get up. Sleep is good, though. Right now I’m sitting in my favorite chair, with Peter on the sofa playing video games and listening to ‘Black Parade.’
The last day of 2006! Can you believe it?
Christmas was pretty awesome. We stuck to the blood type thing, and I baked spelt cookies. I got a quilt rack (for all the blankets that normally get thrown on the floor), a hoodie, and a gift certificate for Lakeside Fibers at home. Later at the in-laws’, I got a clock radio that makes nature sounds, a set of glass Namaste needles, the ‘Knit Cafe’ book, and a bodrhan. Some haul!
One cool thing happened because Peter had agreed to his XBox 360 being his birthday AND Christmas present. He didn’t think he was getting anything — although of course his sister got him a few things to unwrap — and was pretty sad because he had decided he wanted a Wii more than anything. He was saving his money up, but knew it would be at least February before he could get one.
So Pete and I decided to reserve one for him (actually finding one to buy was impossible) and let him pay us back. The Wii is paid for, we just have to wait for it to come in. The store gave us a DVD box with a picture of the Wii and an explanation inside, so we’d have something to wrap. Peter was the last one up on Christmas morning, partly because he didn’t think he’d be getting presents. We asked him to ‘play Santa,’ and it was fun when he realized there were packages for him after all.
It’s good to be a cool mom every now and then.
Okay, back to my Bammo.*
*cleanse tea, made with lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper.
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Just popping in to wish y’all a happy holiday, of whichever variety you celebrate. We’re having a pretty phenomenal one ourselves. Ho!
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Obviously, I’m too busy. I’ve had a site visit to Milwaukee, lots of deadlines and massive amounts of customer service calls this week. But I’m also following my blood type diet 100%, and I have to say it rocks. Among other things, we now all sit down for family meals. And we all eat the same food! I know! It’s crazy!
I’m still knitting like gangbusters (didn’t know they knit, did you?) and when I get a moment I’ll upload some pictures.
Okay, I have a little bit of time, and my needles are calling me.
I’ve been busy the past week adjusting to some major dietary changes. And by “major,” I mean we’re eating meat again, and have eliminated wheat, sugar and most dairy from our diets. By “we,” I mean Pete and myself, although Moon is pretty close to the wheat/sugar/dairy thing.
I can’t tell you how huge this is for us. The whole reason I became a vegetarian in the first place was because of, you know, animal rights. At some point, meat became completely repulsive to me. I tried veganism for a while but couldn’t stick to it. Health? That wasn’t really an issue for me, since I was already quite healthy when I made the switch. In fact, when asked, I truthfully told people that I wouldn’t be vegetarian if it was strictly about losing weight or being more healthy.
I hope my veggie friends will still love me, but my views have changed. I care a great deal about how animals are treated, so I’m buying free-range/family-farm/naturally-raised/antibiotic-free meat. It’s really surreal cooking meat again after more than a decade without it. But I have to admit, I feel good.
I’m getting guidance through this, by the way. I met with a naturopath who is working with the Blood Type Diet. Pete, the kids and I are all the same type, which is helpful. Type O. I’ve been very skeptical about the BTD since reading about it several years ago (it said I needed to eat meat! no way!) — but I’m at the point where I need to see for myself if it has any merit. The naturopath has given me some extra guidance (flower essences, a tea recipe, etc.) and so far, so good.
Another huge thing is that I had my last coffee on Sunday. Coffee is as big (or bigger) an obstacle than meat for me. I love, love, love the coffee. But I’m hanging in there.
Yup, I have a store now. It was pretty fun putting it together, actually!
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