Category: Things

Things He Does to Say ‘I love you.”

[Is it, Things He Does? or Things He Do? or, is there really no way to make sense of that?]

We’re staying in Palo Alto this weekend, at an apartment of one of Bryan’s friends while he’s out of town. After eating some take-out Chinese, Bryan went to the store to buy milk and cereal for breakfast in the morning.

After he’d already left I remembered I needed a new box of panty liners, which I wear every day because during childbirth my vagina opened like a blooming flower and now my Kegel muscles hang like limp, forgotten spaghetti.

I called his cell and told him what I needed, and he’s like, yeah, yeah, I know, panty liners. He’s SO okay with buying my female goodies that he gets cocky about it.

Twenty minutes later my phone rings and he’s talking in a hushed and muffled voice, “So, which ones did you need again?”

“Always.”

“Yeah, I know, but there’s like a million kinds.”

“Always, with the dry weave.”

“Ah…… oh, here. In the purple box?”

“Yeah.”

“50 regulars or 40 extra long?”

“Hm, I’ll try the long.”

“Okay.”

Happy Anniversary, baby. You’re the best!

Things That Make It Official: I’m a Geek!

I’m so excited I could pee! I have butterflies in my chest and my head is going to explode! I have finally discovered how to do EXACTLY what I’ve wanted to do with music on this blog!

Last night I went to a Gnomedex networking party and met a guy named Matt. We were talking about my wish to post song lists or mp3’s in my sidebar, and I told him I’d found Rhapsody, but that it had certain limitations I wasn’t happy about. Rhapsody is good for linking to an album I like so you, the reader, can see what it is or even listen to it if you download the player. But I still have to actually LINK to it. Also, it links to the page for an entire album, and I often listen to music mixes with songs off many albums.

Well, three cheers for Matt, because he told me about Last.fm and I am FONDLY AND OBSESSIVELY IN LOVE with it. Check out these very cool features:

1. I don’t have to download another freakin’ player unless I want to (though you will, if you want to listen), but can continue to listen to all my mp3’s on my computer in ITunes as usual.
2. The plug-in I downloaded automatically uploads EVERY SONG I PLAY into my profile on Last.fm, whether it’s a whole album or a mixed song list.
3. [And here’s what really made me hot and breathless] I copied some simple html code into the sidebar of my website that includes an RSS feed, so every song I play displays on my track list!
4. If you click on my track list, it will dump you into my Last.fm profile page, and you can poke around to see what I’ve been listening to. Also, you can download the player if you actually want to listen to my song.

This is way more use-able for me than Rhapsody was because after a few simple downloads and text copying, it’s completely automatic and I don’t have to think about it. I just play music as I always do, and it eventually channels it’s way onto my website.

I highly recommend it. And if you sign up for it, too, we can be ‘neighbors’ as they call it, and share each others’ track lists like we share Flickr photos. Won’t you be my neighbor?

Things That Make Me Shudder

I was sitting at the kitchen table this morning supervising Ruthie’s use of scissors (they may be snubbed on the end, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to cut her tongue out), when I saw something out of the corner of my eye on the deck.

A little bit later I saw it again – something small and dark flittering across the deck. This time I investigated and saw it, THE RAT, on my deck that is a giant play pen for my children to play safely – SUPPOSEDLY – only now I have to worry about little Ben with his claws and his fangs leaching some disease onto my children, both the one who crawls and the one who licks everything.

Now I know what kept eating my Brandywine tomatoes last summer. Ewww.

Things That Keep Me Awake.

It’s after 1am and I can’t sleep. I have too many pictures swirling in my mind. Too many worries.

Aspartame in my diet soda. Hormones in my milk. The way my daughter’s face looks when she’s crying. The last sentence of a medical update letter my friend wrote: “We are nearing the beginning.”

I feel an overwhelming desperation for time to stop.

Tomorrow someone might get cancer. Or lose her temper. Or get betrayed by someone she depends on. Or go into labor.

Trains on a track that are not slowing down.

My kids have a Thomas the Train book called, “Stop! Train, Stop!” in which Thomas decides he’s going to plow through the whole route without stopping once. The cows don’t get to moo, the boy doesn’t get to wave, and the people can’t get on or off. He just whizzes by, leaving their hair to churn in his wake.

This is what keeps me awake tonight.

Knowing that I am powerless to control ________ .

Things That Are Taken Way… Too… Far….

Standing in line at the grocery store last week I saw this magazine: Lose a Pound a Day on the Da Vinci Code Diet! I almost went into a tirade right there in the middle of Fred Meyer because of the rediculousness of it. A weekly magazine should really reduce the frequency of publication if they are THAT hard up for material.

Woman's World1

Upon closer inspection I see the subtitle: Hidden Inside The Best Seller – The Secret Scientific Formula That Unlocks Fat!

I mean, IS THAT REALLY NECESSARY? And do they think anyone will see this and go, “OH MY GOSH! I *TOTALLY* *KNEW* IT!” And buy ten copies for themselves and all their friends?

I hate to be a Negative Nelly, but I’m just so tired of the hype.

Woman's World2

Things That are Cheaper Than Therapy

My Garden Therapy has yielded results! I’ve never been happy with the bare ground under our dogwood tree. There had been a hosta to the left, but it never did well so I divided it and moved it to another part of the yard. Last summer I had also planted some alyssum as a border in front of the tree, but they didn’t get enough sun, either, and never filled out.

Scruffy Garden

While my dad was putting in the new drip system I transplanted my two rosemary plants from the pots I carted around during my apartment-living days, and placed them in a nice, sunny, south facing spot on the other side of the tree. In front of the tree I planted a drift of five astilbe which will produce pretty pink feathery plumes all summer. And back by the fence I transplanted a few Jacob’s Ladders from an over crowded spot. They’re ferns that will shoot up blue spires. At the very base of the tree I planted some ground cover to help keep the soil moist.

Pretty Garden!

As soon as I get everything planted in other parts of the garden, I will have a chance to secure the black tubing with some wire and hide it under the dirt.

I’m so excited and feel so productive!

p.s. do you see the five month dead Christmas tree in the background??? Perhaps I’m trying to beat the record?

Things I Never Knew

Tonight after I put Thomas to bed, Ruthie and I ‘snuggled for a bit,’ as she says. Snuggled under my covers, we caught the opening credits of Stuart Little on the Disney Channel. And holy cow, but can guess who wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little?

Can you?

Can you guess?

Think of the most OPPOSITE GENRE of film from Stuart Little, and you MIGHT get close to guessing the right person.

I’d make you post your guesses in comments, but I know you’ll just look it up on IMDB, anyway.

Things That Make Me Feel Accomplished

Time Out

I think I may have stumbled upon a revolutionary new tool to aid me in Getting Things Done. Recently my watch broke, and while I was in Minnesota I bought a new one at Target. Today I discovered that, among many other cool features, it has a TIMER function, which makes Ruthie’s Time-Outs so much more portable and spontaneous because I don’t have to march from room to room looking for where I last set the kitchen timer.

But ALSO, since I am the Queen of Distraction when it comes to staying on task, I set the timer for 15 minutes today while I raced around the living room picking up all the clutter from our return home yesterday. Then, since I was on such a roll, I set the timer for another 15 minutes and cleaned off the front porch which was beginning to look more like a storage closet than a welcoming extension of my house.

And now I am rewarding myself by taking a break to put my feet up and surf my blog reads… with my timer set.

It’s all very Flylady.

Speaking of blog reads, I fiddled a little with my template again. I figured out how to add my Bloglines feed list directly into the sidebar, so now you have complete access to the influences in my head. And whenever I update this list in my Bloglines account, it automatically updates the list you see in my side bar! I love html.

Things That Crack Me Up

Sunglasses

I was surfing YouTube last night and came across this video – a very serious matter. I implore everyone who reads this, to watch and find some way to contribute to this worthy cause. Won’t you please help us save the rock?

Also, I caught my fair share of baseball this last weekend, and I have to say the Twins are a much more fun team to watch than the Mariners. The actually get excited when good things happen – it’s like they’re little kids playing in the neighborhood, only they kick ass on the Yankees.

Anyhow, in this article in the Star Tribune, Patrick Reusse calls out a sensitive issue the pitcher faced during the game:

Baker’s other distressing moment came in the second, when his jockstrap broke on a 3-2 foul ball by Jorge Posada. His protective cup came free and started sliding down his leg.

Baker motioned catcher Joe Mauer toward the mound. When Mauer arrived, he said, “Joe, my cup’s down by my knee.”

Mauer, always a young man of common sense, replied: “What do you want me to do about it?”

Baker went to the dugout, removed the cup, retired Posada to end the inning, then raced up the steps to get a new jockstrap to secure the cup.

You didn’t want to face this Yankees lineup without proper protection? “Not a chance,” Baker said.

On a family note, my lovely daughter dropped the F-bomb in my 70-year-old Baptist mother’s presence over the weekend (gee, I wonder where she picked up THAT language). I thought I handled it quite well despite Marge’s near-fatal gasp of shock. To be honest, it doesn’t really bother me when she swears. And to her credit, she used the word in THE most appropriate scenario: she was frustrated – no, dare I say PISSED – and acting out in rebellion against me, and I was trying to reign her in. I can’t say I wouldn’t have said the same thing in her shoes.

In fact, after Marge passed out I reminded Ruthie that Mama uses that word when she does not have a Happy Heart, and wasn’t it true that in using that word it means RUTHIE doesn’t have a happy heart? And to my complete joy she ACTUALLY GOT IT. I do believe I’m raising a genius despite myself.

Things That Warm My Heart

At the Zoo

I feel so recharged right now.

By the time Bryan gets home on Thursday nights I’m so exhausted from the week that I collapse into bed and nearly fall asleep before he does. (I say ‘nearly’ because I swear he’s half asleep by 9:30 regardless of where his physical body is located. Actually lying down is just a technicality.)

But on Friday mornings we all sleep in, Bryan makes us breakfast, and we get reconnected as a family. Fridays are becoming my most favorite, and cherished day.

This afternoon I had the added bonus of taking Thomas with me to run a few errands while Ruthie stayed home with Bryan. He’s an easy-going kid so I was able to browse through belts and car seats and craft supplies without feeling rushed or distracted. When we got home I felt energized and rested. It was good to get out.

Bryan’s travel schedule has in some ways been difficult on our family, but I am not nearly as overwhelmed as I thought I would be. Thursdays come quickly, and then the weekends seem endless. I think we’re finding that good balance between enjoying one another and Getting Things Done.

What I struggle with most is the selfishness I feel with my time. Since we no longer have stolen moments of snuggling or smooching or conversing or any other every-day thing, I sometimes want to draw the wagons in around my family during the weekend. But we have family, and events, and a tight community of friends, and we enjoy all of those things. I think over time, as his travel schedule loosens up and we continue getting into a groove, this will all work itself out.

I am completely in love with my husband, and I am so grateful for all the ways he loves me and cares for me.