Mother's Little Helper

I just had lunch with a good friend today. She owns a small business that she has been growing, slowly, over the past five years or so. She's someone that I really think is brave, confident, positive and who can do no wrong.

Today she told me she's been seeing a therapist. No big deal, in my book. We all need to bounce our thoughts and emotions off someone else, to validate them. This is healthy. Actually I think she already told me this last time we went to lunch.

Then she told me, in hushed tones, that she had asked for some anti-depression drugs. This sort of shocked me, because this friend is one of the most upbeat, happy people I know. Well, I guess she is in public, at least.

I tried not to look as shocked as I was. It's really not that uncommon anymore, but it still shocks me when someone I know believes that they need drugs to solve their problems. What really bothered me next was when she told me that she finally asked her therapist for the meds when she had a day where she was so down that she didn't want to get out of bed. And didn't, until 1:00pm. She just didn't want to face anyone. My thought was, "Doesn't everyone have days like that?!" Isn't that what a Mental Health Day is for?

Then I had mixed feelings:

Was she looking for an easy solution to a normal problem? Or was this just a little help she needed to face her "down days"? Was there something wrong with me, that I'm not on mood elevation drugs?

In the past year or two, I've had no less than six (that's a 6!) friends tell me that they take some sort of drug to change their mood. I've also had a few friends that have turned to legal drugs (aka alcohol) to help them with their problems. My mindset has always been that if you can't handle your problems on your own (meaning without drugs or alcohol), you're just not trying hard enough*.

So I am just naive to think that most people don't need chemical help to get through the week? Has life gotten that complex and stressful that we all need to medicate ourselves to get out of bed in the morning? What about the message this sends to our kids? Even without the meds, is social pressure to be better, stronger, faster too much for our brains to handle?

Damn, this whole post depresses me. I think I'll go have a drink and take a nap.

*Yeah, I know this belief doesn't fit my personality. I don't know where it comes from. Freud would have a field day with me, that's for sure.

Empty Nester

I'm now officially an Empty Nester. I've kicked my little ones out of the nest, and they are on their own. I wish them the best of luck.

No, I'm not talking about kids, I'm talking about my Poker Ladies!

Last fall, I took a Poker class. Texas Hold 'Em to be specifc. Loving Husband and I had gotten the bug like most people, from watching Celebrity Poker Showdown, where washed-up actors and actresses played Poker to (hopefully) get 10 more minutes of fame. We started up a home game with some folks and thought we were plenty good. I saw the class and thought, "Hmmm....a way to get an edge up on everyone. I'm in!" I'm sneaky that way...

The class was awesome. After the three weeks were over, some of the other ladies in the class and I exchanged phone numbers. I thought I would never hear from them again. I thought wrong. Now granted, I like to play Poker. I need practice. But these ladies were Bad (notice the capital "B"). But, being the closet teacher that I am, I took it as a challenge to myself to teach them well and make them bar-worthy*.

Let's just say it was an uphill battle. These ladies were Aggressive-Passive players. They would hold a Queen-seven down to the river, then wonder why they didn't win. Or they would hold pocket Jacks down to the river without betting. I began wondering if playing with these ladies would ruin my game. But, they got better! They actually started betting. They quit asking "who's first?". And tonight was my last night with them. I very politically-correctly weaseled out on them (I used the "quality time with my son" excuse).

And they are okay with it. They know I want to venture off and play in bar tournaments and beat the pants off macho assholes that think they know how to bluff. They even volunteered to come cheer me on (I quickly squelched this idea...I don't need that kind of pressure!).

So my little birdies have flown from the nest. They plan on getting together without me later this month. Someone will have to buy poker chips...and cards for that matter. It's a bittersweet moment, but I think we have just outgrown each other.

Fly, fly away...


*bar-worthy = able to play Texas Hold 'Em in a free bar tournament without looking foolish. Oh and did I mention that I was the youngest in this group by about 20 years (I'm 40)?. They are all single and really want an excuse to go to the bars and meet single men. Gotta love that!

In a Holding Pattern...

I'm in a holding pattern in several facets of my life and it's starting to drive me crazy. I realized this earlier this week. I came home from work Monday in a sour mood and was trying to figure out why. I realized that it's because there are several things that have been "in a holding pattern" - not completed. Some of these items have follow-up tasks that just can't be done until the original item is done. Since I'm a child of the Franklin Planner, I love checking things off as "Done". Having these items pending for so long is making me crabby.

Investment House
I bought an investment house about six months ago. My partner/rehabber claimed that he could have it ready to sell in six weeks. Guess what? It was just completed last month. We've had some independent realtors trying to sell it, but they've done a crappy job. The latest idea is to list it on MLS. I just want to get it sold and see what the final revenue/expense breakout is. This is my first real estate deal and I want to see the entire process before I decide if it's something I want to do again. I know one thing. This partner/rehabber won't be involved next time.
Status: Waiting for Sale

Second Adoption
We have gotten almost all the paperwork done to apply for another adoption. The problem? We have one form - ONE FORM! - that needs to be completed before we can send everything off to the agency and go into wait mode. Right now the ball is still officially in our court and it's annoying. And the one form is measurements of our house. Not even anything exciting or interesting, like a criminal background check. This one especially sucks, because we went and told bunches of people about six months ago, so everyone (very nicely, I might add) asks us "what's the status?". And I have to tell them about the one form, and that we have no idea when we will be traveling. That seems so far away right now.
Status: Waiting on one fucking form.

Assignment at New Company
I've been working as a consultant at a large telcom firm. They are spinning off one of their divisions and I am going with it, as a consultant. This is highly exciting. However, at the present moment, we are still at the Mothership Headquarters, combined with all the mother company employees. Plus my new department is spread across two buildings and multiple floors. It's hard to "pop by" someone's cube when they are a 10 minute walk away in another building. The good news is that we are moving to our new building in less than two weeks. We will all be on the same floor, in close proximity. That will make the new assignment "real" and will make work so much easier.
Status: Waiting for building move.

Back Pain
To make matters all that more complicated, during all this stuff my lower back has started hurting. And hurting. And hurting. I say "lower back", which is the true problem (officially a sublaxation of my L5 disc, for the record), but it manifests itself in my hip. Which makes sitting for longer than, oh, 20 minutes, pretty unbearable. As mentioned above, I work at a desk, in a cube. Yes, I have occasional meetings where I get up from my desk and go into a conference room and... sit some more. And fidget, because my back/hip starts to hurt.

Lest you think I am whining over sore muscles, sublaxation means that a bone (in this case a disc) has moved from its normal position and is somewhere else. It's only a millimeter or so off, but that's enough to throw everything out of whack, and cause pain. The best way to describe the pain (when I forget to get up every 20 minutes and walk around) is that it feels like a white-hot pointy rod is being driven through my body, starting at the front, soft part of my groin, and continuing through to the back, just below my pelvic bone.

And so you don't think I'm just complaining and not doing anything about it, I have been going to my chiropractor for 9 months for this. And believe it or not, there's been progress. But it's getting old. I do 20 minutes of stretching every morning, I walk every night, and then do about 20 minutes of therapy exercises before going to bed. It's a lot of time and trouble and I'm sick of it. Also, there are some trips that I have been eyeing for this year that involve mountain biking, kayaking and/or camping. With how I feel now, this trips would just not be any fun.
Status: Still hurts. No end in sight.

In Summary
Thanks for letting me bitch about this. Hopefully by putting it down on paper (keyboard?), I will work to get these items out of "holding pattern" and in to the "complete" category.

Happiness is...

Happiness is...
Your department moving to a brand-new building!

Unhappiness is...
Your cube is right outside the Director's office. No more blog surfing for me.

Happiness is...
Getting a company laptop!

Unhappiness is...
Laptop is used, weighs ten pounds and has a battery life of 20 minutes.

Happiness is...
Having a half-day off from work to spend with Goofy Junior because daycare is closed for President's Day!

Unhappiness is...
Having to put a full day's work into 4 hours in the afternoon.

Happiness is...
Going to the chiropractor's office and having her adjust your aching back. Ah!

Unhappiness is...
Having your 2-1/2 year old running around the chiropractor's office while you are trying to relax and get adjusted. Then he's quiet as a lamb once you get to the car.

Happiness is...
Taking Goofy Junior to the library on President's Day. Where there are paper and glue activities (make Lincoln's log cabin, trace Washington's face, etc.) * Score!

Unhappiness is...
The two Dora the Explorer videos that you put on hold last week for Junior are still not ready for pickup. And you just returned the ones you had checked out. Doh!

* I'm not kidding. These were the actual activities. I don't think I could have made up something funnier!

It's Fun to Travel - Final Part (I promise!)

Okay, I've drug this out enough. This last part is not even all that exciting. But here goes...

So we get a foot of snow overnight Saturday in Virginia. We are diligently checking the United flight schedule online. No change. Still scheduled to leave on-time at 8:30am. Either they don't update their site or they are unconcerned with the weather. At this point, after calculating how early we would have to get up to make an 8:30am flight (after snowy drive to airport, rental car return, checking bags, etc.), I was actually rooting for a delay. To no avail. At 5:30am on Sunday, things still showed "on-time".

So we packed up and went out to the rental car. Which was covered in a foot of snow! Doh! We forgot to allow time to scrape the car off. This took a while! As we headed out onto the roads to the airport, we noticed hardly another car in sight. As we got closer to the airport, there was a bit more traffic, but it was extremely light.

We got to the airport, expecting to see a delay. No delay! I was starting to get very impressed with Dulles Airport...that they could look a foot of snow in the face and say, "no problemo". We checked in and went to our gate. Once at our gate, there was a slight delay. Our plane was coming in from New York, who had gotten two feet of snow. This made sense, and it was only a twenty minute delay. No problemo. We had time to grab some greasy McDonald's breakfast.

After our plane arrived, there was a slight problem. They had shoveled snow up against the jetway and could not move it. And the airplane could not get close enough to dock with the jetway. They moved us down a gate.

Then another problem. I don't remember what it was this time...maybe the baggage dudes couldn't get the carts out to the plane. Something like that. They decided to move us to another terminal. At least we are still progressing towards getting on the plane. No problemo.

We grabed our carry-ons and strolled over to the other terminal. Here we were told that another gate change was needed. We moved several gates down and actually were able to get on the plane. We had to walk down stairs onto the tarmack and walk to the plane, but hey, no problemo! We had a plane and we were on it. It was about 9:30am at this point.

Then we waited darn near an hour for the de-icing crew to come and spray us down. We gladly waited, though, as this was a more safety-oriented delay. We took to the air around 11:00am, to some cheers and clapping from the passengers. We were on our way!

Unforunately, our baggage wasn't. Once we all got back to KC, the normally-bored-on-a-Sunday-morning baggage claim lady was met with an entire plane of passengers missing their checked baggage. We got in line, filled out the requisite form and were told that someone "would call us". We racked our brains thinking of what we needed for work the next day that was in our bags. We came up with 1)contact solution and 2)mascara. Both easily replaceable with a trip to the drugstore. No worries. But I felt sorry for the business folks that were arriving in KC for work meetings. Most the travelers that Sunday were wearing jeans and tennis shoes or boots, and had checked their suits and skirts. These were the folks that were most up in arms about the delay. I tried to put myself in their situation. I was painful. They were probably looking at a shopping trip in a foreign city on short notice. Ugh.

Our baggage finally showed up on our doorstep Monday night. It was nice to have it show up one day late, as we didn't feel the "push" to unpack and do laundry Sunday night. We couldn't! Not that I want to lose my baggage ever again, but it was a nice break.

So that's my trip report. I'm back into the daily grind now. I actually matched two numbers on the Powerball drawing yesterday. This nets me absolutely zero. But that's my excitement for today. Yawn.

It's Fun to Travel! Part Two

Okay, finally I can finish posting about my trip. My entire experience was tainted by the fact that, after we all got back from this "fire up the troops" company meeting - complete with new CEO - a key person from our company was fired. A good friend no less. For no apparent reason. And officially, not actually fired. Sort of the "go find some other work to do in the company and if you can't, then look for another company". How rude! Needless to say, this has sent some ripples of uncertainty through the company and definitely put out our troop's "fire".

So, with that off my chest, here's the rest of my trip report...

So Friday night, Loving Husband flew into Virginia, as did male-friend-who-is-too-mature-to-call-boyfriend of co-worker, and we headed down to Georgetown. Based on the advice from a co-worker who lives in Virginia (hereafter known as "Idiot") , we avoided the parking headache and took the Metro. Now I love the Metro - don't get me wrong. But it's not the fastest way to get anywhere. Since by the time we left the hotel we were starving, this was not a good thing. Also, the Metro stop that aforementioned Idiot said was supposed to be "a few blocks" away from the pizza place (Pizza Paradiso, if you're curious), was not. Twenty minutes and a potty stop later, we decided to hail a cab. It was TWELVE blocks away. To me, twelve does not equal "a few". Idiot.

So we get there and guess what? Thirty minute wait. Gads! The dudes diligently waited while co-worker C. and I rushed down to H&M to do some quick shoppping. What a wonderful store! Vintage-looking clothing at fractions of the price of real. Anyway, once we got a table, and got gourmet pizza and beer, and we were happy. They had some wonderful beer on the menu, and I got to try an Old Rasputin Imperial Russian Stout. I like dark beer. The more opaque, coffee and chocolately-tasting, the better. And this one did not disappoint.

The next day, Saturday, we decided to head to downtown D.C. C. wanted to see the Smithsonian stuff and we wanted to take in the Holocaust Museum. Loving Husband's folks lived in D.C. for about five years while we were in college, so we have seen everything in the Smithsonian. Most places more than once. Along with assorted childhood homes of presidents and battlefields. The only stuff we haven't seen is the new stuff (new meaning "within the last fifteen years"), which included the Holocaust Museum and the Spy Museum. We intended to take in both.

We decided on the Holocaust Museum first, due to its somber nature. We figured we'd be horrified first, then go to the Spy Museum and see the lighter "James Bond" stuff. Well, due to the above-mentioned slowness of Metro travel, as well as impending weather, as well as stopping at Kohl's on the way to buy hats and scarfes for the impending weather, we didn't make it to the Spy Museum. We just ran out of time. And steam.

So, the Holocaust Museum. How can I describe it? I was actually a bit frightened to go through it. There's some horrible stuff that happened, and they don't pull any punches in describing and showing it to you. But I felt like it was my civic (human?) duty to see the horror, to appreciate the magnitude of what happened. The Holocaust Museum is not something someone can say they "enjoyed", but I'm definitely glad I endured it. It was enlightening, if nothing else. I can say that I've never been in a more quiet museum. Even with the ocassional sobbing from some visitors.

So we rolled out of the Museum around 4:00pm and decided to head back to the hotel. At this point it was raining and starting to get colder. I still didn't think it looked like it would snow. Silly girl! We had reservations at Two Quail at 8:30pm that night for our anniversary, so we wanted to get back, rest up and clean up before heading there.

On the way back to the hotel, the snow started. Big, fluffy flakes that quickly accumulated. By the time we got to the car (parked in the Metro parking lot), it was covered. By the time we got back to the hotel, there was enough snow to make it slippery to drive. While I still wanted to brave the elements and go to Two Quail (being a December baby, I learned to drive in the snow, and don't mind it), I conceded that we could probably find someplace equally nice out in the Fairfax area. And it probably wouldn't be crowded since Virginians get the hell off the roads when it snows. The streets were eerily empty! We chose M&S Grill at Reston Town Center. It was a short drive to it, there was indeed hardly anyone there, and the dinner was wonderful. As a bonus, they sat us near the bar, so we got to peek at the Olympics on the multiple TVs. Then back at the hotel, we went outside and made snowballs with the nice sticky snow. A perfect anniversary celebration, if you ask me.

This is a lot already, so I guess there will be a Part Three. Stay tuned!

Goofy's Latest Reads

I promise I will continue my trip report, but since I have limited time this morning, I’ll do a quick book review.

Here’s what I’ve been reading/listening to lately:

NOTE: As an afterthought, I have ranked these books in 1, 2, 3 order. If you decide to pick one of these books up, pick up #1 first, etc.

“Shadow Divers” by Robert Kurson
I borrowed this audiotape from Cagey, oh about 6 months ago. It’s about a group of shipwreck divers that discover a sunken German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey. It sounded good, but I kept thinking, “it’s going to be a dry story about scuba divers and WWII history...yawn”. After finishing it, I was kicking myself for now listening sooner. This story grabbed me from the very first line and held me until the end. I can’t remember a boring part, even with bits of history sprinkled in (not my favorite topic). I actually learned something from this book, and it’s a true story, so the guys in the story are still around, discovering new sunken bits of history. Very cool!
Rank: #1

“S is for Silence” by Sue Grafton
This was a great book! The Kinsey Milhone “ABC” series has gotten a little dry lately, and I’m thinking Grafton knew that. With this book, she departed from the story revolving around Kinsey (the main character – a female private eye). While Kinsey is still in the book, Grafton uses the scenario of a cold case, and flashbacks to show the reader what really happened as Kinsey uncovers it, many years later. Even if you’ve never picked up a Grafton book, you will understand what’s going on, and will probably enjoy this book (if you enjoy a good mystery, with lots of red herrings).
Rank: #2

“The Pleasure of My Own Company” by Steve Martin (in process)
I’ve read all of Steve Martin’s books. Yes, I’m talking about the “King Tut”/”Cheaper by the Dozen” comedian. He is actually an awesome writer, although his books tend to be rather dark. I personally think this is cool. If he wrote comedy ala Dave Barry…yawn. Anyway, I’m on disc 1 of 4 of this audiobook, but it’s very good so far. It’s about a single guy who has some sort of obsessive/compulsive disorder, although he’s very smart and knows about his OCD. Martin puts you inside this guy’s mind as he tries to meet a girl he’s attracted to. She’s a realtor that is selling an apartment across the street. Since he can’t step off curbs, he must travel around the block, to a driveway, then back again, in order to “nonchalantly” run into the gal. He foreshadows that he will tell us what happened in this guy’s life to put him in this state, but for now, you have to accept this guy as he is. And you actually start to like him and understand him. Stay tuned on this one, but it’s looking good so far.
Rank: #3

Next up:
“Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal” by Christopher Moore
If you haven’t read a Christopher Moore book, you need to. “Fluke” and “The Stupidest Angel” are especially good. They are laugh-out-loud funny and clever all at the same time. This is Moore’s latest book, and promises to lampoon religion. This book promises to be controversial and funny…what more could you ask?

So, what had YOU been reading lately? Was it good? Bad? So-so?

Tagged!

I'm calling a "timeout" from the travel post to do this meme. I thought it was a fun one. Thanks, Average Jane!

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Unfortunately, my Palm doesn't go back this far, so I'm relying on mind power (never a good thing). Ten years ago, I would have just completed my 30th birthday. If I remember right, I played volleyball the night of my birthday, then we went out with my team (and the team that beat us!) and I successfully downed 7 shots. I say successfully because I did not thrown them back up and I remember the majority of the night. Success! Also, Loving Husband and I would have completed our 5th wedding anniversary. I don't think we did anything special. For 10th, we had a big party, invited lots of friends, watched our wedding video and laughed until we cried. I also would have been working at an Internet training company. Yes, folks, I actually taught people how to use the Internet. Seems laughable now. That company ended up running out of money and closing, but it was fun while it lasted.


What were you doing 1 year ago?
I went back to my Palm on this one. One year ago, this week, I was:
1. Looking forward to the Survivor premiere
2. Taking Goofy Junior to tumbling class (which I HIGHLY recommend for tots - he is SO coordinated, and I give credit to the tumbling class)
3. Playing racquetball (badly) with my friend Eric
4. Preparing for Wino Book Club (a book-club-slash-wine-tasting...big fun! I think the book was "Time Traveler's Wife")
5. Playing volleyball (something I don't do anymore and miss horribly!)

Five snacks you enjoy:
1) Krispy Kreme - Raspberry Filled Donuts
2) Lamar's - Chocolate Longjohn Donuts (unfilled)
3) Whole Foods - Pain au Chocolat
4) Caramel apples with additional topping (heath bar, nuts, chocolate, etc.)
5) Panera - Cinnamon Crunch bagel

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
PLEASE NOTE: I know lots of songs by heart, but would cause mass public deafness if ever sang them in public. These are the ones I like the most.
1) Every Step of the Way, Steve Walsh
2) Kiss Me Deadly, Lita Ford
3) One Week, Bare Naked Ladies
4) American Idiot, Green Day (and just about every other GD song)
5) Cowboy, Kid Rock

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire :
1) travel
2) invest
3) travel more
4) have a huge party and invite all friends (and have Average Jane's band play!)
5) give to charities that I support

Five bad habits:
1) Eating until I can't move
2) Avoiding things that I don't want to deal with
3) Wasting time surfing blogs
4) Not paying attention to my checking account balance
5) Checking email obsessively (thank God I don't own a Blackberry!)

Five things you like doing:
1) playing computer games
2) playing sports
3) reading
4) exploring
5) doing something I've never done before

Five things you would never wear again:
1) my husband's jeans
2) my dark purple boots (with fringe!) from high school
3) my entire purple wardrobe from high school (no, I'm not kidding)
4) my gold and black lame short-short skirt and short jacket with fur trim (impulse purchase for New Year's several years ago)
5) anything lace

Five favorite toys:
1) Mountain bike
2) iPod Shuffle
3) Rollerblades
4) Xbox
5) Magic 8 ball (even though it's more of an advisor sometimes than a toy)

So now you know a little more about me. Anything surprise you???

It's Fun to Travel! Part One

As mentioned previously, I headed out Wednesday night for Virginia for business. The flight out was easy. Through pure luck, I ended up sitting next to Dorothy on the plane, who evily tempted me with an Us gossip rag, rather than my more uptight Fortune magazine. I caved in quickly and we discussed how much money celebrities pay to be stay in shape (the lowest figure was $35K a year). We landed, met up with C. and V., our other travel buds, and headed to the rental car lot. At Dulles, all the rental car lots are off-site, which means a long, tedious ride on the shuttle. I managed to somehow get TWO upgrades instead of ONE and was prompted accused of "batting my eyelashes" at the rental car dude. I'll never tell...although it did come in handy to have the full-size car when we got the foot of snow. And it made some awesome donuts in the hotel parking lot! But I'm getting ahead of myself now.

We had a co-worker with us, V., that we agreed to drop at his sister's house in Centreville - not too far away. I figured we could small talk for a few minutes, then head out to the interesting bar I had found in close proximity to the airport for some (late) dinner and some well-deserved adult bevs. I didn't count on a 30 minute conversation, then another 20 minutes of everyone getting on shoes and coats to join us. We didn't mind them joining us, but at this point, stomach-time was 9:00PM and we were starving. We finally made it to the Irish bar where the "LIVE MUSIC" was a bad mix of Pearl Jam and Talking Heads, all so loud that we had to wait between sets to get any sort of visiting in. The bar food was good and the Guiness was on tap, so all was not lost.

Then the first of many navigational adventures began. As we headed out from the bar, V.'s brother-in-law said "follow us until you get to 66 Hwy, then you can take that to your hotel". Good plan! Unfortunately, we never found 66, even with three sets (albeit very TIRED sets) of eyes looking. When we again reached Centreville, we turned around and tried to improvise. Having assured my traveling companions that I was very comfortable driving and navigating, I felt my pride take a hit. Virginia is a bitch to navigate in! Seems like they assume that no one drives at night and all the street signs are in tiny print, with no warning signs like "Goofy Street Ahead 1 Mile". They might have been there, but it was too dark to see them. It had also been, oh, at least fifteen years since I'd been to that part of Virginia. Anyway, after about 45 minutes, we managed to find the Fair Oaks Mall (something I DID remember) and called the hotel and a very nice lady talked us in. I swore I heard some giggling on her end, though.

Here's where things get goofy - when I got to my hotel room, I scoped it out (very nice!), then started unpacking and took a pee. The toilet didn't flush! Uh-oh. I pulled open the tank...no water! Not a drop. Having had some experience with fussy toilets, I decided to fill up the tank with water from the ice bucket. Then I flushed again. You guessed it...nothing. So no more peeing until morning. I then noticed that the room was a bit chilly, so I punched the button to turn up the heat. Then again. And again. You guessed it...nothing. No heat. It was chilly, but not too bad. I wasn't changing rooms at 2AM, nor did I want to give up my room on the top floor (wonderful view!). I put on sweats and long undershirt and jumped into bed. It was like camping at 14 stories.

The next morning I saw my two traveling companions off to the office (they had meetings) and decided to get the lay of the land. I grabbed a map from the hotel and drove in a big square and got my bearings. Or so I thought. I ended up getting lost several more times over the weekend. Drat! I've driven in Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and found tiny off-the-beaten-path wineries in Napa Valley, but Virginia just had my number. I managed to find the largest wine store I have ever seen and went in and browsed for a while before deciding on a wine. Then I got back, changed into my business costume, and went to the office.

I went in and got the office tour. As I popped in to say "hi" to our new CEO, he said, "well, there's our employee of the month". He's a funny jokester, so I laughed heartily and said, "yeah, right..that's me!" and blew it off. Come to find out that instead of walking through wine stores, I should been checking my email. Doh! I WAS the employee of the month. I told him later and he had a good laugh, but I'm sure he thought I was nuts at the time. Anyway, no boring blogging about business, but I will say that the next year for our little company should be very, very interesting. We just got some venture capital funding, new leadership, and we are putting on the gas for growth. I hope I can keep up!

That night we all met at a pool hall (seems wrong to call it that, it was a very nice, large place with excellent food) and did some "team building" (aka drinking, eating, playing pool, being obnoxious). It was fun. I showed one of my co-workers wives how to play pool and she promptly kicked our asses. "Those that can't do, teach" came into play here. My friend Cagey (who happens to be our company President's wife) showed up and we got to visit a bit, but she had to "meet and greet" and do the social thing. This time, we had WRITTEN DIRECTIONS that we used to get to the place, that when reversed, took us somewhere else. Fucking Virginia.

More later...

Goofy Travel

I'm leaving for a business trip today at 5:00pm. This is a totally weird time to leave on a trip. I am used to leaving either first thing in the morning on a weekday, or on a Sunday afternoon - not on a Wednesday afternoon. As such, I promptly forgot to say "goodbye" to Loving Husband this morning as he left for work (in all fairness, he forgot too), and didn't really mention it to Goofy Junior until driving him to school.

I'm going to Virginia for a business trip. Have I mentioned that I love, love, love, love to travel? And I love, love, love traveling for business (just 1 less "love" there). Sick, I know, but I love exploring new areas, meeting new people, discovering the little "quirks" of each part of the country.

Also, since I'm obsessive about being organized, I have a folder with: maps, directions to office in VA, directions to hotel, directions to tourist spots that I want to visit, along with hours of operation, cost, etc. Let's just say I have information about more places that I could get to in a week!

You'd think I was organized, right? Ha! Think again...

My schedule today is: work until noon, leave the office, grab lunch to eat on the way home, get maps copied, and buy a suitcase, get home, hope that tile guy has finished work so I can pay him and make him leave, change clothes, pack, rush frantically to airport. This is typical Goofy travel, of course. LH is coming up Friday night to meet me for the weekend. A few days ago, we realized that we have one small suitcase and one mondo-large suitcase. Since he's just coming up for Fri/Sat/Sun, he doesn't need the mondo suitcase. Nor do I, since I am freakishly obsessed with packing light. Plus that mondo suitcase would give me a hernia.

So...buying a new suitcase. Three hours before my flight leaves. I'll probably end up with some hot pink off-brand piece of crap.

Car Seat Conversations - Part Two

Tonight, we were driving home from an event where Goofy Junior decided that the stage was his and his alone, and climbed up and started running in circles, while the main speaker was speaking. He was totally hamming it up. I was embarrassed and proud at the same time. Weird feeling. Anyway...

Junior: Turn on the light!

Me: Why do you want the light on?

Junior: TURN ON THE LIGHT! I WANNA SEE.

Me: What do you want to see???

Junior: I WANNA SEE THE LIGHT!

Reads like a bad joke, eh? All true, my friends...all true. We turned on the light and tried not to giggle too loud.

Car Seat Conversations

Goofy Junior (holding up tiny stuffed bear): This is my Bay-bee.

Me: Yes, it's your baby bear.

GJ: No, it's not a BEAR, it's a Bay-bee.

Me: It's a baby AND a bear....a baby bear!

GJ (more whiny now): No, it's not a BEAR. It's a Bay-bee.

Me: Well, okay. I guess the tail threw me off.

GJ (turns bear over and examines its butt): That's a tail?

Me: Yes, your baby has a tail.
(I hold up my thumb and wiggle it around like a tail wagging.)

GJ: I have a tail.

Me: You do?! Where?

GJ (shaking his head "no"): I don't have a tail right now.

Me: Oh, so you'll have one later on?

GJ: Yeah, I'll have a tail later.

Me: Oh, okay, thanks for clearing that up.

GJ: (holding up tiny stuffed bear): This is my Bay-bee.

Me: (sigh)

Life is Too Short...

Maybe it's the fact that it's the New Year and I've been in 2006 Goal-Setting Mode. (since I'm a Capricorn, this is serious stuff for me, folks!) Or maybe it's the fact that 4 days before the New Year, I had a milestone birthday that begins with '4' and ends in '0'. I've morphed into this new attitude where life is just too short for a lot of things.

Oh and look...I've made a list!

Life is too short for....

Bad Books
I'm stealing Cagey's wonderful "Theory of 100 Pages". If you don't care what happens after the first 100 pages, put the book down and step away. There are too many good books out there waiting for my attention.

Bad Food
Not that I eat at McDonald's anyway, but I'm going to start not eating anything that isn't great. I'm talking 'bout you, Sonic! You and your fucking soggy tator tots!

Stupid People
They're fucking everywhere, aren't they?! Just say no to the Schmoes.

Housework
I'm hiring a housecleaner this year. I just wish I could find one that did laundry - that's my least favorite thing. I'd rather clean a toilet than do the laundry. Yes, I'm a Lazy Ass, what about it?

House Improvement Projects
I'm hiring a painter. I just painted my entryway and realized two things - 1) I don't get as much satisfaction painting as I do doing other things; and 2) It takes way longer than I thought to get a room painted.

Lack of Focus
When I focus on goals, they get done. When I don't, they don't. Duh! It took me 40 years to figure this out? What a dope I am.

People with No Sense of Humor
What happened to these people to make them so serious?! Give them a hearty dose of Leno and make them snap out of it! Please!

OCD Moms
Moms that want to control every aspect of their kid's existance. No TV, no candy, no junk food, no processed food....NO FUN! I shudder to think what will happen to these kids when the apron strings loosen and they are out on their own. Lindsey Lohan, anyone?

Not Showing the Love
Kiss your husband and your kidlings every night. Every night, people. I don't care if you are furious at them. Shit happens and life is short.

More Dreamin'...

Since this topic has generated more comments than I've had in a long time, (plus it's fun) I'm going to roll with the dream theme some more.

There's a funny thing I like to do when I'm at a party or get-together that involved both men and women. First, get the topic to turn to dreams. Then ask:

Are you ever NOT yourself in a dream?

Then sit back and watch all the women nod "yes" while most the men look confused. I've done this many times, with the same result. I can't explain it! Women are often not themselves in dreams...men rarely are. The exceptions to this that I've found are very right-brained men (graphic designers, artists, etc.).

Of course, I'm stereotyping horribly with this "finding", so forgive me if you are a male science teacher that often dreams he is a dog. If so...My bad.

I am actually rarely myself in my dreams. I am often animals, clouds, birds, and even men. I'm often just omnipotent and watching as the story occurs. I've always thought this was because I had low self-confidence, and that I could just not picture myself doing some things as myself. As I've gotten older (and gained some chutzpa!) I actually am myself more in my dreams. It's still only 1 out of about 12 dreams.

The best dream I've ever had was one in which I was a large, person-sized bird. And I was flying. It was extremely real and it felt so good. I could feel my wing-muscles pump as I flew, then glided through the sky. I looked down at the ground beneath me and was not scared a bit of the height. Because I was a bird, of course. Birds aren't scared of heights. It was an amazing feeling. I imagine the only thing that might come close would be hang-gliding, which I hope to do someday, to compare of course.

Are you ever NOT yourself in a dream? Who are you? What do you make of all this? Am I full of shit, or do I have some book material here?

Goofy Dreams

Okay, enough class participation. Now I'm depressed that I'm stuck in the boring midwest, with sleet and snow looming.

So here's a random goofy thought - the absolute worst dream I've ever had. It was three years ago and I can still remember the entire dream vividly. It shook me up for about a week.

So here it is...

I'm sleeping. Some noise wakes me up. I get up and walk over to our bedroom windows to look out. We have three bedroom windows and all the shades are open, so I can get a good view. It's somewhat light outside and a weird grey color. Off in the distance, I see a large mushroom cloud gradually rising towards the sky. Then I see that there is a flurry of destructive activity on the ground, starting from the mushroom cloud and headed towards our house. Headed very fast towards our house. I stand there in awe, thinking, "So this is the end" and "I wonder who the hell started THIS". I want to turn around and tell my husband (who is now standing behind me) goodbye, as well as take one last look at my dogs, but I cannot tear my eyes away from the ballooning cloud and the destruction racing towards me. I feel fear in my heart.

Then I wake up.

More Class Participation

I had so much fun with yesterday's post, I'm going to do blogger laziness class participation again.

Here's today's question (not so cerebral, more emotional this time):
If you could go anywhere in the world for a 7-day vacation (all-expenses-paid and trustworthy babysitter included) where would you go? What would you do? Who would you bring?

My answer:
I don't have one yet. I'm currently trying to plan my adventure trip for 2006 and I'm still deciding. Of course, money is an object right now, so that limits me within North America.

I have always wanted to go to Alaska, so that might win this year. There's also the Grand Canyon, which, believe it or not, I've never seen. And British Columbia is supposed to be beautiful.

And if you're curious, if money were no object, hands-down I would go to New Zealand. No contest there.

So think about it and weigh in. Then ask yourself: What's keeping me from going?

Dinner note: Today's supper was Honey-Pineapple Pork Chops with Cranberry Walnut Cous Cous. The pork chops were yummy, but just not big enough. The cous cous was good in spirit, but too dry after being frozen, then reheated.

I am getting so many great ideas for recipes from my Social Supper experiment.

It's Class Participation Time!

While I finish up the last of my first Social Suppers (Cheese Ravoili with Artichoke Tomato Sauce - so far so good!), it's time to hear from the peanut gallery my devoted readers.

Here's your question (reply via comment) :
If you could learn the answer to one secret (i.e. What killed the dinosaurs; Who killed JFK; Are Britney Spears' boobs real, etc.) what would it be?

To start you off, here's my answer:
What the fuck is Stonehenge? What is its purpose? Is it a temple? A sports stadium? Maybe just a pretty stone sculpture? A domino set for gigantic aliens? And while we're at it, how the hell was it built? And who did the building? (Okay, okay, so that's like twelve questions. So shoot me.)

I just saw a documentary tonight on a dude that built his own re-creation of Stonehenge, based on his interpretation of where the stones originally were. It's very pretty, all symmetrical and shit, but it didn't shed an eon of light on its purpose. I've heard speculation that it has something to do with the equinox. Why did early man care about that? Why go to so much trouble?

...now it's your turn!

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

Quite literally, in fact...

My last post was about these "supper clubs". In a meeting THE NEXT DAY, a co-worker gave me a flyer about one of these places. It wasn't one of the ones that I had mentioned before, it was a locally-owned place, and their prices were slightly cheaper than the other two, and they offered the option of assembling the dinners for you.

Now we are talkin'! I signed up. I got 8 dinners and got them split into two (since they feed 6 people as one). So it's really like 16 dinners.

Here's what I got:

• Beef & Black Bean Burritos
• Cheese Ravioli w/ Tomato and Artichoke Sauce
• Chicken Mirabella
• Cranberry Walnut Cous Cous
• Grilled Raspberry Chicken w/ Coconut Rice
• Honey Pineapple Pork Chops
• Salmon Fillets with Mustard-Chive Butter
• You're Gonna Love These Big Dawg Ribs

Yummy, eh? Trust me...I'll let you know.

Now...I need to get someone to come do the dishes afterwards!

Stress..It's What's for Dinner

Dinner is one of my favorite, and also unfavorite things. When there is time to spare, it is a wonderful thing. Pour a glass of wine, start a few side items, assign Loving Husband to the grill to lovingly rub and grill some nice thick steaks. Then eventually everything is done and you sit down to a yummy, relaxing meal.

This almost never happens on a weekday.

Weekdays are more like this:
Me (looking in the fridge): What's for dinner?

Loving Husband: I dunno. How about peanut butter?

NOTE: I hate peanut butter. He knows this.

Junior: Peanut butter!!

Me: (looking in pantry): No way. What else do we have?

Junior: Cookies!!

Me: No, we don't eat cookies for dinner, silly!

Junior: (grins)

LH: How about tuna?

NOTE: I hate tuna. I know, I'm a picky little shit. Get over it.

Me: Try again. How about Sonic?

LH: Uh, okay.

Junior: Tator tots!! Yeah!

And we pile in the car and go to Sonic.

So I was more than a tiny bit interested when I started seeing these 'gourmet dinner' places that claim to provide you with 6 - 12 meals that feed 6 people each. Doing some quick math, I figured that since there are only three of us (me, Loving Husband and Junior), this could actually last us 12 - 24 meals...almost a whole month!

I checked out some of the websites. They had cheesy names like Dream Dinners and Super Suppers. Their dinners included items like Sweet Cider BBQ Chicken, Mango-Glazed Pork Chops and Sirloin Steak with Garlic & Herb Butter. Yum! I was getting excited about this. And only about $100 for 6 meals. That's like $3 a meal per person. Economical, too.

Then I figured out the 'catch'. You gotta cook the meals yourself! What?! They provide the kitchen, the ingredients, etc., but you have to find the time to go to their store, read the recipes, make the stuff, then carry it all home and plop it into your freezer. The very thought made me feel tired.

If one of these places would offer to make the food for me, deliver it to my home and put it in my freezer for me, now that would be something!

Any entrepreneurs out there looking for a good idea? Hello? Hello?

Goofy...Now with Less Filter!

It's performance review time in Goofyville. Big fun! This time 'round, I got real brave and asked my on-site bosses for some feedback. This, as opposed to my off-site bosses, who actually do the review and bestow the raises on me. Don't ask. It's a strange deal.

Anyway... one of the on-site dudes said something that hit home. You know when someone tells you something about yourself and you do a big mental head slap, like DOH! I can't believe I hadn't realized that, yet it's so obvious. Well I had one of those moments.

What did he say? He said that I filter myself too much.

Since I had to ask him what he meant, let me explain....

I'm a pretty tactful person. Some folks (including readers of this blog) would call me "protected" or even "introverted". You'd never guess it by meeting me at first, since I'm a sociable kinda gal, but I have this knack of not really sharing anything very personal with folks until I know them really, really well.

So back to the "filter"...

He said that it was great that I had tact, yada, yada, good with the clients, blah, blah, blah... but with the current situation at our place of employment, there are some shakeups going on, and "being squeaky" (his words, not mine) would help me more than being tactful.

So his advice? Take off some of the filters! In other words, speak my mind! be squeaky! if my shorts are in a bunch, scream about it!

So look out! Who knows what will come outta my mouth now! (you've been warned!)

Einstein...Baby Einstein

We all know it and love it. It's like crack for babies and toddlers. They just can't get enough of that Einstein stuff. And there seems to be a Baby [Fill in the Blank] for every possible topic: Baby Shakespeare (poetry), Baby Noah (animals), Baby Picasso (art), ad nausem.

I started thinking of Einstein titles that you would never see. Here are some:

Baby Darwin

• Exposes your baby to the wonder of evolution through Darwin's theories
  (not available in Kansas)

Baby Stern

• Long-hair main character introduces the birds and bees with color and sound
• Visually stimulating real-world objects

Baby Bush

• Grammar can be fun!
• Exposes your baby to sounds of foreign languages

Baby P. Diddy

• Baby's first introduction to rap!
• Features many of P. Diddy's favorite compositions, like Shiny Suit Man and If You Want This Money*

Baby Paris

• Baby learns the value of money and power...and good shoes

...Are there any titles I've forgotten?

*These are real P. Diddy song titles...honest!

The Spirit of Christmas...Bartering!

One of my Christmas gifts was a $50 gift certificate for Best Buy. Now normally, this would be perfect. I would rush to Best Buy to get the good discounted stuff that folks have returned, and is marked down. However, this year I really wanted a Lowe's gift certificate. I have some house projects that I'd like to do and the $50 would go a long way towards that. The word didn't get to Santa in time though...

I had heard about a site where you could trade gift certificates, so I decided to check it out. I registered and entered my Best Buy information. I saw that someone had a Lowe's cert, for the same amount, and had "Best Buy" on their wish list. Cool! This should be easy!

I offered them a trade this morning, but have not yet heard back.

As a side note on this - I think I am the only one on the planet working this week. I went out for a quick shopping trip over lunch today and verified this fact. ...so the Lowe's cert guy is probably off work and won't reply until next week. Sigh.

I did however, get a trade offer of a $50 Red Lobster cert just now. Heavy sigh. I had to chuckle at some poor schmuck getting a Red Lobster gift certificate for Christmas. Ah, the gift of bad seafood. Hee-hee.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, are having a Happy Hannukkah, are having an enjoyable Kwanza, or are delighting in your favorite Pagan holiday. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Today (Thursday) I received a trade offer for a 1800-Wine cert. While tempting, I need to stay focused on Lowe's and the house projects. Doesn't anyone NOT like Lowe's. C'mon people!

Civic Duty

If you have any inflatable, moving or light-up Christmas decorations that can be turned off, deflated or stopped, please read the letter below and perform your civic duty, dammit!

Rest assured that if you do not, parents within a 15-mile radius are cursing you.

From: Goofy's Husband [mailto:ghubbie@themancorp.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 11:05 AM
To: Neighbor, Friendly
Subject: Help a brother out...

Friendly-

I must inform you of your civic duty. Once you commit to buying and inflating Christmas decorations in your front yard you must be consistent and have it inflated every night. Otherwise I must deal with the wrath of Goofy Junior when I keep telling him the Christmas Bear is sleeping...again ;-)

Our neighbor across the street has an inflatable Santa and I can’t tell you how sad I am to see the look of disappointment in Junior’s face when Santa is collapsed on the front lawn like a drunken hobo.

Thanks.

Goofy's Husband
Toiler for The Man
The Man Corp.
(555) 555-5555

I'm a Cheap Ho Too!

I'm coming to the realization that I'm a cheap bitch. First the free shipping obsession, now the gift card at-a-discount obsession.

First off, DAMN you Pesky Apostrophe for leading me to these sites! Whew, now I feel better.

I clicked on a link for CardAvenue. Then SwapAGift. I found lots of folks that had gift cards they didn't want, that are willing to sell at a discount or trade their cards for other ones.

From a seller's perspective, no longer do you have to keep that $50 Wal-mart card that Granny thought you might like. You can trade it for a Best Buy card, or sell it to someone for $45.

From a buyer's perspective (mine!), you can get a $500 Target gift card for $450. That's like getting $50 for FREE!

There's a small $3.99 fee to list a card on the site. There's no fee to buy a card from the site.

I feel an obsession coming on....everyone stand back.

I'm a Ho...

a Free Shipping Ho, that is.

The first step to recovery is admission that you have a problem. I have a problem. I cannot resist the lure of "free shipping". I will do anything for free shipping.

Evidenced the other day as I was doing some holiday shopping on Amazon.com. They offer "Super Saver Shipping" (read as: FREE!) for orders over $25. Since I had about five items each to buy for two nieces, this should have been no problemo. However....

The "Super Saver Shipping" only applied to items that Amazon.com sells themselves. The key word being "themselves". For example, when you buy a toy from Amazon.com, the supplier is actually Toys R Us, not Amazon. Thus, no free shipping for that item. Drat!

Also, when you buy something as "used" from Amazon.com, that does not apply for the free shipping. Double Drat!

So, I found myself needing one purchase of $12.59 to qualify for the free shipping. I decided to buy one more book (horse-related, naturally...these are my horse-crazy nieces, after all). Guess how much the book was? $12.35! A frigging 24 cents short! Not even a quarter short. I added it to my order and the damn site actually told me, "you need .24 to qualify for Super Saver Shipping". Oh, bite my jingle bells! Just give me the quarter, for crying out loud!

So, what did I do?

Did I just place the damn order and get on with my life? No way, Jose.

I asked Loving Husband, "Do you need anything from Amazon.com?" Surprisingly, he didn't need anything. When he finally thought of several things, they were (of course!) not qualified for the fucking free shipping. Triple Drat!

"Does Goofy Junior need anything from Amazon.com?" Of course not. Junior has more "stuff" than the entire household combined, thanks to Junior-centric Gramma and Grampa.

I spend ONE HOUR of my precious life, trying to spend 24 cents. And having a hard time doing it!

Finally Loving Husband came up with the perfect plan. "How about a sticker book?"

"A sticker book!!!" Hallelujah! It was $1.25.

The final tally? I saved $5.29 in shipping.

I told you...I'm a Free Shipping Ho.

Killing a Business

One of my goals this past two weeks has been killing a business. Lest you think I'm cruel and heartless, the business was begging to be killed. The business in question was a jewelry-making business. A friend and I created the business two years ago. We took a jewelry making class, thought it was fun, then a few friends saw our creations and asked to buy them. What a rush! Hmmm....we thought. We could make some money and support our jewelry habit. How cool is that?

Well, at first it was very cool. We happily made jewelry and sold a few pieces to friends and family. Then we got our first store! Well, not OUR store...a store that was willing to put our jewelry on display and split the profits. "We are in the big time now," we thought. Then we got another store, and another, and another. It seemed that all we had to do was bring some jewelry in to show and ask about splitting profits. We could have gotten four more stores if we had just asked.

However around this time we realized that we needed to PRODUCE. Not happily create jewelry when we felt inspired. PRODUCE. A much different feeling, let me tell you. Around this same time my partner decided that she didn't like the pressure of having to PRODUCE when the stores needed inventory. She wanted to create jewelry when the urge struck her. And I whole-heartedly agreed! But I couldn't kill the business. I just couldn't do it. So my partner bowed out and I continued on.

Fast forward to about a month ago, when I did the accounting for the business for the year. Oh, all the revenue that had come in! It had added up. Wee! But, wait a minute...there was also the expenses. They had added up too. In my eagerness to PRODUCE, I had stocked up on beads, findings, wire, tags, tools, etc., etc.

When the two columns were summed and compared, I was BREAKING EVEN. Not making a dime. Basically doing the business for fun. And it wasn't much fun. There was a lot of deadlines and stress about HAVING to make jewelry, even when I wasn't in the mood. Plus, being me, I had several other projects in the hopper that were new! and fun! and needed my attention.

I asked Loving Husband his opinion. He was brief and to the point. "Simplify and prioritize," he said. He's a smart man sometimes, I have to admit.

So I came to the difficult decision. I must kill the business.

The first store removed itself. The owner had decided that her location sucked and was closing, moving and reopening in March. I pulled the inventory out and sighed with relief. That was easy.

The second store was easy too. I hadn't dropped off any new inventory in about 4 months. My contact there said she wouldn't be upset if I pulled out the jewelry case and revamped it. I asked if she would be upset if I didn't bring it back. She said "no". I considered it done.

The third store was a bit more difficult. They gave me some trouble. "Oh no!" they said, "Don't take your jewelry out. Make some more and it will sell. It's Christmas time, you know." I was obstinate. Well, I left and came back and then was obstinate. "I'm quitting the jewelry business!" I declared. They finally acquiesed and let me leave. On the way out, they tempted me again. "You know our other jewelry provider is quitting too. We won't have anyone's jewelry to sell." "I'm quitting!" I said, yet again. And so it was done.

The fourth store still has bundles of inventory. They will not be calling me for a while. They should get through Christmas and then some before I have to break the bad news to them. I'm going to leave them dumb and happy for the meantime, and break the news later.

It's hard work, killing a business. Almost as much work as starting one.

I am Thankful

The transition to the BBB (that would be "Big Boy Bed") went fantastic! We stuck with Junior's nightly routine, only he climbed into his BBB himself, instead of us putting him in the crib.

A couple things helped, I think. His crib was still in the room. And okay, I cheated a bit and shoved one side of the BBB against the crib, effectively making a daybed, with only one open side. I have to confess, the up-over-down-run-around circles he had been practicing on the BBB had me worried!

We also took Baby Tad and put him at the foot of the BBB. Baby Tad (who gets my vote for essential kid gear) is a stuffed frog-doll thing that plays up to six lullabies when you press his paw (who knew frogs had paws?).

After we put Junior into the BBB, kissed him goodnight and set up the new gate across his door (no escapees allowed!), we ran to the monitor and listened. Baby Tad finished his 6 songs. Then we heard "One minute to night-night". Junior had pushed Baby Tad's paw again! And then again. And again. Poor Baby Tad started sounding a big sluggish. "Damn you, Baby Tad, don't go out on us now!" I thought.

Then finally...silence. We had achieved sleep in the BBB. And we were thankful.

A New Toy!

It's pretty sad when you get really excited about a mixer. But this isn't just any mixer. Oh no. This is the KitchenAid Artisan 5-speed mixer, baby. With 325 watts of pure mixing power.

I got the cobalt blue color, 'cause I figured if I got a sports car that's what color I'd get. Red is just too showy for me... ;-)

I'm going to whip up all sorts of yummy baked goods with this bad boy.

Vroooooommmm!

Chillin' in the Crib

In the beginning, there was the crib. And the crib was good.
But She-Who-Holds-the-Pediatric-Degree came down from on high.
"The boy is too big," She declared.
"He can climb from the crib."
"He will climb from the crib."
"He will go 'boom'."
And the crib was no longer good.

...and so the Saga of the Big Boy Bed began...

Tonight we put together the Big Boy Bed (hereafter called "BBB" for brevity). We have been "selling" the BBB for the past two weeks, since it arrived in its giant box. We visited the library and checked out books about BBBs. We read the BBB books. Junior started getting excited.

When Loving Husband asked Junior "Would you like to put together your BBB tonight?", he (Junior, that is) ran upstairs and pointed to the big box. He "helped" put together the bed, with lots of "No, Junior"s from Loving Husband. Finally, the BBB was complete.

"You will get to sleep in it in TWO DAYS," we told him.

"I wanna get in it," said Junior. Hmmm....we thought. This is all good, right?

We got the crib mattress from the crib and put it into the new BBB. So cute...it looks like a doll bed.

"Pretend to be asleep," we urged.

He eagerly got in and started circling...like a dog! This was new behavior. Then he started climbing in, circling around, then climbing out the other side. Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Faster. Faster. Faster. We started getting dizzy.

"Well, this will be fun!" said LH sarcastically.

Then we went to take the mattress back out and put it back in da crib. "I wanna sleep in Bigboybed!" cried Junior. "In TWO DAYS!" we cried back. "WAAAAAAAAAAA!" he cried. Literally crying now.

We finally settled him down. I think he talked me down to 1 day...I can't be sure...but in the end he was in the crib and settled down.

I guess we are good Marketers, huh? A little too good.

Stay tuned for D-Day, er, BBB-Day. Hopefully the casualties will be low.

Thoughts on Football and Life

Anyone who owns a radio or TV in the Kansas City area knows the news: The Kansas City Chiefs have lost their star running back, Priest Holmes, to a neck injury. He took a hard hit in a game two weeks ago and has been examined by several doctors, who came back with the same advice...No hits for 30 days, at least. Since there are only four regular-season games left, this means his season is over.

This is a tough loss, as Holmes is widely considered to be carrying a large portion of the team's weight when it comes to offense. I was listening to a sports radio station the same day this news broke and lots of fans were calling in commisserating about losing our star player. Would the Chiefs still be able to win without Holmes? Would Holmes' backup be able to perform? Would he retire or be back next year? The calls went along these same lines for an excrutiatingly long time.

Then finally some guy called in and said, "Hold up...let's think this from Holmes' viewpoint for a moment. His career could be over!" There is speculation that Holmes has a bruise on his spinal case (not column). These types of bruises do not heal - they are there for life. This guy had actually played semi-pro football, gotten hit in a similiar way as Holmes and had been partially paralyzed. He still did not have 100% use of his upper body. This gave a whole new perspective to the topic. And reminded me of a similiar situation that I went through...

No, I didn't get hit by a 300+ pound lineman, but I did have a serious neck injury. About five years ago, around mid-summer, I started getting some pain near my shoulder blade. A strange little pain that felt like a muscular "knot". Since I was playing volleyball about 3 times per week, I figured I had just over-used a muscle and was sore. Then the tingling started. A weird tingling sensation down my right arm. I started going to my massage therapist bi-weekly to fix the "knot"...to no avail - it kept coming back. Over the next couple of months the tingling got so bad that it actually hurt. I quit playing volleyball, as it was hard to control my arm with all the tingling. I quit sleeping through the night, as I could not find a position that was not painful or that did not put my arm to sleep. Keep in mind that I work on a computer all day...needless to say, this was quite painful too.

I'm not a big fan of doctors, but at this point I figured a doctor's visit was in order.

My doctor ordered an MRI of my neck and shoulders. If you've never had an MRI of your upper body, it's scary as hell. They warned me in advance that if I was claustrophobic, I might not like this. I am. And I did not. I was able to get past being shoved headfirst up to my waist into a tiny, enclosed chamber. I was able to get past the ear-splitting, jackhammer-like thumping that the super-duper magnet makes as it images your body. I was NOT able to get past the pain of lying there on my back for 15 minutes. It hurt that bad just to lay still. I ended up wiggling and they had to repeat the process a second time. Torture.

When I went back to the doctor to hear about the results of my MRI, he scared the living shit out of me. He said I had a herniated cervical disc. He went on to say that I needed surgery to either remove or fuse the disc. He went on to say that I should be extremely careful driving, since any sort of impact could potentially paralyze me. He also mentioned that if I lost control of my bladder that I was to report to an emergency room ASAP, as that might be an indication that the disc had intruded into my spinal column.

...and I thought he would tell me it was a pinched nerve. The fucker really threw me for a loop.

I cried the whole way home. I figured my life as I knew it was over. No more volleyball, no more bike riding, no more sleeping through the night. I was 35 at the time, with a lifetime of plans and goals ahead of me - lots of them physical. It's an understatement to say that this was a gigantic bummer.

As instructed, I reported to the neurosurgeon's office for a consult. This dude, who looked just like Chris Elliott (the mad professor) from "Back to the Future", began by telling me all the bad things that could happen during the surgery. Partial facial paralysis (on side only). Okay, there goes my modeling career - ha! I could need more surgeries. I could lose movement of my neck. I would be in recover for six weeks. Six! As the icing on the cake, he mentioned that, due to how close all the nerves and spinal stuff was, that they make the incision in the FRONT of your neck. He actually made an imaginary "cut" with his finger across his throat. As in "off with her head". Okay, Alice, I'm down the rabbit hole and outta here. I nearly sprained an ankle running out of this crazy dude's office and to my car. I was NOT having my throat cut. No way. I don't like turtlenecks enough to be stuck with them for the rest of my life to cover a scar like that.

More crying in the car. Then worrying that the tears would blur my vision and I would get into a car wreck and be paralyzed. Then hopelessness as I realized that without this surgery, I would have to live with the now ever-present pain and numbness in my arm. This sucked. Then I mentally whacked myself in the head and told myself to start brainstorming. What else could I do? I couldn't live with this. I couldn't get the surgery. What else? What else? An idea came to me...

We had a friend studying to be a chiropractor. We had been camping with him the past spring and he had evangelized how chiropractic care could solve lots of problems that would normally require surgery. I had nothing to lose, so I picked up the phone and called him. I explained the whole deal and he said he would talk to one of his instructors about whether my problem could be solved. He called me back and I got an appointment with his instructor, Dr. T., later that week. At least I knew he wouldn't want to cut me open, so that was a start.

Dr. T. was awesome! After looking at my MRI, he agreed that I indeed had a badly herniated disc. Then he went on to say that it would take about 4 months to get me back to 95% capacity. I had to come see him twice a week for the next few months, then we would take x-rays and see what had changed. This sounded much better than the big, scary knife solution.

Dr. T. gave me homework - buy a beach ball, sit down on the floor with my back to the wall and push the beach ball to the wall with my head. This was horribly painful...but it got easier over time. Dr. T was positive, but tough. He gave me more painful exercises to do. We were moving things around and it was going to be painful. He took me off my pain meds that Dr. #1 had given me, so that they wouldn't "mask" when I was really in pain and when I wasn't.

The first week was very tough. The second week was a bit better. After the first month I actually slept through the night for the first time in about six months. Bliss! As promised, after about 4-1/2 months, I started playing volleyball again. Over the next year, I saw him about once a month, to keep things where they should be.

I am currently pain-free, tingle-free and numbness-free. I know that my disc is not healed. It is a weak spot on me that I am always aware of. I know that there may come a day when I might need that dreaded surgery. I secretly hope that they will have fake disc "gel" that you can inject to puff discs back up to their normal size by then. Don't laugh...they are close on this!

No, I'm not carrying the weight of entire football team on my shoulders, but I do carry the weight of all the dreams and goals that I want to accomplish over my lifetime. And it takes a strong neck to carry those.

Trickertreat!

Ah, the joy of discovery! Ah, the pain of candy meltdown!

...such is Halloween in the Casa de Goofy.

Goofy Junior, so cute in his little vampire costume, ventured out for a fun-filled night of trick or treating. He was tentative at the first house, but Mommy (that would be me) had done some role-playing with him the night before, so he knew the routine.

Me: Junior, do you know what trick or treating is?

Jr: (blank stare)

Me: It's when we go to other people's houses, and knock on their door. (mimes knocking)

Jr: (blank stare)

Me: And then they open the door (mime opening door) and you say "trick or treat"

Jr: trickertreat!

Me: Then they give you candy in your pumpkin.

Jr: My purse?

Me: No, honey, it's not a purse, it's a pumpkin. Stop calling it a purse or Daddy will kill me.

Jr: (blank stare)

Me: So, they give you candy and what do you say?

Jr: thank you...?

Me: YES!

Jr: kidneys!* trickertreat! my purse!

Me (thinking): Okay, at least he won't be scared...

And, of course, he wasn't scared. He was the opposite! He was knocking on the doors, helping himself to candy, waving goodbye. After the second house, we turned around to walk down the stairs and he said, "I wanna do another one". I chuckled. Then he said it after every house, alternating with "no go home yet".

After going all the way down our street and working our way back, I began to worry about the reprecussions of returning home. But I can think like a toddler (it's my secret super-hero talent...or maybe just my IQ).

Me: Okay, one more house and then we are done (cheerfully!)

Jr: Okay.

Me (after one more house): Where's our house?

Jr: There (points). No go home yet! (shaking head "no")

Me: Hey! I have an idea!

Jr: Huh?

Me: You knock on our own door and see if Daddy gives you candy. I'll bet he won't know it's you in your costume! (daycare-level cheerfulness now)

Jr: Okay! (he's digging this idea)

Me: I'll wait around the corner here....go knock on the door.

Jr: (big smile. goes and knocks on door)

Goofy Daddy (getting the idea, God love him): Hey, Happy Halloween little boy! Would you like some candy?

Jr: Trickertreat!

I come around the corner and take off Junior's vampire-ear-hat, to reveal his secret identity.

GD: OH! It's you Junior! Give me a hug! (and picks him up and carries him into the house)

Postscript: We needn't have worried...Junior liked giving out candy to the trick or treaters that came to our house even more than trick or treating.

* "kidneys" is "candy" in Goofy Juniorese

The Haunted Smoke Detector

Ugh. We got woken up this morning at 3:00am!

No, Junior didn't wake us up.

No, we didn't get a frantic call from a drunken friend.

No, a dog didn't bark to be let outside to pee.

Our smoke detector went off. Slowly. First one "chirp", then silence. This, of course woke my light-sleeping ass up right away. I thought I had imagined it and drifted back off. Then another "chiiiiiiiirp", a bit longer this time. I realized what it was and jumped out of bed.

What to do?

I stared at the smoke detector. It wasn't talking.

Hmmmm..... I scratched my head and got back into bed.

"Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirp....chirp......chirp", it said.

Now both Hubbie and I jumped out of bed to stare at the smoke detector. It was silent. He got a chair out and stood on it to get a closer look at the offending plastic gadget. I went downstairs to investigate. Computers smoking? Nope. Oven off? Yep. Cars on fire? Nope. Heater smoking? Nope.

Baffled, I went back upstairs and got back into bed.

"Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirp! Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirp!" "Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirp!" Now it wasn't quitting.

Oh, our ears. Oh no! Goofy Junior might wake up! Oh crap!

Hubbie ran downstairs to go for the breaker. It's one of those smoke detectors that doesn't have a battery - it's hooked into our electric system, not a great feature at this point.

I got on the chair and held my ears while I inspected the devilish thing. I hit it several times (my standby solution to things that don't work right), to no avail, then tried pressing on various points, thinking maybe something had come loose. About that same time, it went off.

Whew! Hubbie got the breaker switched. My ears were ringing. Luckily, Junior was still sawing logs. Unbelievable, since all this happened right outside his door!

We left the damn thing hanging from the ceiling and went back to bed. In the morning, I found out that Hubbie had not switched the breaker...there is no breaker for it! How the hell do we switch it off!?!?!?

So I'm hoping we won't have a repeat performance at 3:00am this morning. Or Saturday morning. Or Sunday morning.

Oeuf Oeuf!

So after the voices of reason spoke to me (thanks commentors!), I am changing directions and looking at toddler beds for our darling Goofy Not-so-Junior.

I fired up Google and tried "toddler bed". These first attempts yielded me the obnoxious race car/firetruck/princess castle beds. Ugh. Does our child have to be constantly bombarded with bright primary colors and shapes...even when he sleeps? How about "No". Shocking opinion, I know...

I pulled up Google and tried "modern toddler bed", hoping for some semblance of style for poor Junior. Well I got style alright, complete with a very large price tag - $500 for the Petra toddler bed (on "sale" for $397!). What a bargain! NOT!

I looked further and found the Oeuf Oeuf toddler bed. "Oeuf oeuf" must mean "overpriced, plain white bed" in French. This one was $480. I don't think we spent that much on our last queen-sized bed!

Also keep in mind that these prices do not include the damn mattress.

Then another voice of reason spoke...Loving Husband. These words came out of his mouth: "You know, the best thing about some of these beds is the bedding." Hmmm.... Here's an idea: Get a plain-Jane bed and put some kick ass bedding on it. Voila! Folks, we have a plan!

I found a simple-though-stylist white bed on Amazon.com for $79. While I still think this is a bit high, I can probably drive down to my local Babies R Us store and save the shipping cost. This makes me smile.

Then I thought about eBay. I buy everything on eBay, so why not a toddler bed? As I suspected, there were a few toddler beds out on eBay. Try 727 of them!

My first search was for "toddler bed". I didn't want to search through all 727 results, so I started modifying my search. I have kind of an obsession with this, so be forewarned...

So, I went from:
"toddler bed"
to
"toddler bed -sheets -car -cottage -sheet -bedding -"bed set" -crib -princess -girl -girls -pink -hearts -fire -train -winnie -dora -wiggles -pokemon -castle -nemo -batman -beetle -mickey -bear -racecar -incontinent -ark -bob -spongebob -veggie -flower -tractor -coupe -clifford -roadster -jeep"

That got me down to a more manageable 137 items (2 pages). And I would have further modified, but goshdarnit, eBay limits the number of characters you can put in that search box to...well...however many I have there. Who knew?

And for those of you that are curious, I did find 2 of the Amazon.com beds, for a fraction of the price. However, I have to either go to Allen, Texas or Sarasota, Florida to pick it up. With gas prices like they are, now we are back up in the Petra bed range. Oeuf!

It's the End of the World as We Know It....

and I don't feel fine. I feel pretty fucking nervous.

Goofy Junior is now officially 2-1/2 years old and 36" tall. Why is this important? Because he is now officially "too big" for the crib he currently sleeps in*.

The crib that keeps him warm and safe and best of all contained so that when he:
a) doesn't want to go to bed;
b) wakes up early;
c) wakes up in the night; or
d) screams through his nap,

we can feel confident that we can effectively ignore him until:

a) he gives in and goes to sleep;
b) we are ready to get up;
c) he falls back asleep; or
d) we give up and get the screaming child that will 15 minutes later fall asleep in the car.

Freedom....Gone! History. This really sucks. But it's inevitable, so we are dealing. Slowly.

The biggest decision right now is a new bed. There are multiple ways to go on this one...

Do we:
a) convert the crib to a "toddler day bed" (kind of a daybed with sides so sleeping toddler does not roll onto floor and wake self and rest of household)
b) buy a toddler bed (a lower, short bed with short sides, kinda like a giant litter box**)
c) buy a full-blown twin bed (if you don't know what this is, stop reading now)

An informal survey of other parents (okay, only two) leads me to believe that folks just jump to option c) twin bed. Of course, of all the options, this is the most expensive. Double damn!

I personally like my own option, call it d) if you will....get a kid-sized pup tent and put it up in place of the crib. Before you mock, listen up!

What kid wouldn't want a tent to sleep in every night? It's fun! Yet, it's contained. No, we wouldn't zip him in there. ...Well, not if he was cooperative about sleeping in there. It's low to the ground - if he rolls out, he's just on the floor and probably wouldn't even wake up. It doesn't take up much room (unlike twin bed, which we don't have room for). It's roomy. He can roll around in there and sleep in whatever position he wants, with as many stuffed friends as he wants. Plus there's the added bonus that when we go camping, he already relates a tent to sleeping. I think it's a great idea. However, I keep getting "Did you just fall off the face of the sun?" looks when I mention this to people.

I'm not getting a stupid race car bed. I'm not! I'm not! Absolutely NOT! Never!

* This is not an unbiased opinion...this comes straight for our All Knowing/All Seeing Pediatrician. Damn her!

** Speaking of litter box, there's the whole potty training issue looming large in the Goofy household. More blogging fun to come on that topic!

A True Adventure: Priceless (Part 2)

We join our adventure in progress as our heroines ponder the fate of their beloved guide A.

D. fires up the satellite phone and calls the emergency number. She gets voicemail and leaves a message. She then instructs us to grab some gear - we are hiking down the canyon to see if we can find A. Since she should have been hiking IN that way, we will hike OUT that way and hopefully meet up with her. Since we don't know why she is not back, we bring a sleeping pad (in case she needs to be dragged back), food and water (in case she has none), clothes (in case she is cold/wet) and headlamps (since it will be dark very, very soon). We all try not to be too freaked out by this preparation.

It takes us way too long to get ready, but finally we are on our way. We scramble down the rocks to the canyon and our heads swivel as we look around for any sign of A. D. is hiking fast now, trying to get to the exit of the canyon before dark. We struggle to keep up, still freaked out and soggy from the prior rain. We listen intently for any noise that might signal A. somewhere in the canyon....maybe hurt...maybe unconscious.

D. frantically looks for footprints. Since it rained, this is not as easy as it sounds. She doesn't see any footprints coming in. We try to take this bad news in stride.

Finally, we traverse the switchbacks that take us out of the canyon to the parking lot. Two hours had passed. No sign of A. yet. We wonder if the van will be there. We wonder if A. will be there...maybe in the van, smoking a cig and having a beer?

We switch on our headlamps and fire up our flashlights, as it's now officially dark. There's no sign of the moon and the storm clouds are rolling back in. It's very, very dark. And there's no sign of the van. D. leaves another voicemail on the emergency number. Everyone wonders about the effectiveness of the sat phone, since there's no one answering the other end.

D. decides that we will hike to the other side of the rim by the parking lot, where we can see our campsite and see if we can see any lights there. Maybe A. has mysteriously snuck back to camp and is roasting marshmallows and wondering where the hell WE are. This proves to be a big waste of time. The rain starts to pour. It starts to get cold. We stop to add layers of clothes and put on rainpants, hoods and - for those smart enough to bring them (i.e., not me) - gloves. We get out to the rim and don't see anything. Like I said...waste of time.

Now we have a problem finding our way back to the trailhead from the rim. It looked like a straight line out, but now it looks like a vast field going back. The rain is still pouring down and D. is having problems finding our footprints we left just minutes before. She switches headlamps with me (mine is brighter). This helps minimally. We eventually get back to our starting place at the exit of the canyon. Whew. Then the mutiny starts....

"What!?!? We are going back to camp?"
"Why?"
"I'm worried about flooding"
"I'm worried about twisting my ankle in the dark."
"I'm cold."
"Let's find the van and stay there."
"Let's find a hotel."

D. wasn't prepared for this (surprisingly). Her advice was for us to hike back to camp. It made sense after she explained it... Camp is warm and dry. All our stuff is there. If A. somehow made it back there, we should be there to help and/or welcome her. We need to take care of ourselves first, then worry about A. second. And yes, there was the fact that the VAN WAS GONE. Duh. We spent way too long discussing this and unruffling feathers before heading back down into the canyon. I wasn't excited about hiking back in, but I didn't see any other option. So into the pitch black night and drizzling rain we hiked. Back down the canyon, up the rocks and back to camp.

D. got back on the sat phone and actually reached someone this time. A. was okay! She had indeed been to the canyon exit, as planned, but was unable to find the trail into the canyon (it was a very confusing way in). She tried for several hours (!!!) before getting back in the van and heading into town to call the emergency number. She luckily had the contact's mobile phone number, while D. had the contact's home phone number. As luck would have it, the contact was not home, so had not gotten any of D.'s messages. D. called A.'s mobile phone and let her know the story. She decided to sleep in the van and hike in Sunday morning to help us pack up and hike back out.

After a quick dinner (it was now about midnight), we crawled into our tents and slept well, knowing that our comrade was safe and sound.

A True Adventure: Priceless (Part 1)

I headed off on my 4-day/3-night backpacking trip to Moab, Utah last Wednesday. I got into beautiful and quaint (aka small) Grand Junction, Colorado around 1:30pm. The trip was not scheduled to start until the following morning at 9:00am, so I had some time to kill. I had a map of the wine country in Palisades (about 8 miles away), so I rented a car and headed to some wineries. I was pleasantly surprised! They had "normal" wine (Cab Sav, Chardonnay, Syrah) rather than the expected apple-berry wine and mead. And it was darn good, for the most part.

After three wineries, I decided that I needed to grab some dinner, so I headed to downtown Grand Junction. This was a 7-block strip of really neat little stores (most of which were unfortunately closed by 6:00m on a Wednesday) and some interested restaurants (French, Italian, New World). I picked a nice-looking Italian restaurant and feasted on Chicken Scallopino with sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, and spinach in a gongonzola cream sauce. It was delish! I was definitely going to need plenty of carbs for my upcoming energy expenditure! I headed back to the tidy Best Western and tucked in early, about 10:30pm.

We all gathered and headed out Thursday morning (7 participants and 2 guides - all women) for a 2-hour drive to the canyonlands of Moab, Utah. There we packed up our backpacks with gear and provisions until they were taller than us and headed down the trail.

We camped on an outcropping of slickrock the first night. It was a beautiful night and it seemed that there were no bugs to speak of in the area, so we camped out without tents, under the stars. Let me tell you - once you get away from metro areas, there are a hell of a lot of stars!

In the morning, we hiked down to the stream to get some water, learned how to treat it so it was drinkable and headed out for a day hike to the sixth largest arch in the country - Morning Glory Arch. It was spectacular! We also found some cacti with purple fruit and one of our guides D. showed us how to peel and eat the fruit. I ended up with tiny, annoying stickers in 8 of 10 fingers, the roof of my mouth and my lip. Where else can you have this much fun?

When we got back to camp, we packed up and headed to Camp #2, where we would stay for the next two nights. It was further into the canyon and we had to scramble up some large rocks to get to the top. Once we got there, we were greeted with an unbelievable view of the canyon below, rock outcroppings all around and the San Juan mountains in the far distance (with snow on the peaks!). Camp #2 was a very large plateau (probably about 1/4 mile across), with varying level of rock "shelves". Instead of sleeping all together in the same area, we were encouraged to venture out and find our own solo camping spot. Since we were still within sight of the main gathering area, this wasn't as intimidating as you might think.

I was slightly bummed that I didn't bring a book to read - almost everyone else did - but actually it was nice to just have time to think and stare at the stars. You don't realize how little time there is in our regular schedule to just stop and ponder life. It was a real treat.

The next morning, I awoke to a small platoon of ants, trying to figure out WTF I was doing on their rock. I blew them away, did some stretching and went down for some breakfast.

After breakfast, we packed up our daypacks (I had to use my sleeping bag's stuff sack, since I didn't bring a daypack...arg!) and headed further down the canyon to check out some "swimming holes". Since it was 75 - 80 degrees during the day, and very dry, that sounded good to all of us.

That morning, our second guide A. packed up a pack to hike out to get our van and drive it around to the other side of the canyon, so we could hike out the other end, and not have to backtrack to get out. She left around noon.

Around 4:00pm, some ominous clouds rolled in and we headed back to camp to brace for the storm. We set up tents and one kept blowing away, from the high winds. The pouring rain and lightning started and we scurried into our tents to escape. After about an hour of rain and high wind, it was over. We came back out and started wondering where our guide A. was. Since it was about 5:00pm, she had been gone for 5 hours for a trip that should have taken her about 2 hours. We all started getting concerned about what had happened to her...

Stay tuned for Part Two...

How Scary is This?

I have no idea what to dress Goofy Junior as for Halloween. I have 26 days to figure this out. Well, actually 19, since I will be gone for the next 5 days. And really I can't count Monday, as there is no daycare for Columbus Day (WTF!) and I will be frazzled after watching Junior during the AM, then running to work in the PM after the babysitter comes. And Loving Husband is going out of town one weekend in October, so now we are down to only 16 days in which to ponder this.

It shouldn't be this hard. I love Halloween and I love dressing up. However, I've never been responsible for someone else's costume before. This is new territory.

Some background: Goofy Junior is male, 2-1/2 years old. Average sized. He loves sports, especially football, but how lame is it to dress your kid is something he wears every Friday (football jersey? Yawn.

I have done a bit of looking around. Most toddler costumes are:
too cute and fluffy;
a character he's never heard of; or
just plain ridiculous.

So, dear readers, I'm asking for advice. What should Goofy Junior be for Halloween?

I want something that he's going to be excited about, look cute as, and be comfortable in. Try being comfortable in this!

AND, it's also got to be easy for Mom to put together. I do not sew, so do not recommend some crazy sewing pattern. I am fairly dangerous with a hot glue gun, having put together a Dorothy from Wizard of Oz costume (complete with red sparkly shoes!) with only a glue gun and some fabric.

Help!

Welcome Back, See You Later!

In a scheduling haze, I signed up for a 4-day backpacking trip to Moab, Utah that leaves TWO DAYS after returning home from Las Vegas. I'm not even sure I can call it "two days" since we actually walked in our house at 2:00am Monday morning.

I now have to unpack, launder my party clothes and re-pack hiking clothes for a flight out Wednesday morning. I sound like I'm complaining, but actually I love traveling, so it's all good.

Our Vegas trip was great! We had a less-than-perfect experience the last time we went to Vegas, since we stayed at The Venetian and couldn't afford to do anything. The room was lovely, though.

This time, in an effort to save money for the really important stuff (gambling, eating, drinking), we stayed at The Sahara. The Sahara was a bit shabby and had smoky undertones, but in the scope of things it was a decent place to stay. They had $3 tables during the day and $5 tables at night (in contrast to the $15 tables all the time at The Venetian).

We also ventured to downtown Vegas, which has really improved. Instead of the blue-haired seniors that I remember the last time I visited, there were many, many younger folks, and plenty of them. The casinos were hopping, with cheap tables that weren't too crowded. We found a dealer that very patiently taught us how to play Roulette and we all WON. Cool! I walked up to a $3 Craps table and the same guy rolled for about 40 minutes. If that doesn't make sense to you, just know that it's virtually unheard of to have the same person roll for that long). I won $72. I should have won more, but I was a little slow to increase my bet from $3 to $5. Cheap Ass!

My football wagers didn't turn out quit so well. I won betting on the Chiefs (who WERE winning at half-time, even though they blew it later), then lost on Vikings, Cowboys and Jets.

No celebrity sightings and no shows, but I had a good enough time to want to go back. I will probably take a look at staying downtown if we go back, as that's were we ended up spending most of our time.

Next stop: Moab, Utah. Stay tuned!