Books 2010

I updated my list of Books for 2010, and there are a total of 26, which was my goal for the year. It seems funny now because instead of finishing 2 books a month, I probably finished 26 books over several 3 day periods.

Unfinished books for the year include: The Infinities (awful) and The Inheritance of Loss (boring). I should admit that I haven't actually finished The Long Song, because Miss Beth got me Freedom for Christmas and I have been reading that instead - but I think I can finish it before the end of 2010.

I included a screen shot of my list for those that only read posts via email, but if you are on my blog, you can click the link for any book and it should bring you to the Boulder Book Store for your viewing or purchasing pleasure. I did accidentally link to the study guide for The Remains of the Day, but that is fixed now!

Thank Goodness for the Internet

Otherwise I would have had to guess what Jack was talking about based on his bizarre complaint and his inability to scratch me when he tried.

Howdy Stranger

Oh, hello, I didn't see you there.

Well here I am back in business and already thinking of New Years Resolutions with 3 full days left in 2010. I am going to ease back into blogging because I already have a full plate consisting of organizing my entire life, doing something a little different at work, starting a new exercise program, training my dog to be absolutely perfect, crafting, becoming an expert baker and cook, finding a religion, making more time for my family, keeping track of my camera, phone, glasses, ipod and wallet for an entire year straight.

I'll keep you posted!

Little Hippie at the Liquor Store

Friday night, Jack and I were wondering the liquor store on our way out for the evening. The boys had an offer of free tickets to a CU Basketball game, and I was going to send them on their merry way and have a glass of wine with the moms.

We were wandering up and down the aisles trying to pick out a bottle of wine, after Jack had unsuccessfully lobbied to be left in the car. I suppose I was taking too much time, muttering to myself, "Hmmm. What do I want, what do I want, what do I want?"

Jack decided to be helpful and said, "Well, what is your body telling you?"

I said, "Oh, I don't know, what is your body telling you?" because I wasn't sure what he was even talking about. He decided to give me an example, "My body is saying I WANT BEER."

Oh, OK. Thanks! I decided my body was telling me I wanted red wine. It never got any more specific, so I let my wallet make the rest of the decision.

A Little Story About A Christmas Project

Last December, I had a thought that I should get a frame with several spots for 5x7 pictures and at Christmastime I could use the frame to display a series of my kids on Santa's lap. Then I thought, "Hey, it's sort of a busy time of year, this is something I could do in January when everything settles down." Fast forward one month. I can't remember last January, but I must have been occasionally shopping for frames. I think at some point I thought, "I could just waut and do this next year at Christmastime." Fast forward one year. The kids had their picture taken with Santa (story for another post), and by my calculations, I should have a total of 6 pictures floating around that need to be in a frame. Frames with 3 spots for 5x7 pictures were buy one get one free. Hello! Time to cross a year old project off the to do list.

I got home from Micheal's with a 12 pack of food coloring and two picture frames and I was very happy. I opened the filing cabinet to my folder marked "pictures" and I found... 1 picture of the kids on Santa's lap circa 2008. That's it. That's how organized I am. I put something on my to do list, and it stays there for a year, and when I finally complete the 20 minute chore of purchasing a frame, the pictures are lost.

The pictures weren't in the baby books either. Because yeah, I'm not really keeping the baby books up to date, but I thought to check there.

Finally I thought to look in my nightstand. And what did I find? My old "to do list" folder. See, last March, I randomly thought I was going to quit my job, and I cleaned almost everyone out of my desk at work and chucked it into my nightstand drawer. What was I working on last March? Apparently shopping for a frame for Santa pictures, since the pictures were in there. I was also working on a bunch of other stuff that now doesn't seem quite so important.

BUT - the pictures are in the frame and the kids had a really good time looking at them today. So it was worth it. A year of thinking about doing something, 30 minutes doing it.

In other news: I have sugar cookie, chewy chocolate gingerbread, star wars sugar cookie, and peanut butter surprise cookie dough made. Tomorrow I hope to start baking.

Dodgeball 2

I was never a team sport person, so it took my completely by surprise when I had so much fun playing dodge ball last week. Luke's team won their game, and we went 2-0. It was really, really fun. I wondered if maybe I should join a dodge ball league. Luke wished there was a NDL or MLD.

It was a lot of running, and dodging, and sweating and laughing, and I felt like I got a work out in 20 minutes. I finally understood why people like to play sports. It's been very interesting. On the other hand, it is sort of detrimental to my workout routine. How I can I go back to the treadmill after the excitement of dodge ball? I recently finished a 6 week challenge on the wii (EA Sports Active: More Workouts) and it was pretty good. I felt like my abs and my legs were getting in pretty good shape. For the arms part, it uses a resistance band, and I couldn't get quite enough resistance to feel like it was working. I do have a resistance band that is tighter, but I can't hold it and the wiimotes at the same time so the trainer just keeps telling me I am doing it wrong. But after the 6 week challenge I thought, "Hmmm. I could probably do all these moves with weights instead of the band, and without the pretty wii scenery in a shorter amount of time..." So once I got up and sort of worked out without the wii. That was about 3 weeks ago. For some annoying reason, the wii seems to be the best motivator for me. I can do it at home, I don't like the program to remind me that I have missed a workout, so I don't miss workouts, and I seem to get sort of in shape. The problem is that once I finish a program on one of the wii games, I don't want to do it again. And now we have the added challenge of finding something as fun as dodge ball. I've been researching yoga studios, dance studios, cross fit gyms, the Y, regular gyms, and workout videos. And when I am not doing that, I am resting on the couch from the exertion of dodge ball until I can get up and gather the strength to start preparing for COOKIE EXTRAVAGANZA 2010.

So far I have the sugar cookie dough rolled out and in the freezer, along with the dough for chewy chocolate gingerbread. The problem is deciding what to do next:
1.) The dough that comes with the star wars cookie cutters?
2.) Chocolate peanut butter surprise?
3.) Pecan Cookies?
4.) Spritz?
5.) Ice box cookies?

And so on. 1 and 4 are definitely going to happen, just need to find the time. Then I am torn about the rest. I plan to get the dough all done this week if I can. Then I can bake on Saturday and maybe just relax and decorate Sunday.

As for dodge ball, it turns out that it's more fun when you win. I had hoped I would never know the loss of a dodge ball game, but last night did us in.

We have one more game Wednesday, and then may or may not go on to the finals. So it's still all dodge ball and cookie dough all the time at Casa de MetaMegan.

Dodgeball

Well, I made it through 30 days of daily posts. I'd love to post an awesome and insightful summary of my month and everything I learned, but I am late for my dodgeball game, and I am worried that if I wait till after the game to post, I may not be coherent.

*Edited to add that we WON! And to fix some "typos".

Spring Creek!

From Summer 2008

Dave and I had a rare night out this weekend, with Grandmom and Grandad in town and happy to babysit. It was 35 degrees outside so we thought, "Let's ride our bikes to The Fox to see Spring Creek!" We have fond and hazy memories of Spring Creek from the Keystone Beer and Bluegrass Festival, and every time they play around town we are very sad to learn that we missed it, or that I was too lazy to go. Like I said, I don't get out much. This may have been what prompted a certain Purse Girl to say, after I stopped by her house for a drink along my bike ride to The Fox, "Wow, this is going to be a big night for you, MetaMegan. You know, going out, staying out late." I'll have you know, I used to do that 5 nights a week. I had skillz. Skillz that I was looking to test at The Fox. Oh, also Spring Creek was opening for the Emmitt-Nershi Band, which is a side project for some members of The String Cheese Incident. I don't know why I am explaining that because I think people are like, "Who?" or "OMG!!!!! STRIIIIING CHEEEEEESE." I am actually sort of in the former column, which is weird because I have heard of them, probably been to a show or two, and I was still like, "Who did you say is on after SPRING CREEEEEEEK?"

So, we stopped for drinks, biked to The Fox in 35 degree weather, locked our beautiful, beautiful bikes up out front and went in for more drinks and to find a spot to watch the show. Beers in hand, we found a great spot with a ledge for your drink on the side, etc, etc, that Dave claims in the best location. We were chatting and enjoying our date, but whenever there was a lull in the conversation, I was unable to block the conversation of the people in the area just above us which was, "One Thousand and One Pet Deaths." After a while I said, "I can't take another one. Are you listening to 1001 pet deaths?" So we moved, inexplicably, to an area that was very roomy, the very back of the room, below the sound board. The band came on, they were awesome, and immediately a very tall and wide man stood right in front of me. Dave said that we were in the tall person section and it was too bad we gave up our prime location. Reminder: Pet Death One-Upsmanship is nothing I want to be near. But the tall guy moved and we were happy. Then an even taller guy appeared, and I couldn't help but laugh. Laugh and laugh and laugh. Dave said, "Gigantism must be in the water." I said, "I thought at first he had a wooden leg, but I think that's how he dances. OMG, he is dancing a jig! It must be hard to dance when your limbs end so darn far away from your brain." Just then, he turned around, spread his arms (wingspan 10 feet at least) and said, "WHERE ARE ALL MY FRIENDS?"

We headed back to the bar and decided the following:

Mad Blue Grass Dancing Skillz: Rusty
Ability to Stay Up Later than 11:00 pm doing something other than spooning Lucy and watching Weeds (and/or working): Untested
Ability to Snidely Critique Random Strangers: Never Sharper

We got our drinks, gave up on the tall section and headed to the dance floor down in front. There, we were surrounded by a guy wearing a panda hat, Father Time, and a guy in a tuque dancing the robot. And a guy with a pretty good voice who seemed to really wish he had his own bluegrass band. Snidegasm.

When Emmit-Nershi came on, a few other members of String Cheese joined him for a few songs, and people were dying from the excitement. Panda was asked if he thought they'd play some song and he said, "THAT WOULD BE MY DREAM." I asked Dave, "What's your dream song? Something with words? Can I yell SPRING CREEEEK?" He pretended he couldn't hear me. Later I thought maybe I was being annoying, but he said I wasn't and that maybe it's good for me to get out of the house and make fun of strangers for a change.

Emmit-Nershi et all, was v. awesome though. They played a Blue Grass cover of Just Like Heaven which was amazing. Oddly, he dedicated it to those born in the 80's instead of those in high school in the 80's who were sitting at home instead of going to homecoming. Also odd? I think they had played one note when Dave had identified it as a Cure song.

It was a great night.

Dogs and Babies

Running out of ideas here for blogging into the future, so I am going to go with an old standby. Awww, Bean and Jack!


Aww, Lucy and Jack!
Aww, Luke and Bean!

Craft-tastic

Last year I wanted to blog about some of the things I was making for Christmas, but then that would have spoiled the surprise. By January, I had forgotten everything. But I am now in the process of planning holiday gifts and crafts and so I am revisiting last year.

For Anthony, my nephew, and budding chef, I made an apron, and I had Dave model it:

From December2009 1

I also had the boys help me make wrapping paper:

From December2009 1

Jack and I actually already gotten a head start on that project this year.

I also made some photo books, and after Christmas I made a smock for my niece, Rose, and a sort of jacket for Hope. This year I don't have any solid plans yet, so feel free to comment with suggestions. Of course, cookies are ALWAYS on the agenda, and Laura wants to make soap. But Dave and I both had the same reaction to that: ...shudder...ew...fight club

Maybe in all my free time away from the computer I am going crazy crafting!

Black Friday

I usually do a lot of Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, and then devote December to making thousands of cookies. But so far I have purchased this many presents:0. I just made a frownie face as I typed that. I haven't even updated my excel spreadsheet with columns for each person, gift ideas, final selection, wrapped (Y/N) and shipped (Y/N). I haven't even started sewing plaid shorts for Eric in the mellow make-a-gift exchange. I decided this would be the year that I don't stress about gifts and instead of thinking really hard about what individual gift card to get for what teacher, I would just get everyone the same thing! One stop! That is as far as I have gotten. So I guess my carefree attitude has backfired because last night I dreamed it was Christmas day, and I hadn't purchased gifts for anyone. And I had to go online and order a Crabtree and Evenlyn gift basket for all 100 people on my list. Then I made up some excuses about why the gifts were late, and why lotions are really not lame and impersonal AT ALL. (This is the dream talking, not me.) I woke up groggy and upset, but that's because it was midnight and someone from work was calling me.

So I got down to business and IM'd my sister and brother and asked for gift ideas. Oddly, they suggested lotion. I guess my nightmares are telling me something.

Are you on my list, and not interested in lotion? Better comment with some ideas!

Thanksgiving

I know I have been a bit of a debbie downer these days, so I am working on feeling more grateful for all the things in my life that are awesome.

At bedtime with the boys I ask them to list 3 things they liked about their day. Luke is usually stumped unless we had hamburgers for dinner, but Jack goes on and on. He's thankful that I am putting him to bed, that he got to go to daycare that day, that we read stories, that he got to play. He usually gives Luke and I a lot of ideas.

The other thing I have been doing is to try to write down 5 things a day that make me happy. Coffee shows up on that list a lot. I write it in my work notebook, so it's interesting to be looking for a note and reading something like this:

Make log files bigger than 500M?
coffee, sweet puppy, pear tea, halloween candy, bacon
netstat -an | grep EST | grep 1521 | wc -l

I am writing this in advance, because I have a crazy idea that I am going to take 4 days off from the computer. (I already asked Dave to plan to be available to google things for me if necessary.)

So I am hoping to be thankful on Thanksgiving that Jack isn't throwing up all day, like last year! Regardless, I am so thankful for my family and friends, and even my job.

Happy Day Everyone!

Nuts!

Last year I sustained second degree burns in a tragic Thanksgiving Day nut caramelizing incident. This year, I decided to avoid that by
1.) Caramelizing the sugar for the caramelized nuts before Thanksgiving Day, and not while a vomitous child wants to be held.
2.) Doing 2 batches at once, so I can make the cake again before Christmas without going through the trouble twice

So I caramelized the nuts, and i even made some long strings of sugar for the kids to eat, and everything was wonderful and magical. Then I started to clean up, and the sugar was really sharp. I now have about 4 cuts on each fingertip. So here is what I am thinking. From now on: no nuts.

I've blogged about this cake before. Here, here, here, and here. Oh, and here. Each time there is some wacky thing that goes wrong, so I am glad I haven't broken the trend. Some might wonder why I keep making this cake. Easy, it's AWESOME, and if I stopped cooking/baking things that caused bodily harm, or wacky adventures, or involved gross miscalculations, then my family would starve.

Hmm, this may not be the pep talk I needed to give myself the day before Thanksgiving! On the bright side, I should have a lot of good material on Monday when I am back to blogging again. I have a crazy plan to take 4 days off from the computer, so I have scheduled posts for the next four days.

Happy Thanksgiving!

MetaMultiTasking

Sunday afternoon I was making a leisurely, pre-Thanksgiving trip to the grocery store, forgetting things, getting stuff that wasn't on the list, back-tracking, breaking into a sweat, you know, the usual.

Then I made the mistake of turning on my phone to see what time it was while I waited in the interminable line at the deli for my 10 slices of stuffing-destined prosciutto. And what happened? I read a txt from Dave that said I needed to hurry home so one of us could pick Luke up from a birthday party, and that also, work was calling me.

Cue extreme panic attack. OMG! I was at the grocery and my phone died. PEOPLE AT WORK NEEDED ME ON A SUNDAY AND I WASNT AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY. I decided to forget the rest of the list and get home as fast as possible. Also, Luke needed to be picked up.

So I drove home, honked the horn, Dave ran out to drive off to get Luke while I dragged the groceries in the house. I called my co-worker, got the scoop, and started unloading groceries, and logging in at the same time. And because I think I am awesome at multi-tasking, I also started composing my blog post about the whole thing. "Look at me! I can put all the groceries away in the time it takes to login to my work computer! Look at me, bringing home the bacon, frying it up in a pan and tossing off bon mots all the while!"

If my camera wasn't broken, I would have the picture that captured my (slight lack of) success. And that picture would have been taken 2 hours later, work problem still not solved, and it would be a picture of a pile of lonely groceries on the floor in the kitchen.

Avalanche

Dodd, Dave and I saw Blues Traveller in the summer of 1996 at Red Rocks. I know what year it was because I just googled (and giggled) "Avalanche Stanley Cup" and saw that the Avs won in 1996. Anyway, Dodd and Dave and I were at Red Rocks, enjoying the show, when a lady came up and grabbed Dodd by the shoulders and said, "You guys, we really need to show John Popper that we totally support the Avalanche and that we are proud that they won the Stanley Cup! So, yell Avalanche as loud as you can!"

Um, OK, why not?

So Dave yelled, "AVALANCHE!" And Dodd yelled "STANLEY CUP!" And I yelled, "FRED!" What? I was looking for my friend Fred. Then all three of us yelled together, "AVALANCHE! STANLEY CUP! FRED!" I loved the way Dodd yelled Stanley Cup because he did the "-LEY CUP" in a really low voice. That went on for the rest of the night. And by "night" I mean several years. In fact, the night Dave and I got engaged at a bar in Chicago, the Blackhawks were playing the Avalanche in some sort of playoff game, and Dodd and Dave kept yelling, "AVALANCHE! STANLEY CUP!" The fact that we knew the owner, and bartender, and had just gotten engaged went a long way that night.

Dave and I were reminiscing this weekend because Luke asked about avalanche mitigation and Jack just yelled, "AVALANCHE." We laughed and said, "You sound like Dodd." And Jack said, "Is Dodd a chipmunk?"

No, but I can imagine how his laugh would have sounded when I told him that story.

Note to Future Self

When looking back on summer/fall 2010 and wondering where all the photos are, remember that you lost your memory card, and then you bought a new one, but you broke your camera the next day, then you found your old memory card, but iphoto somehow stopped working, and would only allow you to look at one picture at a time. But, when you are too lazy to write all those great posts you have had in your head all day, you can just bang your head against the computer until one photo appears and then write a quick sentence about that. Behold: Halloween.

Centro

I got to sleep in today and it was glorious. Then we biked to Centro for brunch, and I needed a spicy breakfast since it was 28 degrees when we left the house. We bundled up pretty well, but Luke and I wished we had scarves or ski masks because our faces were freezing. But Centro was the best. I wish I could say I branched out and ordered something different, but I just got the same thing I always get: Huevos Rancheros. The. Best. Breakfast. In. Boulder. And I LOVE Lucille's, I really do. But Centro is so exactly what I want. Perfect amount of spice and sweet, perfect portions. I swear I am not saying this because the Bloody Marys are also really good.

Dave had the special, Jack had the coconut fried bananas with vanilla anglaise, and Luke had a burnt grapefruit and a quesadilla.

After brunch, we biked to the Buffs game, which the won, yea! Then biked home just before 4, when the sun was already down behind the mountain. Short days, and cold. But my huevos rancheros sustained me until we got home and I made hot cocoa.

Thanksgiving Stuffing Bummer

I am busily making my menu for Thanksgiving, and I want to make the same stuffing I made last year. See, two years ago, this stuffing had major potential, but the chestnuts got overcooked. Last year, I think I solved the chestnut problem and I was so happy that all I had to do was turn to my blog to find out exactly what the solution was. Sadly, all there is is a list of things I really need to get around to blogging about, like my stuffing solution. GAH! So I guess I have to solve that problem again this year.

Getting in Shape

A few years ago, I had a subscription to Shape magazine, and every month Dave would say something about the airbrushed picture on the cover. I never really believed that the pictures were airbrushed, and I always thought that if I just worked out for 4 hours a day and cut out carbs that I could look like that too. Once, Dave pointed out how a person's abs in a picture inside the magazine looked nothing like the abs on the cover, and I started to see the light.

Then I started reading jezebel.com and their Photoshop of Horrors feature. But it got really fun when I started discussing photoshop with Laura, because she was able to do what 30 minutes of exercise a few times a week, and a diet of halloween candy could never accomplish. Behold, my snowboarding bod:

Aaaand one more Jack's Birthday Post

I love how Lucy's tail starts wagging at the end. And about the cake... It was dry. I decreased the baking powder (3 teaspoons instead of 3,5) and the sugar (buy 1/4 cup out of 3 cups or something), but I didn't increase the liquid. Maybe that was the problem. I was pretty sad about it, but it didn't stop my from having cake for breakfast the day after Jack's birthday.

VH1's Behind the Smile

Did you ever wonder what goes into my consistently cheesy smile? Never before seen on MetaMegan, I bring you the feature: Behind The Smile



You can see that Jack i starting to pick it up, but he isn't quite there yet.

Happy Birthday Jack!

I think that Jack dressing as Darth Vader for his birthday definitely justifies my need to purchase these.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Mix Master MetaMegan

I'm back in business.

Happy Birthday Laura

My good friend Laura has a birthday today, and I am blogging in advance because as you read this I am ripping it up at Loveland to celebrate. Laura likes to celebrate at Loveland so much, she even got married there. I didn't get to see the actual event because it was exactly 2 weeks before Luke was born and I was afraid to ride a snowmobile to the top for the event. Dave was there, and he had a good time. I celebrated in the lodge afterwards. I wore black maternity overalls, which were actually adorable, but I can't even believe I thought that was fashionable at the time. And I could still zip up my winter coat at the beginning of the day. I think my coat was too small after the wedding cake though.

Speaking of cake... I stopped in Kim and Jake's Cakes today to get cupcakes for the birthday breakfast. I have been trying to go there forever, but for some reason, it's never open when I want it to be. Now I know the hours though, and I suspect I will be back. I tried a sample of a cake, and I don't know what I was anticipating, but it turned out to be a corn, jalepeno jelly, something or other combo. It was amazing. Truly spectacular. I don't think the flavor is something the kids would object to, but if they don't like it, that's fine too! More for me. I was thinking about it as I ran the next 4 errands on my list and I thought about going back to get the name straight. But I am so lazy, and I assumed I would be able to find it on their website. I am pretty happy that I have an excuse to go back, in the name of research.

Happy Birthday Laura - my present to you is a new cupcake field trip destination.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

From 2010

This weekend is birthday-tastic! Today is Lucy's birthday, and she got some indoor dog toys for the special occasion!

Tomorrow, I am going snowboarding with Laura for her birthday, yea!!!

And Sunday I will be using my new mixer (YEA!) to prepare for Jack's birthday.

Mini-Dave

Dave has a little mini-me. And his mini-me wants to play outside after dinner in the dark and cold. "Can I go outside with a flashlight and play football?" His mini-me woke me up this morning to show me the snow, because the first snowfall of the season when you are almost three is sort of like the first snowfall ever. I had only been asleep for 2 hours, but I had to "look at the snow on the van first and then look at the snow on the car." It was 6:30 this morning and there was about half an inch of snow. Mini-Dave said, "Can we go skiiing?" I said, "Well honey, I think it needs to snow a little more." Thirty seconds passed as we watched the snow fall. He said, "How about now?"

I Want Candy

We are having a slight problem with baby talk at our house, and I am trying to counteract it with giant vocabulary words. Jack knows that "dede", "geegee", and "teetee" are not acceptable and that he should be trying harder to say, "fortify", "magnificent","transubstantiation", and "existentialism" whenever possible.

Meanwhile, Luke is interested in grammar, and he just read the kid's version of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, and he cracks up at the ways a comma can make a difference. At dinner tonight we had already addressed the baby talk (baby talk is a gateway drug to potty talk, if you must know) and I was trying to get Jack to eat his dinner. I said, "Eat your beans." He said, "No! Candy!" And I said, "That's right. No candy." And Luke said, "He means, No, comma, candy."

Then we started talking about hot-chocolate, the noun that means a chocolaty drink, and hot the adjective, that describes chocolate that is very warm. Dave said in some countries, there isn't a difference, and I said that the problem with this country is that people say hot chocolate when they mean hot cocoa. And Jack said, "Momma, cocoa is a baby word and that's not ok."


* Am I mildly worried that the grammar in this blog post is terrible? Yes, but not worried enough to proofread.

Sigh

I should have saved the outtakes for today! Redacted: Long boring thing about my job sucking the life out of me.

Here is a picture from our vacation stop at Black Canyon of the Gunnison, for perspective only. Not because I am imagining tossing my laptop down there at all.

From vacation2010

Little Pumpkin

The week before Halloween, Luke recited "5 Little Pumkins" and I was very impressed. He rolled his eyes and said "It's not like I just heard if for the first time this week." So, if I was extremely impressed with Luke, imagine how excited I was when Jack started reciting the same poem. Poor Jack, he was running around on the Saturday before Halloween, talking about how he was going to be in a costume parade, and he and his preschool friends were going to recite the poem for the toddlers. He was very excited. So excited that I felt a twinge of guilt over blowing off the Halloween party at the daycare the day before. Oops. And without further ado, the video:



And out take number 1:



But this one might be my fave:

Planning Ahead

I'm writing this a day in advance because I want to turn off my computer and be work and internet free for an entire day. Sunday I am very happy to be going to a baby shower for a friend, and maybe I'll sneak in some shopping on my way home. I'm also thinking I'll pay off some big fines at the library (Damn you The Inheritance of Loss and your terrible boringness!) I'm also thinking I might do something crafty. And something in the kitchen. Maybe start off the day with pancakes and then take Lucy for a walk? Hmm, it's starting to sound like my plan for Sunday is to cram everything I have felt like doing for months all into one day. I'll report back on Monday to let you know how it went.

Hike

We had a perfect fall hike today at Chautauqua Park. It was about 75 degrees and sunny. Almost unbelievably nice.

Birds

From vacation2010

When we were in Ouray this summer, I was sad to see the hood of our van propped up, and Dave and Grandad peering inside. What is worse that car trouble on vacation? But it wasn't a mechanical problem. The problem was that there was a hummingbird trapped deep in the dashboard. And by "problem" I mean "horrifying situation." They couldn't get the bird out, so the only option was to let it... I can't even say it. So what is the best way to take your mind off the fact that a hummingbird is going to die a terrible death in your dashboard? Why, going for a drive to a ghost town on an incredibly steep, winding, mountain roads with no guardrails.

On the way back, Dave was driving, Grandad was in the front seat and Grandmom, Luke and Jack were in the back seat. I was in the middle row, facing backwards, when the bird flew out of the dashboard. The look of horror and surprise on Grandmom, Luke, and Jack's face was terrifying. I didn't see the bird, and could only assume Dave was driving off a cliff and our lives were over. But it all lasted about 1 second before Grandad grabbed the bird and tossed it out the window. Dave never even swerved.

Lemon Heads

Luke tragically reported to Dave that he "had plenty of time to eat his lunch today. Because it all fell on the floor and had to be thrown away." He was starving and traumatized from the experience. But upon further questioning, it turns out that only the apple fell on the floor, and that 8 people tried to open his lemonheads and no one could. And that I had forgotten to pack a tube of yogurt, and for some reason he didn't drink any milk. When I was trying to get the story straight, I asked why he didn't use the scissors I pack in his lunchbox (for the pesky tubes of yogurt) to open the lemonheads. He signed and said, "I'm only school-smart."

In Jack news, I heard him saying, "Mama" in his room the other morning so I walked in there. He looked up from the stuffed animal in his arms and said, "Oh, I was just talking about you." I thought that was pretty funny, so I was sharing the story with Luke and Dave at dinner that night and they were laughing. Jack said, "I wasn't complaining about you! I was just talking about you." Very reassuring.

A New Outlook

Was I crabby yesterday? Why, yes I was. Was it obvious? I suppose. I got put in a room by myself at work today. Some might call it an office. I'm pretty sure it's temporary so I am not getting to comfortable, but I am enjoying it because it's a huge upgrade from my cube. And I did leave my mug there at the end of the day, so I suppose I'll be going back tomorrow.

File Under: Tragic. Cross Reference: Time to Job Search

This blogging once a day thing is going to be more difficult than I thought since, not only can I not take pictures, but I can't get current pictures off my camera. Yea me!

So onward to misc. Jack news: Jack can recite a poem. Adorable. No video due to the camera situation, but maybe he'll do it over the phone if you call. See how I stopped pretending that anyone besides grandparents are reading this?

Umm. In other news, all I do is work. I really need to remember what my hobbies are and become too busy to do anything but have a life, and write a blog about it.

Today my work strategy was to wear a lot of eye makeup. The plan was two-fold. 1.) It was a great way to procrastinate. 2.) Less chance I would get really mad and start crying.

Bacon and Eggs and November

I was a deviled egg for Halloween. Dave was a capitalist pig. It was well into the evening before we realized we were bacon and eggs. Well into an evening during which I threatened to egg my neighbor's house via txt message. That is to say, I threatened him via txt, not that I tried to egg him via txt. Is anyone starting to think they'd prefer the Halloween picture instead of the 1,000 words? Too bad, I broke my camera. Sob.

I do have some pictures from before the incident, but I am way too lazy to cross the room and get the camera and the wire thingy. But don't worry, it's November! And I plan to blog at least once a day this month. And that often means many days with just a picture and a quick note.

Friday Night

Originally, this post was about the costumes that Jack was wore on Friday (pirate), Sunday (fireman) and Monday (Power Ranger). But this is the only picture from Friday, and as you can see, "pirate" was just one of many layers.

The short version of this new post is: That's my purse wrapped in a plastic bag in the basket of my bike.

Long version? The plan for Friday night was to bike to the CU Homecoming parade, then drop Luke off at a birthday party at the bowling alley on campus, then bike to Pearl Street and have dinner, then bike back to get Luke, hang out, and then bike home. It was a great plan, a plan that I LOVED. Until it started raining. Then I started thinking... you know what would be fun? Laundry. Laundry, and wine. Drive to campus... drop off Luke, etc. I floated the idea but Dave ignored me and continued to pack layers of clothes for the boys.

We were all in the garage getting on bikes when it really started to pour. Dave said it was never going to work, but I convinced him we should just ride our bikes to a parade in a downpour. (Or else, he possibly used reverse psychology to convince me to go. I know I yelled something like, "No, I want to stay home and do laundry, but I am being a good sport so LET'S GO!") We thought it was raining hard when we left the house but it got worse. Just as one of our friends was thinking to herself, "I must be completely insane to be biking home in this," she saw us coming in the opposite direction and cracked up.

Once we got to the parade, it stopped raining and the rest of the night went as planned, and was very fun. And the next morning, I got to brag about how hard core I am. I ran into a friend on Saturday morning and told her about our adventure. She said. "Wow! You guys are hard core!" I said, "Ummmmm..." And she said, "I mean, your guy is hard core." But I am a good sport.

The Holidays are Here, In All Their Confusion

The other day, we had the catcher and the vampire behind home plate. Today, Jack said, "'Member when Santa brought me that firehouse? I looked up and I saw him with his donkeys."

Countdown to Costume

Halloween is a week from today and the costume situation is making me nervous.

Luke plans to be a ninja, so I bought him a black hoodie today. Yup, that is as far as we have gotten. Fortunately we all do our best work under pressure. Well, I did also buy a pattern for sort of a generic boy superhero series, and I figured that would help us with the mask. (For which I have not purchased fabric.) And I am a little worried about dressing Luke in head to toe black and sending him out in the dark to run around the neighborhood. So I also bought glow sticks. Hopefully Luke can be talked into disco ninja or something.

As for Jack, I bought a fireman costume a month or so ago, because it was cute, and fleece, so I thought it would come in handy if it was cold. But it just got absorbed into the costume bin(s) and it isn't a front runner. Jack dresses in costume almost daily, so I guess getting candy for it will be what makes Halloween special for him. In fact, part of Jack's layered ensemble for biking to the homecoming parade in a torrential downpour on Friday night was a pirate costume. Today he was wearing a power ranger mask with his PJs and slaying bad guys, Boba Fett, the Emperor, and monsters in the basement. In fact, this post was originally going to be just his play monologue, but after I started typing it out, the post skewed more "mom lets her 2 year old watch too much violence on tv" than "hilarious mom has adorable and creative 2 year old."

As for Lucy, I was intrigued by the costumes at Target. Specifically the squirrel costume, but it was pointed out to me that it looks like, well, let's say it looks like a squirrel is riding on the dogs back. Also, I thought I should see how she like's being in costume before I spent too much money. So I got her a very modestly priced cape and she really wanted to eat it.

As for Dave and I, we don't have costumes yet. I was originally thinking of changing my hair and being Joan, but now I am thinking Liz Lemon is a little more realistic. I guess I just need to know if Dave is planning to be Roger Sterling, or Kenneth.

Where in the World is MetaMegan?

MetaMegan is having an existential work/life crisis, which makes for extremely boring blog posts. When I am at the computer, which is all the time, I feel the need to work. When I am not at the computer, I am not at the computer and therefore cannot blog.

Let me know if you want to be added to my newsletter, that I will be handwriting and running through the mimeograph, and then snail mailing. Or maybe I could blog from my phone... But the 1/R key doesn't work. And the keys are so tiny. Example: "On bus to Denve. New commute is going to suck. " Not exactly my best work.

Jack goes to a hippie daycare in Boulder, where they are very in touch with their feelings. That causes me to be extremely aware about how I feel about work because whenever I start talking about it at the dinner table, Jack says, "Are you mad, Momma? Sad? Angry? Frustrated? You gonna cry?" It's very insightful.

In other Jack news, he woke me up on Saturday by screaming, "MOMMA! GET OUT HERE AND MAKE ME BREFFAST!" That was at 7:00 am. Today, when my alarm was (not) set for 5:00 am, I woke up at 7:15 to giggles from the living room. Sigh.

Luke's school conference was today, and he's a perfect little gentleman and scholar. We ran into the art teacher in the hallway and she also said she loved him, and did we have any more at home? We said, "Yes, but..."

I thought about doing the thing where you write a novel during the month of November, but I think I'll put that off and do the thing where I blog every day in the month of November. My novel planning was going like this: Go to the farmers market with cute single friend. Notice farmers checking her out. Tell her, "In my novel, you'd fall in love with the gorgeous, brooding photographer/documentarian, but he'd be all wrong for you. All along you should have been with the smiling, friendly guy from the mushroom stand." And she said, "But I like the photographer." And I said, "Exactly. But he's wrong for you. You'll see in my novel." Then I realized my novel had already been written a thousand times, so I turned it into an anecdote on my blog. Then I showed some amazing restraint in not linking to the photographer and the mushroom guy. Then I remembered I was supposed to be working and at this rate I would never get to sleep.

It Must Be October

We were watching baseball and Jack said, "Behind the plate is the catcher and the Vampire."

Play D'oh! The Full Sensory Experience

The other day, Dave came to find me with Jack under his arm and said, "We have a situation. He stuck play doh up his nose."

My first thought was, "Thank GOD I put the search option on my blog!" Because I knew this had happened before, and I had some crazy idea that the worst case scenario was to suck the stuff out with your mouth, but that maybe my friend Mare had corrected that in the comments, and I should check before I did anything crazy like that, and I could search on "stuck in your nose" and the answer would be right there, but Dave would probably prefer if I just got it out instead of firing up my laptop, and before I was finished with this crazy thought rampage I had gotten most of it out with my beautifully manicured nail and the bulb sucker.

Dave didn't think the bulb sucker was working, so I resorted to the nail, while informing him that the bulb sucker was mostly just to torture Jack for putting something in his nose (exactly my same thought process as last time, and obviously not a real deterrent)

In the end, the bulb sucker did work to get it all out, once Dave was holding Jack down and I could really cram it in there.

I should also mention that as soon as Jack started playing with the play doh, (the day before) I saw him holding a mold very close to his face. He caught my eye and said, "You don't eat it?" I said, "No. You don't eat it." He said, "Just lick it?" I said, "No, you don't lick it." So he finally sighed and said, "Oh. You just smell it?" I said, "Yes, just smell it."

I had no idea how closely he planned to smell it.

Knock Knock

Luke has two books of knock knock jokes, and he frequently regales us with jokes. I always imagined there would be a time in our lives where the kids were obsessed with jokes and I was sort of annoyed and rolled my eyes all the time. But I pretty much laugh every time I hear a knock joke. So this phase is going much better than anticipated.

Dave picked up the book and told one to Luke:
Dave: Knock knock
Luke: Who's there?
Dave: Tyrone
Luke: Tyrone who?
Dave: Tyrone shoe laces!

Immediately Jack had to retell it.
Jack: Knock knock
Luke: Who's there?
Jack: Tyrome
Luke: Tyrone who?
Jack: Tyrome shoehandsomes.

His version is even better, but this one is my fave:
Jack: Knock knock
Luke: Who's there
Jack: Joke-uh
Luke: Joke-uh who?
Jack: Joke-uh Jack.
Jack (with a sigh): I love that one.

Not a Fan of Smores

1.) I bribed Jack into pooping on the potty with the promise of a marshmallow and he said, "Well. Ok. But don't graham it!"

2.) Sometimes when Jack is hugging and petting Lucy, he says to her, "Oh Darling."

3.) I used to assume drooling was something that one would grow out of. Is keeping saliva from spilling out of your mouth a skill that can be taught?

4.) Other skills we need to work on: The proper way to eat an ice cream cone.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Luke said, "Um, Mama? Jack is playing rock, paper, scissors with himself in the mirror."
I asked, "Who is winning?"
"Um. It's a tie. But I heard him say, "OK, next time, I be rock and you be scissor. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot! NO! I told you to be scissors!""

Signs of the Apocolypse Part 2

Jack is really on a roll these days. I have been saying that he is at the peak of the terrible twos, and I can only pray that I am not kidding and/or jinxing myself.

Today he turned down homemade pancakes in favor of a piece of toast. Who does that?

Signs of the Apocalypse

At dinner, Luke said, "Guess who was at the Y today! Justin. I haven't seen him since kindergarten."

I said, "Who is Justin?"

Jack said, "Justin Bieber?"

I Played Softball Today

Yup. Oh darn, I just blew the whole punchline in the title. I remembered all the stuff my coach was always telling me (thanks Dad!) but it was still extremely hard not to close my eyes as I was swinging the bat. Two strike outs and two ground outs. But at least I made contact with the ball. And it was sort of fun! Luke said, "Mom, you were good, it's just that you don't play that often." He is very supportive.

Message in a Bottle

Have you ever had a year and a half or so where things did not go quite right, and sometimes went terribly wrong, and even things were OK for you, your friends had a bunch of awful stuff happen? Then you start wondering if bad things come in threes or is it nines? Or looking for signs that mean that bad summer, year, 15 months are over and now everything will be perfect and wonderful all the time?

So yeah, (quick back story) lately I have really been wanting to have puppy play dates with our neighbor across the street. It's something I have been thinking about a lot, suggesting, and planning puppy play date happy hours, and yet, it hasn't been happening. Seems like putting two naughty puppies together in the backyard for an hour a day would be a quick way to tire them into not being so naughty. So you can imagine how it was sort of like a dream come true today when our neighbors came over with their puppy and the puppies starting running around like crazy. Something I have been wanting to happen for MONTHS finally happened today. AND when I said, hey, we'd come get your dog every day at lunch time or something and let them run around together, and they said, Oh, and we could let your dog out in the winter when you were skiing, I practically heard angels singing in the heavens that there is a God and s/he wants me to be happy. AND THEN, they said, oh by the way, here's a case of beer we haven't gotten around to drinking, please take it.

And I thought: This. Is. The. Sign.

And I started composing my blog post about how awesome my life is now. My wishes have been granted, with a side of beer. It's the best, it could not be better. Puppy play dates and free beer. That's all I have been needing.

And then the neighbors left, and I grabbed some beer to put in the fridge and I noticed, hey, what? Is that...? Old Milwaukee Light? Whenever the nieghbors have brought over extra beer that they haven't been able to drink in the past, it's been obscure/weird/interesting microbrews. I had assumed that was the case this time too. But no, not this time.

I've been waiting for the universe to tell me that the bad stuff is over with and everything is going to be perfect, but I'm not sure that's the message in the bottle (of Old Milwaukee Light.) I think the message is, things are fine, have a beer and get over it. Bottoms up!

I'll Miss The Peaches... Oh, and you

Dave and I drove across a part of the South together on our first vacation about 16 years ago. We stopped at a roadside stand and bought a peach that I can't really describe. I mean, I could, but what I am going to do? Use a bunch of adjectives like sweet, juicy, sticky? Isn't it enough to say that I remember a specific peach from the summer of 1994?

That we both remember it.

Speaking of things that are really sweet, you can thank me for not going off on a "peach as metaphor for young love" tangent here. Instead, I will say that I could write a book about that trip, or a screen play for a road trip movie starring Ellen Page as the young MetaMegan and James Franco as Dave. (I know... I let Dave cast his character.) So the fact that we both remember that peach, ok, you get the point.

And the point is, we stopped in Palisade on our way home from our vacation and bought a half bushel of peaches. I had spent the entire vacation reading The Blah with the Dragon Blah and Little Bee so the magazines that I had been hoarding to read on vacation were untouched. On the drive home, I ripped out all the peach related recipes and we found some winners.

The first order of business was Roasted Pork Chops and Peaches from Real Simple. Yum.
Next up, Grilled Cornmeal Flatbread with Peaches, Serrano Ham (I used prosciutto) and Spicy Greens. So good. So so good. I may even start using the flatbread recipe as my go to pizza crust. I'll report back on that.

Then I also froze and "canned" some peaches, but that's a story for another post. What I wanted to share was that Luke and Jack were supposed to go to the RV with Grandmom and Grandad in the middle of this peachy time, and they were acting reluctant, and I was encouraging Dave to just go with them and leave me all alone. Dave thought about it for a full minute before he sighed and said, "I can't go. I'd miss the peaches."

The Unbearable Lightness of Being MetaMegan

Embarrassing things I have done or said at work:

This attempt to end my work related blog writers block is brought to you by my dad who says, "Laugh at yourself or spend your whole life crying."

1.) It was possibly my first meeting at a new job, and I hadn't met everyone on my team yet. One team member was giving a little presentation on some of the reports he had written to help us manage our databases. He meant to give a little background and then run the report to show the results, but he ran the report right away and said, "Oops, sorry. That report was prematurely generated." I laughed, looked around, realized no one else laughed, remembered that I am extremely immature, and tried to stop laughing, because it felt inappropriate. And what's funnier than extremely inappropriate laughter? Nothing. Well, aside from someone that can't stop laughing, but is trying to hide it. I spent the rest of the meeting silently weeping as I tried not to laugh. I don't work there anymore.

2.) OK, same job, some person even. I walked by the guy's new office, and there was giant coffee stain on the wall. I said, "Oh my God it looks like..." And then I realized that what I was about to say was, "you peed on your wall." Rorschach test much? Who thinks and then says something like that? So instead of coming up with something clever like, "It looks like... you should hang a poster over that stain." I just started laughing. Then crying. Then silently weeping at my desk because really - what was I going to say at that point? Once I gathered myself together enough to talk, how was I to explain what was so funny? I basically said, "It looks like you peed on your wall." And the crowd that had gathered just slowly backed away.

3.) Most facebook and other friends have probably already heard this one, but it needs to be told again. Have you ever worked in an office in the summer? And are you also a woman? Then you know that no matter what you wear, you are either going to melt outside, or freeze to death inside. So the day that it was 80 inside our office was probably the most pleasant office day I have every experienced. I was dressed for the weather I ridden my bike through to get to work. And I wasn't freezing as I discussed the weather at my friends desk. We both agreed the day was perfect. And just then, we were interrupted by another co-worker who came by to accuse Laura of messing with the thermostat and causing him to be terribly uncomfortable. "IT's so HOT!" he said. The gentleman in question was wearing khaki pants, a khaki shirt, and khaki hiking boots. Laura sent him to his desk with a thermometer so he could see that perhaps he was imagining the level of the office temperature. While he was gone, remarks were made that perhaps it was his desert storm themed ensemble that was to blame for his assessment of the temperature. I was annoyed. Way to much khaki for my delicate sensibilities. Plus, why should I be cold all the time?

He came back with the temperature and announced that it was in fact 80 degrees. And, "It's way too hot in here."

I replied, "THEN UNZIP YOUR PANTS!!!"

Because, you know, what is the f'ing point of khaki pants that zip into shorts if you are going to just wear pants and complain about the heat? I realized it was sort of awkward that I had said, "Unzip your pants" to a co-worker so I started to try to find a way to explain that I meant, unzip the part of your pants that will turn your pants into shorts without betraying that I find those kinds of pants horribly unfashionable and work inappropriate. But that line of thinking was rendered irrelevant when I realized he was not wearing pants that unzip into shorts. At all. Just regular khaki pants.

"I meant.." (commence laugh crying. Hysterical, horrified, laugh crying.) I sort of blacked out for a bit, but I know I made it back to my desk, and that I did actually sob a few times on the way there.

It was very cathartic. And I couldn't help thinking of Daniel Day Lewis saying, "Take off your clothes" in The Unbearable Lightness of Being and how I am nothing like that character at all, but it makes for a good blog post title.

I looked up the definition for *** and your picture was there

I often need to take a screen shot of something I am working on, so I can show someone a problem, or a solution to a problem. And when I do, I close any other internet sessions I may have open. Why would I want the recipient to think I am wasting time reading The New York Times or The Economist while I am working? (OK, let's be realistic - Ann Taylor Loft Sales and Facebook.) I send a distraction-free screen print because I am a professional.

The screen shot I recently received, um, not so much.
(click to enlarge, if you must)

Yeah, this person was on dictionary.com looking at the definition of Asses. I can't decide which is worse - that this screen shot (define:asses) was sent to my entire team, and our boss, or that maybe this person was looking for a definition of assess?

Vacation Jackisms

** I poured some sour milk into Jack's glass when we were camping in Silverton. (I swear I tasted it first, but it must have turned after I poured it.) Jack said, "This milk makes my mouth go like this: Grrrrr! ROAR! GROWL!" And he proceeded to growl for about 5 minutes straight. For real, like a lion. A scary, angry lion that does not like sour milk.

** Grandad was trying to move the air mattress from the bedroom to the living room of the RV and Cleo the cat was safely hiding in the corner. Jack dove to her and threw his body over her's yelling, "I will protect you Cleo!" Cleo didn't like that and she let him know. I tried to explain by saying, "Jack, Cleo gets scared of you because she doesn't know what you are going to do next. " He shook his had wearily and said, "I don't know either."

This is our campsite in Silverton. It rained almost the whole time, so the picture doesn't do it justice. Dave had a rest day from his ride the day before and that morning he was making Jack and I some delicious pancakes.

From vacation2010

And, I Am Back

As Dave says, you know you aren't ready for your vacation to end when you are taking 30 mile side trips (to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison) on your way home. Sigh. I've been back at work for 2 days and I am still not ready for it to end.

But here is what you can look forward to reading as I force myself to get back into the swing of things:

1.) The Commenter Contest Winner
2.) Embarrassing things that I have said at work
3.) Something asinine about my job
4.) Vacation Jackisms
5.) Family photos gone wrong
6.) Vacation round up
7.) Dave's bike ride
8.) Mouse's chocolates
9.) Update on books read
10.) Peaches

Ok, ok, I'll let you know that commenter Laura won the commenting contest. Yea! Laura! Thanks to all July commenters. Commenters appears to not be a word. Commentators? People who left comments?

Anyway! Thanks! I need to devote an entire post to Laura's prize, and that is number 8 on the list.

One more thing - As you can see on my Books Read 2009, I have already read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Loved it. I also read 3 books on my vacation, which pretty much means my vacation was awesome.

Dear Internet

Dear Internet,

How's it going? Have I mentioned lately how much I love you? You are pretty cool, and I like a lot of the stuff you can do. Do you know what would be cooler though? If you could create a little widget that made it really easy for me to post a list of books I am reading or would like to read to my little blog called MetaMegan. Yeah, I know you already have lots of easy ways to do that, but what would be cooler, is if it was really easy for me to link this list of books to an independent book seller such as The Boulder Bookstore. Or maybe IndieBound.org, which links to lots of independant bookstores. See, the thing is, Amazon does it. And right now, the method I have of doing this sort of thing for myself is sort of clunky and annoying. Amazon makes it easy, and tempting. I really like to support independant bookstores, but I am also very lazy.

Please help.

Thanks!

Love,
MetaMegan

The Comments Contest, Like July, Is Over

I'm off shopping for a kitschy prize for the lucky winner, but don't stop commenting now! I mean, you won't win anything, but it's fun to comment, right?

I'll post the winner sometime mid August.

There's A Fox, A Chicken, and a Bag of Grain...

Know how to solve that riddle? Well you would need to if you were checking into a hotel with Jack and Lucy in the rain, parked in a mud puddle, with a car full of food. I'll spare you the details until later, when it's hilarious. For now, the picture will have to do.

Hendricks

I had the most delicious Gin and Tonic of my life last weekend when we were camping. I enjoyed it so much, I had to take this picture. Turns out, it was made with Hendrick's gin. Slightly above my normal price point. I went to Liquor Mart and asked, "If I normally think gin is yucky, but I loved this, what can I get that is almost as good?" The answer was, "Just look for this on sale. You are going to be disappointed with everything else."

But since it was mere hours before the season premiere of Mad Men, I didn't have time to wait for a sale. And it was a special occasion...

I made my gin and tonic and then realize the upstairs TV no longer had AMC. So I tried to switch out the cable box from the basement with unfortunate results. Long story short, I poured my G&T into a jelly jar, screwed on the lid and biked to a friends house to watch Mad Men.

I felt like my Grandma, who always brought a pre-mixed martini to our house in a Lawry's spice jar. Turning into my Grandma is a good thing. Totally worth the price of that bottle of gin.

Buffalo Creek

Last weekend we camped at Buffalo Creek, in the group site, with a ton of other people. You can't tell from this view though, can you?


Close up of nap time:

And here is Jack with his twin from daycare. The school sends pictures of the kids each week, and sometimes it is hard to tell who is who.

Girl's Night(s)

Everyone has been asking what I plan to do with my free time with the boys gone. I wasn't really sure, but as soon as I was along in the house, I went to the bathroom without anyone coming in to talk to me, or asking if they could sit on my lap. After that all my dreams for my alone time were fulfilled and I wasn't sure what to do next.

So I figured... pedis! I dropped Lucy off at Laund R Mutt for a bath and a nail trim and I went to Poshe for a pedicure of my own. Then Lucy and I unpacked all the camping gear and cleaned out the van. As a reward for my hard work, I went to get a massage. Ahhh. Girls's weekend.

Today, the two of us are having a great time cleaning out a bunch of toys from the boys rooms. Won't they be so excited to come home and have so much more space? I decided it was time to call it quits when I found myself putting more than 2 seconds of thought into, "How many bouncy balls should I keep and how many should I give to charity?" (But really, how many?)

Actually, the real reason I just flew up the stairs in a frenzy, and then needed to decompress by writing a blog post was this: Skunk. I was in the basement, and I started to smell a bad smell, that was sort of like cigarette smoke. Then it got a little stronger and it smelled faintly skunky. By the time I started to notice Lucy whining, and I wondered if I had closed the back door, the smell had grown to a presence. I could see it, and feel it and I was scared. I booked up the stairs and headed for the door, which was open. Lucy was just standing in the middle of the room looking worried. I shut the door and decided I needed to face that smell. I walked right up to her and stuck my nose in her freshly bathed fur and breathed in. Sweet, sweet dog shampoo smell. Sweet relief. I think the problem was that I had the fan sucking in air from the backyard, and a skunk definitely sprayed something nearby. But thank GOD it wasn't Lucy. And I certainly don't keep a score in my head about who is a better dog in certain categories, (because that would be crazy) but if I did, I would have to give the point to Lucy over Bean in Avoiding Being Sprayed By A Skunk.

Now that I have had my spa day, and my getting rid of massive amounts of toys day, what could possibly be next for tomorrow? Not even I know.

Colorado Trail

We dropped Dave off at Waterton Canyon on Friday afternoon so he could start the Colorado trail. He met us at Buffalo Creek on Friday night and we camped Friday and Saturday. Dave took Saturday to rehydrate and rest because Friday was brutally hot. That was good news for me because it meant I had all day to mountain bike with the ladies. I had more fun biking than I can ever remember. I can't really remember what it was like to mountain bike before I had kids, so maybe that was fun too - but since then I have always like the idea of biking, and I have done it, but I always felt like it was something I sort of had to do, and had to be back by a certain time, and I always sort of suffered through it. I don't know if was the lack of a deadline for my return so Dave could have his turn, or the weather, or the awesomeness of the trail, or the good company, or the fact that maybe the Wii Active 30 day challenge got my legs in shape, or a combination of all of the above, but it was awesome.

Sunday, I met Grandmom and Grandad on I-70 and dropped the kids off with them and they headed to Breckenridge to meet Dave for Sunday night dinner.

Lucy and I headed home for some girl time. More on that tomorrow!

Follow Dave's progress here.

Speaking of Sewing Projects: Revisited

There were some great suggestions that I just sew the zebra blanket onto the new bed, and I have to say that's a great idea! (Thanks Molly and FoW!) Of course, we had already implemented a MetaMegan style version of that idea.

Busted chewing on a shoe! It's come to the point that we wander the yard aimlessly searching for lost items before we bother looking in the house. Then we finally ask Jack where stuff is and he tells us.

In other news, today is the start of the big bike ride!!!! Once we finish working, packing, cleaning out the car, packing the car and whatever else, we are going to drop Dave off at the start of the Colorado trail. Good luck Dave!

Quotes

Jack: Bye Mommy
Me: Bye Jack
Jack: Love you.
Me: Love you too.
Jack: Thanks for coming over to visit.
Me: I live here.

I think Jack got stuck in his "saying goodbye to Grandmom and Grandad" loop.

***

We met Luke, Grandmom and Grandad at Dave's softball double header last night. Apparently, on the way there, Luke said to Grandmom, "Grandmom, just so you know, some of my friends will be there, so I will be playing with them." I guess the phase before you pretend you don't know your relatives is the phase where you give your relatives a heads up that you'll be ditching them for your friends.

***

And one more quote from a softball fan in the stands after Dave struck somebody out, "Woohoo! Nolan Ryan! Bringing the heat!"

Speaking of Sewing Projects

I haven't quit gotten around to making a dog bed, since all my energy for 2 days was focused on making a sleeping bag. Here is Lucy on the fabric and pillow that I purchased in January:

Long story short, she mostly ate that bed because I had never sewn it up. Or because she's a puppy. Thus began my long quest to find a cute dog bed. The thing is... most of the beds I had seen at Petco, Petsmart, Target, Costco, and the vast internet were, well, ugly. And even if I could convince myself to spend a lot of money on an expensive, but fabulous and modern dog bed, yeah, I'm not gonna do that. And those weren't exactly the cutest things ever. THEN I read that Martha Stewart is designing dog accessories for Petsmart. The cupcake was hard to resist. The robe, even harder. But the beds... Ugh. I mean, it was a beautiful color, and it looked delux. But I don't want to spend $45 on something that is going to get covered in dog hair. Don't get me wrong, if it came in Martha's minty green color, it would have been a different story.

Then I found an adorable bed for $14.99. Lucy loves it. See?

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

So, Spring baseball was sometimes a bit much. With Dave coaching, and Luke playing, and Jack needing someone to watch him closely, and a new puppy, well, we didn't eat a lot of well planned, nutritious meals at the dinner table. Let's just say, books were flying off the top of the car more often than not.

Summer ball though... I heard a lot about how it was so much more low key. Oh! They only place once a week? No, twice. Oh, there are no practices before the games? Well, actually, there are. I couldn't figure out how it could be more low key. But I suppose being out of school, and long days, warm weather, and general baseballness in the air has made it pretty fun. In fact, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" has replaced "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" as Jack's lullaby of choice.

I heard Aunt Suzy was requesting a baseball video, and I took one, but Luke didn't hit the ball until his fifth or so pitch, so I wanted a better one. I walked over to find a good spot to video tape and I wondered... Start and stop between every pitch? Do 3 pitches at a time? Zoom in or stay zoomed out? So many things to think about, that before I knew it, Luke had hit the first pitch and was running to first base and I missed it. I was more prepared for his second at bat.



And here is the first one I shot: