12.29.2004

baby steps and other random stuff

I'm learning little blogtips one at a time. Did you know you're supposed to comment back when someone comments on your page? Now I do! L'il sis, the real blogger in the family, gives me tips now and then. She's been nominated for the BOB awards. (Ok, I nominated her, but if I hadn't, someone else would have.)

I need a lot more tips.

... so what's with the middle of the night stuff? Best time to blog - but then, what else are you going to do at 2:30 am when you can't sleep? My house is not teeny, but it's not huge, either - most housecleaning is too noisy. besides.... housecleaning? I don't think so.

I'm hoping this insomnia is a symptom of impending change of life... finally... maybe... or not... (!) Some people think I'm crazy, but I really think women should have a say in when they're ready for the hormones to stop. And I say now! Actually, I said I was ready a few years ago, but the hormone gods weren't listening. I get kind of cranky now - maybe that's a sign. The other day, dearest husband had a glass of water on the bed with him and it spilled. I was unreasonably irritated. I took that as a good sign. But then a day or two later, my system decided it is 15, not 51 and I head for the feminine products AGAIN. And I get a little grumpy when I talk to people around my age who haven't had a period in a few YEARS. What's up with that? The hormone gods are punishing me for..... can't think of what. So I'm cranky and I can't sleep. No hot flashes, nothing else much happening. Guess I can just keep buying the industrial strength products.

'nough of that.

It's raining here - that usually means snow in the mountains. And that is good news! We're going to Tahoe this weekend, spending a few days there to celebrate DDD's 21st birthday, and the hockey man's 15th. I booked the week almost a year ago, only to find out that school starts up again on the 3rd. This means hockey man has to miss two days of school, which is not good - freshman year is proving to be a bit of a struggle for him. Organization is not his strong suit. So, we'll go up, stay and ski Monday and Tuesday, then the boys will head home and the girls will stay until late Thursday. None of us gets to enjoy the entire week. Oh well... Ms new-legal-of-age-drinker needs to fly back to school on Friday so she can audition on Saturday for the spring shows. ... me, I'm looking forward to playing in the snow again.

I love being near enough to the ocean that we can get there and enjoy it, near enough to the snow that we can get there and enjoy it and not have to deal with the general weather either place. Yep. That's a definite bonus about living in the bay area. Traffic - that's a drawback, but then, I've been in worse traffic visiting my family up in Portland. (On the other hand, I don't have to drive I-880 every day.)

....

I have a singing Christmas clock that we put up every year. L'il sis gave it to us several years back. I sometimes used to think Big sis gave it to me because she is always giving me noisy things, but this was L'il sis' contribution. Every year, people tell me it would drive them crazy. It sings a different Christmas Carol every hour on the hour. And it sings a pretty good size portion of it, too! But I love it. It has a light sensor, so it knows when it's dark, be really quiet, and when it's light, sing away. The only problem has been when oldest son is up super late and leaves the lights on (which they all do, btw) - then it's singing nice and loud at 2am. That's not so much fun. But it is a good and smart clock, and I intend to put it up every year until it can't sing anymore. Then I might still put it up in memory of the chirping.... and my smart clock just told me it's 3 am. and I'd better at least try to sleep.

g'night.





12.21.2004

Harry Potter!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is coming out in JULY!

Yes, I will be there in person to pick up my copy and get started on it right away! I just finished the 17 cassette set of "HP & the Order of the Phoenix" (book 5) on tape, and enjoyed it just as much as I did reading it the first time through. This guy who reads the books, Jim Dale, is fabulous - I don't know how he does all the different voices, and *mostly* keeps them all straight, but he does! (well, once it was someone else talking with Dumbledore's voice, but that didn't happen much)

Book Seven will be a meloncholy experience. I definitely don't want the series to end, yet I know it is not something which should go on indefinitely. I guess I'd like to have one post-script novel eventually with some adult experiences, but sometimes that doesn't seem so great, either.

In the meantime, I'll wait in joyful anticipation of the 6th year at Hogwarts...

What do you think? Any other HP fans out there? (stupid question....)

12.17.2004

thought for the morning

Comcast has this headine today:

Bush to Sign Intelligence Bill

Isn't that an oxymoron?

12.15.2004

coming home for Christmas

The absolute best part of Christmas is the people who come home for Christmas (and I do mean HOME). This is getting to be a bigger and bigger group of people all the time for me. My L'il sis is the only one who still lives within occasional visit distance, even though sometimes it doesn't feel that way... Big sis and family will be coming in from up north next week. Woo hoo! Pops will come in from the sunny desert next week, too.

Biggest son actually moved in here again a couple of months ago, so he's already home, but biggest daughter is due in TODAY from Boulder. Such excitement!

Life is good.

12.12.2004

Tech Toys

Just reading an article about tech toys.

I was planning to go out today and get the older kids' shopping done. They are almost 15, almost 21 and just turned 24. Their Christmas lists consist of electronic device, electronic game, electronic this and that, and jeans. The 15 yr. old wants an iPod. The 21 yr old wants a camcorder. The 24 yr old was disappointed with his MP3 player a year or two ago because it wasn't an iPod. A new game system would probably be right up his alley this year. At least he likes movies. He's got one of the most complete DVD libraries of anyone I know, which of course, makes movie buying difficult - what doesn't he have? Turns out he's a little light on the kung-fu stuff.

Kung Fu.... brings me back to all that tech stuff - you can't just buy a nice puzzle type game, even the electronic kind, for the 15 yr old, it has to be a kung-fu fighting, automatic rifle shooting chaos game to interest him. I hate that. Have you seen Grand Theft Auto and its sequel? I can't believe they even make those. And yes, K has one of them. yuck. Good thing he's not an obsessive player. He plays once in a while, and then, it's likely to be the football game.

Shopped for the 2 year olds the other night. it was great - the toys are still cute and much less expensive, but it's getting difficult to find toys that aren't electronic, even for them! The Sweet Sounds dollhouse looked cute enough, but I wanted one that didn't talk and sing. I want Missy K to talk and sing for herself! So we went up an age level and got a couple of Sweet Street sets. Hope that works. I did knuckle under and get a LeapPad, though. sucker that I am...

Anyway - I didn't go shopping for the big people after all - it's so darn expensive. I think I'm just prolonging the agony, but I'll just see if I have a better attitude tomorrow. sigh...



12.06.2004

One step closer...

We signed "adoptive placement" papers today! Doesn't mean a heck of a lot, but it is one step closer to those final papers. We won't get funds from the county anymore, technically, but there is an adoptive assistance program that gives funds to adoptive families. This will be very helpful in creating a college fund for our young lady.

The way I understand it, we have one more set of papers to sign in a month or so, then we can set a date with the judge to have the final adoption granted. So, if you believe in the county's ability to predict the time it takes to do this, we could be adoptive parents next month. But I don't - now, I'm just hoping it will happen before her 3rd birthday in February.

...but then, I was really hoping to have it done before the holidays, too.

oh well - one step closer!

12.03.2004

etch a sketch

remember those great time wasters - the pre-video game phenom, Etch-a-Sketch?
I love this site. All the fun of playing with none of the etched-into-the-surface-forever lines, or the "oops" moment when all your hard work vanishes when you drop the darn thing.
Have fun!

btw - I'm over 200 now on my counter - who the heck is visiting? I've only told a handful of people... Hi, out there, whoever you are!

12.02.2004

help - my pictures went away

Anyone know what happened to my pictures?
I added the one tonight and all of a sudden the other 3 are gone! That was way tricky - and not very nice.
I used Hello to post them to the blog, which worked just fine for the first three... if there was a limit to how many I could post, I didn't read it. And if there was a limit of three, you'd think only one of the old pics would have disappeared. hmmmm - any ideas?
.... later...
OK - who's goofing around here? - it's about 2 hours later and after much research and NO intervention on my part, they're back. It's a little too weird. But I guess I didn't do anything to cause them to go away, since I didn't do anything to make them come back. I hate technology.

I think this picture is obscured enough by hat and glasses to post here - this is our little urban chic(k). Makes me smile just to see that little face. Guess that's what it's all about.  Posted by Hello