How to Not Be Annoying

It's nice they have useful articles.

I'm going to barf

really though. I accidentally watched the video of these poor cows.

Largest Beef Recall Issued

baby when the lights...go out....

it gets effing cold, that's what. We lost our power, after several taunting flickers, at about 9pm on Wednesday. It did not come back on until about...I have no idea, but really early Friday morning. That's a long time when all your heat is baseboard. Or candle, but they're not really efficient for heating, let's face it. So, we spent Wednesday night there, and it was ok, but chilly by morning. The boy woke up only once, about 6:30, and was sad to find his room dark, so the man went to settle him back in, and all was well for another half an hour. I have since remembered (since the only other time I think of it is when the power is out, invariably at night) to go get the boy one of those fake battery powered candle things. I got him a Glade scented one, because I couldn't find anything else. So, next nighttime power outage, the boy's room will be acceptably lit and smell like clean linen. Win - win.

I was lucky in a way, to not have work. We'd had a snow day Wednesday (and ice / rain day, hence the power outages hitting 11000-ish people) and so I had been lazy and just hung out at home and not showered. We had also had a snow day Monday, and a PD day on Tuesday (that was supposed to be Monday but got postponed) so I was only at school one day this week. But yes, I was dirty, and would not have liked to go to school without showering for 2 days. My school ended up being closed because it had no power also, but the rest of my district was open. Suckas! All the schools in town were closed due to horrible driving. So, the boy and I stuck around for a bit, but it was cold and we couldn't watch movies or anything, so we headed into my sister's house. She had lost power, but had gotten it back. We also visited some kitties for a friend of mine who is in Florida. I sent her hate e-mail already, no worries there. So, we kitty visited, then the boy crashed for over 2 hours at my sister's place while I played on the interweb and watched "Kicking it Old School", which was both funny and really, really terrible. David Hasselhoff was in it, so that's pretty fun.

Anyway, come suppertime Thursday and I'm still dirty and the house is still dark and cold. We had a few options to stay in town, but it would have been a gross and long drive to work and to the sitter from anywhere but our house, so the man booked us a room at the Holiday Inn, which is about 10 minutes from our house. They gave us a super deal, and we got to go swimming, and be warm. It was Valentine's Day too, but I assure you there was no romance. The boy has a cold, and cold medicine does not work, especially cough medicine. So, after turning out all the lights except for the night light (not that we remembered to bring one, there was one in the hotel room bathroom), and the tv, and "pretending" to all go to sleep so he would, because he's used to going to sleep on his own in his own room, not in a tv room with us in the next bed...cut to me waking up at 10:24, which for those of you who know, is halfway through Lost, and saying "eff this" and brushing my teeth and getting back in bed. Then, about every 40 minutes, the boy would wake up, coughing or snorking or something. "Where's my water? Where did my water go? Mum! My water?" He'd be fully awake, we'd find what he needed (we didn't have the wall and his bedrail to keep things contained, so they kept moving / falling on the floor) and go back to sleep within SECONDS. Which sounds nice, but most adults, myself and the man included, do not have this ability. So we'd be just dozing off again, having acclimated to the noisy, NOISY sleeper that is our son, even when he's not snorkly, and he'd wake up again. Lather, rinse, repeat, until 6:30 when my cell phone alarm woke me up. Awesome.

The man brought the boy to the sitter and checked on the house, which was powered and warm again. I got to work a little late, but so did 2 other cars of teachers, so I was fine. I warned everyone not to look at me sideways or I would cry, and very nearly did, I was just so tired. It was Friday though, so things went pretty ok. And then it was the weekend, so we're good. I'm still tired though, and will likely head to bed soon. We're actually at the in-laws' house, it's my mother in law's 50th bday party. We were there until too late, and then brought the boy home to bed, and everyone's gone back to par-tay except me. I'm super ok with that though.
I think that's it. This is frigging long. I'm 3/4 done with cooking the baby, most of the time I wonder what the DEUCE is going on in there, but that's all good, so yay I guess. 8 more weeks of work, then another couple, and then (god willing) a baby. I really, really don't want to go over. I would like to go at least until my last day of work though, if we could somehow arrange that.

BUBLE

I dare you to find someone who went to the Michael Buble concert and did not find it absolutely entertaining. I bet even the 4 guys in the front row who Michael bought beer for and kept trying to include in the show but who every time they showed on the big screens were just sitting there, arms folded, expressionless...I bet even they had fun, on the inside. At the very least they got 2 free beer each, which is more than most guys can say about being dragged to a concert (we assume) by their wives. He also took time to sign autographs and get photos done (which quickly got out of hand, so he went back on stage) and sent the hoochies in their tube tops back to their seats. It was AWESOME. He was like, I'm sorry, but I feel like a huge dork right now. I am not a backstreet boy, and I don't want to be one. Please go back to your seats. And everyone applauded. He said, I don't want to be a jerk, but aren't you all glad they went back to their seats? yes, yes we are. It's NOT that kind of show, sit the hell down you hooches.

Even the opening act, Naturally 7, was amazing. I'm hesitant to buy the cd, just because I think a lot of the fun was in actually seeing them perform their songs. You've probably heard their one song, it's a remake of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight". It's really cool, but even cooler when you realise that they don't use any instruments. At all. It's just them, making like, drum, and bass, and guitar noises with their mouths. My sister and I tried to record some to share with you, but the cell phone voice recorders, they're just not that stellar, and it was just loud and terrible on playback.

(sidebar: I've ordered but am still waiting for the usb connector for my phone, which I hope will facilitate my making free ringtones and putting them on my phone)

Anyway. If Buble came back tomorrow, I'd go. I'd be broke quickly if I did that often, but it was a great show. I also got 2 pretty scarves at Old Navy, so all in all it was a good weekend. Nice dinner at Bogarts, time with my sister, quality time for the man and the boy together, it was a win, win, win. Which is good, because this weekend and next are committed to the man's family in their hometown, and I can only take so much of that. Truly, lovely people, but not my people, despite the fact that we've been in each others' lives for...8 years now. That's a long time. I went to ladies night last night there, and I did win a $25 gas card, so that made up for the fact that I couldn't drink. Sort of.

because I hate paying for stuff, that's why.

I'm looking for some free ringtones. I just got this sweet phone last month, and it came with a really, really sad selection of ringtones. No Mexican Hat Dance, nothing. I know I can download them on the Telus site for like $2, but isn't free better than $2? I think so.

Let me know if you know of any non-spammy free places to download, or some super clever way to make them myself, or something. I also found out I have unlimited web browsing at 100 selected sites, but I'm not sure how it works, or what those sites are. I must look into that.

Also tonight, I found out that deer eat bird seed. I suppose this time of year they'll eat just about anything, but I was still quite startled when I went to see where the deer was that the boy was saying 'hi' to, thinking out in the yard somewhere, and it was AT MY DOOR. I have the bird feeder about 5 feet from our back door, because that way I can watch the birdies when they eat. So, Mr (or Miss, I have no idea which) deer was just hanging out, checking out the boy and eating the bird seed. The boy then banged on the door and scared the deer a bit, but s/he came back after a second. Pretty neat.

edit: I have downloaded a program called Bitpim, and it promises to solve all my problems. It can edit songs into the proper length and bitrate to be manageable ringtones, and can put them on your phone. Sadly, you need a usb cable for that to work, and I don't have one. Happily, I ordered one off eBay for $0.98, and it is on its way to me as we speak. Or type. Or read. Whatever. Anyway, I have the memory card, so that's not a problem. If you have a memory card and a cable, I'd recommend getting this program. Let me know how it works!

yum yum yum yum yum, delicioso!

Those of you who are (un)fortunate enough to get to watch Dora will surely appreciate my little joke there. The rest of you, well, count yourselves lucky. The man and I made a super meal tonight, inspired by a show on Food network last night. Tyler's Ultimate, that guy rules. He does not care a whit for whether his recipes are diet friendly, he uses butter, oil, sugar, all of the above. But man, it's good.

We made BBQ chicken and the spicy coleslaw that's linked at the bottom of the page. We did not make the cornbread, but it looked really good too. How can you not love a guy who cooks bacon to crumble and put in his cornbread, and then rather than draining / wasting that grease, leaves the whole mess of it in there and just pours the batter right on top and bakes it in the pan in the oven. Why grease a pan? Anyway. It was really good. I recommend (as did other people who reviewed the bbq chicken) to let the sauce sit (on low, no bubbling needed) for more than 20 minutes; ours probably sat for almost an hour and then we just left it on the burner with the heat off until we ate it. It just kept getting better. Also, in his book, he puts 1C of peach preserves (jam) in it, which we were kind of like, hmm, but we doubled the recipe, bottled half and then put the jam in half, and it wasn't peachy at all, but quite good, just a bit sweeter. The coleslaw is a bit spicy, (smoked, dried jalapeno peppers will do that) so if you're like me and are a medium salsa, moderately spicy (get it? that's where the name comes from..) kind of gal, definitely don't put more than is called for, and perhaps even a bit less. We also cheated, as he did on the show, and used the pre-shredded coleslaw mix.

That's my public service for today. Go make some stuff. Makes a few dishes, but it's worth it. It also saved me from having to watch football all day, which was nice. Also we made lots, so I get lunch for 2 days, the man gets it for one. He has restaurants and stuff nearby, so I get dibs on leftovers. Plus, I'm growing a person, so that helps in the argument. Things are going well in that area, as far as I can tell. There's definitely a baby in there, definitely likes to deliver swift kicks to the lower extremities and occasionally park a foot or something in my ribcage. Definitely in like 3 months we'll be awfully close to meeting her, if we haven't already. I'm hoping very much to not go over, but also to get to work until my planned last day of April 4. That early off bedrest thing last time was lame.

I have pants to hem, and pictures to download, so I'm out of here.

money back, thanks

We did return the coffee maker. It took some convincing, they really didn't want to give me anything, and then they were going to stick me with store credit. I said um, wtf exactly shall I do with a big store credit at Home fricking Hardware? Nothing useful, that's for sure. They also took some time to understand that I did not want another coffee maker, that I had had to buy another coffee maker over the holidays, so it would be pointless for them to try to replace this stupid, missing parts one.

I also returned (exchanged) a shirt with no tags or receipt for the man. I'm good, I tell you! It was tagged / sized wrong, so they really weren't too picky about it. It hadn't been worn, obviously, which helped. I finally got around to putting away my Christmas decorations today. The in-laws are coming up, so everything has to be, you know, in its place. My sister and I are heading to Hali again, it's my Grannie's 80th birthday party. My sister's man is going away with a friend, and mine is staying here with the boy, since they've been traveling every weekend for a month now. I took last weekend off, so it's all good.

I bought 2 non-maternity shirts at the mall this weekend. One of them I wore today, it's just a long-sleeved hooded t-shirt, but is very low cut and requires a cami under it. It's cute though, looks like a maternity top. The other one is just a t-shirt. It's an XL, but is from Bluenotes, so isn't really very big. It's navy and says "I (heart) Fries." I'm super excited. I'm wearing it for casual day tomorrow.

so, I lied.

Add that to my list of resolutions. I actually don't make resolutions. I don't really see the point. If you're doing something terrible, stop now. If you're not doing something that you know you should be doing, do it now. There's nothing magical about Jan 1 that makes it happen, as far as I can tell. Plus, I'm perfect already. HAHA.

The holidays were good to me and the fam. We had nice visits with the inlaws and my parents, got to see pretty much everyone except my soon-to-be brother-in-law, who had to work Thursday. No fun. I had picked up the gift from my sister and I to my dad, which was a sweet coffee / espresso / steamer maker thing. Sadly, it was missing the espresso pot and the steamer attachment. So, I have to take that back. Pretty effing annoying though, I have to say. So that gift was a no-go. I got them another, nice but ordinary coffee maker, and will go tear some strips off the lovely folks at Home Hardware. My sister has graciously offered to help me in this endeavor. Don't screw with us, we'll getcha.

Went shopping a couple of times in Halifax, but didn't buy much. Some cute little cookie cutters in holiday shapes and a maple leaf, and a big dinosaur that could be fun for the boy for birthday parties and stuff. Tried to buy some long sleeved t-shirts to cover the expanding mid-section, at Old Navy, but the line was just too long to wait for $9 shirts. I got a Gap giftcard, but there are no maternity clothes at Gap Hali or Moncton, so I'll be saving that for apres bebe. I even tried ordering things online, but gap.com does not ship or bill internationally. Jerks. I had a whole order done up! My friend suggested a day-trip somewhere, but I think Bangor would be the closest place, and that's a bit much with the boy in tow. I may be on my own Saturday, so we'll see. We stole the in-laws' car to go to Hali, since it is diesel and nicer than our car, so we have to return that. I'm pretty sure it was all a scam on their part to get to see the boy again, but whatever. It was worth it. We would never have fit all his stuff in one car anyway. He got a lot, but moreso the giantness of a few presents really would have made that impossible. Very cool stuff, but like a big Little People Castle playset (with bonus parts, princess and unicorns, sweet!), a Jungle playset thing, and the ride-on toy. The man and I did well for ourselves too, new clothes, boots for me, new cookbooks for me and the boy (well, both for me but one for cooking sneakily healthy things for him), the complete box set of My So-Called Life, 2 new travel mugs which I am keeping, one for school and one for purse, the list goes on. Sweet cash money for date nights, or a new pair of shoes, whichever opportunity presents itself first. A little gadget to roll up the rim when the time comes. Made in Canada, naturally. A Flip Ultra video camera, roughly the size of a deck of cards, takes an hour of full-screen worthy video. All I have so far is the boy "skating" and playing hockey, but just you wait!

Anyway. It snowed A LOT here in the past few days. Including, but not limited to, our attic. Sweet. The man is cleaning that out. It took him about 4 hours to do the driveway this morning, which usually takes less than 1. This being pregnant thing rules, as far as getting out of manual labour. Supper and dishes are up to me, clearly. I should probably get clean / dressed etc. We'll see.

OH. But I have to tell you. I was shopping with my mom, at Banana Republic no less. She had some things to exchange for sizes. This woman came in, and she was not wearing pants. For real. She was wearing a shirt, and maybe a vest, and tights, and socks and boots. Not leggings, but tights. Sort of lacey, patterney, thick cotton tights. But definitely not the kind of thing you're meant to wear by themselves. Definitely the kind of thing you wear when you're a kid under your skirt. It was really odd. And she was not a model. She was about 40 and had a big old ass that was not flattered by these tights. I just was baffled. Have you seen this? Is it some kind of trend that I will definitely not be participating in? Was this woman crazy? I also had a crazy old man experience. I was in line at McD's, and this man was standing like, on me. Behind me, but touching me. It was creepy. I kept moving, and he did too, and he was mumbling to himself. I finally just went and stood about 4 feet over from the cash register to place my order, and waited there. I guess he was excited about the fresh nuggets and fries too. Crazy Haligonians!

just in case you don't know a teacher personally...

This came in my email a couple of days ago. I thought it appropriate at this time of year when most teachers are going the extra 3 miles for kids who need, especially those who can't or are afraid to speak up for themselves. Here at my school we arranged to help 11 families in the community through food drives and staff generosity. Our guidance teacher and SIW (student intervention worker - like a TA but for the "behaviour issues" rather than the academic concerns) delivered boxes of food and toys to 6 of those families today, and found it to be an experience that was equally rewarding and saddening.

I'm getting off the soapbox now. It's just helpful to take a step back from our concerns of lacking whatever we feel we may be lacking, and taking a good look around at what we have, which I have to think for most of us, is an incredible amount. I know I complain and often feel pressure of not enough, be it money, time, whatever, but I also know that I have plenty, and that if I was lacking in anything necessary, I have people who would line up to help me.

This article isn't really as depressing as my lead in! I promise I'll post a cheerier something before Christmas!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is a copy of a “Talkback” email read by Terry Seguay on CBC Information Morning on November 30. The title is “...and we teach”.

“My name is Gail Fellows-DeGrace and I teach Kindergarten and Music at Donald Fraser Elementary School in Plaster Rock. I heard the CBC piece about the Salisbury school club organized to help students learn to tie sneakers. Many teachers probably had my reaction, “that’s a great idea”, while other listeners reflected that it’s a sad state when schools have to do so many of the things parents used to. But, it’s all in a day’s work for the elementary teachers that I have had the privilege to meet and work with across our province.

We bandage knees, pull out teeth, go home with vomit stained pants, wipe noses and the occasional rear end, administer antibiotics, carry anaphylactic needles, pick nits, squish live lice, peel diarrhea-stained underwear off kids too sick to take care of themselves, cover them up on a sick bed because there is no sitter ...and we teach.

We make sandwiches for those with empty lunch boxes, drive other people’s children to and from activities, scrounge for countless sneakers ,snowsuits and boots for those without , make sure children in need will have food for this holiday season ...and we teach.

We laugh with children because their innocence is contagious, we shout inside when a child has a long- awaited success; we counsel the fearful, the broken, the angry and the bruised, weep with children for their sorrow and often fear about their tomorrows, we beg social services to step in when we know they cannot; our hearts break many, many times ...and we teach.

Our regular every day school situations often demand that we take on duties of the school nurse, the psychologist, the social worker and the speech therapist; we organize clubs for those who never do homework, coach intramurals to encourage children to be active; introduce the concepts of rules, routines and manners to those who are unruly ...and we teach.

We do whatever the situation demands each day, we do it as well as we can because we care enough to hope we make a difference ...and... we also teach children how to tie their shoelaces.

Gail Fellows-DeGrace, November 30, 2007

only one small child had to be carried off the stage after vomiting.

We had our Christmas concert today. It went pretty well, until the little tiny kindergarten kids in their adorable santa hats went on for performance #2. I don't even know what they were singing, because let's be honest, they're just SO CUTE it doesn't matter. I think they sang something and then read their letters to santa. They were all like "Dear Santa, I love you, bring me presents." Or some variation on that theme. And one poor girl, not, interestingly, the grade 2 girl who had been feeling queasy all afternoon, but another, random girl, vomited on the stage, which caused an impromptu intermission as we searched for a custodian. He said it's the 4th mess (of that kind, I'm sure he's cleaned up lots of other messes this week) that he's had in the last 2 days. love this time of year!

Speaking of vomit...I was super disgustingly sick Thursday night and Friday. I was feeling really gross, and didn't feel up to taking the boy to swimming. I was feeling really bad about that, but as I sat in the bathroom clutching the garbage can later that evening, I felt good about my decision not to go swimming. I was mostly better by the next afternoon, but I did manage to infect first my son, then my parents, bless them, who had come for a visit this past weekend, then my husband. He was feeling pretty cocky about not having been sick, and didn't get it as bad as the rest of us, but he ended up taking the day off yesterday and was all fevery and stuff, so I felt like karma had done its job.

I'm enjoying the writers' strike, because I now get to watch shows that I sort of wanted to watch but didn't, as I already watch too much tv. Now that all my regulars are repeats, I can watch repeats of other shows. See? It's a win win. A lot of shows are promising to be back in January, and I don't know how. Maybe for like, 2 weeks, until they too run out of new stuff, but at least it will be new for then.

Christmas will be over in a week. That's scary. The boy is done, the man gets one more small thing, my parents are done, my sister gets something else small. Not too bad. Not sure when I'll be getting any of those things, but that's for later to worry about.

I have to do dishes and I don't want to. But I must. sigh.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

and I have to say, I was slightly horrified on Tuesday when I realised that Christmas eve was a mere 3 weeks away. I'm not exactly finished. I'm having a hard time with my family. The man is easy enough I suppose, and the boy is easy, but the family I was born into, not so easy. Not so helpful with the ideas and such. So, they're all going to get something, but I'm not sure yet what it will be. The man is in charge (theoretically) of shopping for his family, so I (supposedly) do not have to worry about that.

We did have a snow day on Tuesday though, as did most of the province, and perhaps some others. I had a terrible sleep though, and not because I was SO EXCITED to have the potential day off, but because the man is away, and I am not really supposed to be shoveling massive amounts of snow in my, you know, delicate condition. I had this fear that the snow would stop overnight, they'd get it all cleaned up, and there would be school. And I'd have to call in, what, pregnant? That would be lame. As it was, I did manage to sweet talk somebody into clearing out most of my driveway, but we're going to have to work out a more reliable solution if the man is going to be away regularly. I didn't go anywhere that day, except outside a few times with the boy, who had a great time walking and falling down and getting stuck in the foot and a half or so of snow and then yelling "Hawp! Hawp mum! Guck!" We also had a good time with him jumping off his sand and water play table that is covered in snow and so now is basically just a table to jump off of. I took some really cute pictures of him airborne and smiling, I'll put them up on his site eventually. We're supposed to go get professional type pictures done tomorrow morning, but apparently the boy got into an altercation with some toys on Wednesday morning and has some scratches on his face. I have to wait and see about that, because Superstore doesn't retouch their photos, and I am not paying money to have photos of my boy all marked up, nor would I be keen to send those photos out to friends and family. A bit annoyed about the whole thing really, not because it happened, because that happens, but because it was not really explained to me fully and now I may have to cancel the picture appointment last minute, which is annoying for me and for them I imagine, and there will be no possibility of rescheduling for before Christmas.

I should really do some work now. Oh, we went to see Enchanted, and it was actually really funny. Much better than I had expected. I do have the song from it in my head though, and that's pretty annoying.

mint m&ms? Yes please.

they're frigging tasty, I'll tell you that much. They do NOT come in a resealable bag, which is not going to be a good thing. I've already put a pretty healthy dent in the bag, I think I'll have to put them away now. In my junk / snack drawer. One of my coworkers just found out she's pregnant too, so I told her if she needs some snacks, she can come see me.

I am also only at work 2 days this week, which is pretty fun. Had my ultrasound yesterday (healthy baby girl, they're pretty sure. Pictures up on facebook and the preggo site), and have R&M meetings Thursday, and Parent-Teacher ("student-led conferences") Friday. They were supposed to be last Thursday, but the weather was so terrible in most of the district that they canceled. I told my sister that being a pregnant teacher is the shiz-nit. She's very jealous, as she is now and generally, tired and overworked at her job.

Made it home from Halifax visiting the old folks, my grannie is fine, relatively, has been sent home to wait for a bed so they can do her surgery. My parents and I had a nice weekend of not caring what time it was to be home for any reason, and ate out at a RESTAURANT on Saturday night. A nice one even, the Keg. I had a giant steak, because that's what you do when you go to steak restaurants. We had a hell of a time parking, there was a tree lighting ceremony downtown, so tonnes of cars and families milling around and taking up spots. I ended up parallel parking, which I have to say went really well, no jiggering into place or anything, just backed right in. The person on the other side of the street did not have such luck, sadly. They had their 7 year old out directing them as to where to turn etc, and ended up on an angle, roughly in the middle of the street.

What else. I did actually have some things to tell you, but I can't think of any of them. Also, I want to go pick up the little man, I was a bit late getting there through nobody's fault but mine, so want to get there at a good time today.

but not the kind you call when you need your car towed.

My grannie has an abdominal aortic aneurysm, also known as triple A. She fainted at a card game earlier (and it wasn't a gambling game, so it wasn't some ploy to win more money or anything), came right around, but her concerned card-mates called 911 just in case. They took her to the hospital, and found that. They said they don't know if that's what caused the fainting, but it's good that she came in. She'll need surgery, but they're not sure when they'll operate. Pretty crazy stuff.

My mom was supposed to go to Florida to visit a friend of hers tomorrow, but won't be going. I had a whole list too, of things for her to get. Ha! Really though. I'll have to see what I can pick up on my side-trip to Houlton when I'm in Woodstock for meetings next Thursday.

I have to go eat something. I am growing a human you know.

the comment that is not an option on report cards, but really should be.

From a movie I caught part of on the new SUPER CHANNEL. I can't figure out what the purpose of it is, there is a really wide variety of stuff on it, I'm not sure who it's meant to appeal to. Anyway. The movie was called The Great New Wonderful, and has a bunch of people in it. The line is (by a principal, in response to parents saying what a great kid their shitball kid is, who just beat up and racially insulted another kid for no reason):

"He's actually a great kid? He's actually a selfish, incorrigible monster, with a heart made out of shit and splinters."

mmm, needly

I have to say, I don't *mind* needles, but I don't love them. I got a flu shot today because I don't want to get sick while pregnant. Because I can't take anything for it. You understand. Anyway, it hurt! My arm is sore. Sucky. It was free, which is a small consolation. We were supposed to get them at school on Friday, but the nurse got lost and went to the wrong school and then just went home. Bitch. I wasn't sure when we might get rescheduled for, and I wanted to get the shot before I got the flu, so I made myself an appointment. Just so happens I had an appointment today anyway, so it worked out. Also happens that the nurse was going to try to find her way to our school again today, but I didn't feel the need to take a chance on her again.

I also had my car to the doctor today. It needed its winter tires on. My tires were very sad / unsafe. We had a little storm yesterday and I had to drive about 40 the whole way to work, which combined with my having to drop the boy off to make my normally 20 minute drive an hour long. Sweet. I did make it all the way without incident though, no slippy slidies at all. As soon as I came out of our lane though, somebody else had nosedived off the road, so that gave me a pretty good idea of what kind of road conditions I'd be dealing with. My car also needed a new headlight. Sadly not just the $8 bulb, no. The whole assembly. That thing cost me like $300. Isn't that absurd? Even the guy at Dodge was surprised. He joked that now one looked so much nicer that I'd need to replace the other one. I said that unless they were offering a buy one get one deal, that wasn't going to happen. I also checked, just for shits and giggles, how much new bumper covers would be. From them, about $1000. That might not even cover the paint job. Stupid, right? So that's not going to happen, clearly. Who needs pretty bumpers? Not me. There was a rattle in the front too, which I asked them to check out, but it's gone now. GONE. I guess something wasn't aligned properly with my other tires, and it's all fixed now, and there's no sound, so ... hooray, I guess.

Had a dr. appt today, as mentioned. There is still a baby in there, and its heart is beating about 157 beats per minute. That's pretty fast. Good for fetuses though.

I think that's it. Had pizza for supper, lunch, and supper again yesterday. All pizza'd out for now. The man said he's pretty sure he couldn't get pizza'd out for more than a day.

Have to go watch Private Practice. Lovin it. More than Grey's. And about time tehy showed Taye Diggs with no shirt. Nice that everyone who was supposed to rock on didn't, and the two who really shouldn't have did. Also lovin that Chuck and Pushing Daisies and Life are all still around. You should be watching them.

two things

first. Have you ever had a pet with an abscess? It's quite disgusting. Our poor George was a bit gimpy, and we were concerned that the boy had somehow damaged the little kitty. We then found a lump on his chest which was sore (sore enough that George reacted to it being touched, and he's like, the most accommodating, you can do anything to him and he won't say boo cat in the world). I said ok, we'll keep an eye on that and see what we'll do. The next day, it had turned magically into a GAPING CHEST WOUND. SO GROSS. Anyway. So, I opted to pay the one million dollar after hours vet fee rather than waiting and having George leaking god knows what onto everything, and no doubt being uncomfortable. She shaved the spot on his chest, cleaned him up, and put him on antibiotics for 10 days. I love my vet. She's so friendly, and she has a crazy good memory. She also, I think, would adopt George if for some reason we couldn't keep him. She's quite fond of him. Anyway, he's feeling better enough now that he's whining to go out, but I told him one more day of inside. I'm not enjoying it any more than he is, there's a lot more action in the litter box than there has been for the last few months. He still has a hole in his chest, but it doesn't seem to be leaking disgusting crap anymore, and isn't swollen or anything. I'll leave you with that image.

Moving on to something completely unrelated. My sister has introduced me to FreeRice. It's a word / vocabulary game type site, which aims to end world hunger. And as my friend T said, "Sweet! I love word games and ending hunger!" Who doesn't? So go play. You can even cheat if you want and look the words up. Who cares? It's a more productive and karmically good way of wasting your time online.

But I did find $20, so it wasn't a total loss

I spent a good hour this morning going through the clothes that I have put away because they don't fit. Why? Trying to find my classroom key. I have used it once, and it is missing. It isn't on my dresser or anywhere else really obvious, nor on / in my desk at school. I could only think that it must be in a pocket of pants I had worn to school at some point, one of the three times I actually carried the key around with me. There was no key in any of my pockets. It is also not in my cupboard, or floating loose in one of the bins with the clothes in it.

sigh.

Today I am home with the boy, who is refusing to nap for some reason, so we can't do anything involving leaving the yard. As soon as I put him in the car, he'll fall asleep, ruining my plans of browsing at Superstore or.. wherever. I haven't even gotten to read the flyers. We've been playing, watching movies, avoiding going outside because he won't put clothes on and jammies aren't THAT warm. You know, fun stuff. The Man has gone to visit with some friends and drink some beer and do otherwise manly things.

Hang on. The boy is upstairs calling "where my soother is?", so maybe it's naptime. Cross your fingers for me.

We'll see how long this lasts.

Anyway, so if anybody wants to come over for a hoppin partay tonight, stop on by. The man just called to let me know that I do not need new struts as the car guys told me, but that they should be fine for another year. It pays to have friends who are mechanics. It's just a pain when they do not live in the same city as you do. I do need a new headlight assembly, but will look around at salvage places for that. $248! Imagine. I was quite surprised. The bulbs are only like $7, so I wasn't expecting the holder to be so much. It's cracked, and there's condensation in it, and there was water, so they wouldn't even give me a new blinker bulb. I drilled a hole, a small one, to let the water out, and am planning to get a new bulb Wednesday when I get my winter tires on. They'll probably tell me again to get new struts and a new headlight assembly, and I will tell them no thanks! I like being able to say no thanks to $700 worth of repairs on my car. This bad girl will be paid off in April, just in time for the new arrival, which works out well since mat leave doesn't pay quite as well as working a regular job. Combined with not paying full-time daycare or traveling to work, I might actually not be broke the whole time. Sweet. I will likely try to hand the boy off a day a week or something though, just to have a break and maybe catch the baby movie at Empire. That thing rules.

I think the boy is sleeping. Bout time! He usually goes down about 10-11, so this is late. I'm going to shower and perhaps catch a nap myself. I'm getting a cold, and don't want it to mutate into anything nasty before I can get my flu shot on Wednesday. Was supposed to get it yesterday at work, but the nurse got lost / went to the wrong school, and then just decided to call it a day and will reschedule with us later. Nice. I'm knocked up and so get a free shot at my doctor's office, where I'll be anyway next week. It's a brilliant plan.

fine, I'll update

but I have nothing going on. Beyond the fact that I'm ginormously pregnant for 3 months, to the point where my doctor has me on a wait list for an "urgent" ultrasound to see what the devil is going on in there. But I promised to keep the preggo stuff confined to the other site, so that leaves me with very little going on.

I did not chaperone a dance the other night, which ended up being shut down (middle school, grades 6-8) due to kids just being crazy bad, sneaking other kids in, being rude and terrible to the chaperone teachers, that kind of thing. A 911 hang up too. Awesome! So sad I missed out. I feel bad for the kids who weren't being a total pain in the ass, because this is the end of fun things for middle school for a while. We were going to have a dress up day on Wednesday for Halloween, but now they're not sure.

My child thinks there are monsters in his room. I have no idea where he got that idea, it's new this week, but it's a right pain for bedtime. I'll try to post again later.

no power and no heat make family....something something

Got home at 4:30-ish to no power. It was extra fun, because we were supposed to have people over for dinner. Not gonna happen. Called NB Power, they said they hadn't heard, but they'd send somebody out. They arrived around 7-7:30, and worked for at least 4 hours. I'm not sure if you've really thought about it before, but there's very little you can prepare for supper for yourself or your child that requires no power. Like, cereal, and peanut butter sandwiches. Mmm! So he had that. The man and I were waiting because they said the power would be back on at 7:30, but come 8:30 we were understandably starved and opted for pizza. It was delish. Maybe because we were so hungry. Anyway. I fell asleep, as is bound to happen in a quiet dark house, but we had candles (in jars, but still) burning so the man couldn't fall asleep. We tried not having candles, but when the boy woke up to total darkness, he was unimpressed. So he had a lovely lemon-scented candle in his room, and slept well. We flipped the breaker once we noticed that the work crews had left, but it did nothing. Tried several times. Nothing. Around 4am, tried again, power came on. Lovely. So, we're all a bit tired today. The man had the least sleep, so he's still in bed. The boy had the most, so he was up at 8, which is not bad, really. I had mediocre...I was marginally worried about the candles, but it was Friday, and what with the baby-growing, I'm tired always, so I did get a bit of rest before the power started working again.

That was my adventure last night. We rescheduled our dinner date for Sunday night. The boy and I are going to run some errands this afternoon, and beyond that, my weekend is for doing eff all. I'd like to get some nice fall pics of the boy, but the weather is not cooperating this weekend.

mmm, leady

Found a pretty good site for the lead-based recalls.

Lead Toy Recalls

It's really getting silly. I'm to the point where I'm going to buy a test kit and basically have to test all of the boy's toys. 80% of all toys are made in China, and even if you take the time to go to the nicer stores like ThinkPlay in Fredericton, there are still toys there made in China. What are you supposed to do? It's not that I'm super cheap, but it's nice to have options. I guess I'll have to start molding and carving all my own toys for him for Christmas and whatnot.

Annoying.

On a completely unrelated note, you should all be watching Pushing Daisies. It's on Tuesdays at 8 (atlantic) on CTV and Wednesdays on...ABC maybe. Find it, it's great.