| Fourth things First |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|12:56 pm] |
I wanted to take G to see fireworks this year- I figured he was at the right age to be entertained rather than frightened. JD and I decided to go up to Estes Park to watch them shoot fireworks off over the lake/resevoir/whatever. We get up there and there are a lot of cars, but we see an entrance to a lodge and restaurant and guys standing there, and JD pulls in to find out what's up. They say that they are charging $5 for people to park there to watch the fireworks. "Sold!" says JD, pull out his wallet, and finds it empty. As usual, I have almost no cash, and tell him we'll have to go to an ATM. "How much you got?" the guy asks. "Two bucks," I reply. "That's fine," he says, and lets us in.
"Dude," I say to JD, "this is totally that guy's raquet. I bet he made that name badge at home and printed up those slips and just stands here in the parking lot taking money and handing out slips till they find out and run him off." ;)
We start out parking on the pavement in the lot, then I notice they've mowed the grass and cars are parked there, so I have JD back the car into a spot on the grass, and we open up the hatch and sit there, since the ground is soaked from an earlier rainstorm. We bust out the fried chicken and notice a few fireworks being set off, looks like from the other side of the lodge.
"Bummer," I think, figuring we will have to go walk around the building to stand and watch.
And then the real fireworks began.
Directly in front of us, with nothing between us and the show- we're front and center.
They shot off fireworks for about a half hour- really pretty ones, none of the stupid loud single flash ones. G was thrilled and sat on my lap and then grabbed JD's hand and held us all together. He ate fried chicken, a ton of fruit salad, and some chips, and thought it was the greatest dinner ever.
Good times. |
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| The Matrix has me |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|09:47 am] |
We went and looked at a Matrix yesterday. I didn't really like the salespeople as well as at Honda- it's a nice facility with a lot of cars, but the salespeople are a little pushy and a little more slick/greasy feeling. The car itself is a lot different from the Fit in terms of style and feel. I felt more closed in (which I actually liked) and it feels smaller- cargo space is probably a bit less and the back seat is somewhat less magical, though still plenty of headroom. A couple of neat little things -the seat moves vertically up and down, and it has heated mirrors. The car felt a little more solid than the Fit, possibly due to the more closed-in feel, and I liked driving it. It seemed pretty quiet too. The car has a lot less glass than the fit- the windows on the sides are smaller, there is no window just behind the windshield, and there are these utterly ridiculous arrow slits in the hatch. They didn't have red (my first choice), just black (my second choice) and gold (sundance yellow) which I kind of surprisingly liked. It had the keyless entry and an aux jack for my mp3 player (which I believe the Fit sport has too, the sales guy just didn't realize it about the jack I think) They were offering some pretty good incentives too, like a $2000 rebate. JD and I went home to let me think about it, and I took G to his swimming lesson.
And at like 7:45, I was like, you know, if we wait till tomorrow we only get $1500 off the matrix instead of $2000 (end of month thing).
So we went back and spent 2.5 hours at the dealership. Poor G was so exhausted by the time we were done, and was pretty good for having dealt with such an excrutiating process (Ice cream tonight, kiddo). I went with black, which I hope I don't regret in summer- I figured it probably won't be too much hotter than the dark green civic (which I ended up trading in- some of the craigslist replies were a little scary). I think it's a good car and we got a decent deal on it- they matched Honda for trade in, beat our credit union for interest rate (though somebody may have been trying to sneak something in- they were ready to have us sign up for 7% with Toyota and I said "Um, no, our credit union will do 6% - they're member direct so let's go with them. Sales guy tears up the contract and offers me 5.75% with Toyota- we took it), and had the $2000 off. The Matrix (auto, 4 speed) has an MSRP of about $1,000 more than the Honda Fit sport (also 4 speed auto), but ultimately the difference worked out that the final cost of the Matrix was $2200 less than the Fit Sport.
my super impressive hatchback,
now with more thumb! |
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| Car shopping and such |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|11:30 pm] |
So we went to look at a Fit today. I'm trying to be optomistic that I'll still have a job next week, as I managed to break something else on Friday (I think). I am just going to do tickets on Fridays from now on or call in sick or shoot myself or SOMETHING. Anyway. Assuming I still have a job...(and surely it can't be THAT easy to get people to work Sat night after working all week?).
The Fit has a lot going for it. It really is roomy, and I think Jesse was in love. It had like 3 inches of headroom for him. I love the cargo space and the "magic" backseat (folds up, folds down, folds in halvsies, folds into a crane...). The backseat really and truly actually has legroom. It's fuel efficent and still small for all its interior space. We're looking at the sport model, which is an automatic but has paddle-shifters, which I don't really care about but I think JD could come to enjoy. As always the price always ends up being a couple grand higher than you find advertised even after discounts and stuff, but reasonable for the most part.
Driving it I'm not as sure. It has big windows everywhere, I almost felt like the windshield was a sunroof. The dash seems like a long shelf though, and I felt high up. There are little windows in front of where the window usually ends, and that seemed really wierd to me, almost as though they were impairing my vision more than enhancing it. I hate the new instrument panels on all cars- I don't like the suken segregated containers for the gages. Ultimately I felt like I was in a cockpit- like I was a gunner in the millenium falcon or something, which I understand might seem really cool, but I wasn't wild about it. It feels a bit like driving a minivan, which shouldn't be surprising because it is really like a mini-minivan. I got a bit more used to it after a few minutes, and I think I could deal with it in the long run, but I was hoping it would feel more like my civic, I guess.
We are also planning to take a look at a Toyota Matrix this week, which I may or may not like more. We'll see... |
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| Car for sale |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|11:55 am] |
I think I am going to post this to Craig's list- does this sound honest yet appealing?
2001 Civic LX 2 door- 1 owner. Has never broken down, well maintained mechanically and mileage is great. 114,000 miles, dent in corner of front bumper (does not affect steering or frame), paint chipped on driver's side door, and missing a hubcap. AT, Power windows, A/C, CD player. Email me to take a look/test drive it. $4000
I'm thinking I will get another hubcap to replace the lost one (so annoying, apparantly I didn't really have the old one snapped back on all the way. Stupid thing- lost it like 3 months ago) to make it look more appealing-
I talked it over with JD and new car for my b-day next month. ^_^
4 doors, here we come! (At last, I will no longer get my leg so smashed when I buckle G into his carseat...) |
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| Casanova rides again |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|12:27 pm] |
So my friend Jessica came over last night. She's tall and young and pretty, and G's face lit up when he saw her.
G:
*Walks right up to her*
*Big smile. Dimple*
*Bats eylashes*
"You want to take a bath?"
Jessica:
*blinks*
"What? Uh, no."
G (unfazed):
"You want to see my bed?"
*Takes her upstairs to show her his bed (which was his crib, but now has a side removed so it's a daybed).*
And that is apparantly how you meet a girl, hit on her, get rejected, and then get her to your bed in less than 2 minutes. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|10:25 am] |
It's been an interesting week. I rode Sat, Sun, Mon, and Wed- which is more frequently than I have in ages. My horse was being a total shit, rearing and jumping around and various other jerk activities, but a couple of lessons with my awesome trainer and things feel good again. Swim lessons are going pretty well- G loves them and can pull himself up out of the pool. He can float pretty well on his back too- he doesn't know it and always tries to sit up, but I think he'll understand eventually. It's fun to do it with him too- I tend to get a workout catching him as he jumps in and from tugging him around. They do lots of little tricks with having them float on their back but cheek to cheek with you so that they feel calm, and holding a toy up over their head so they look that way, or putting them on their belly and setting the toy out in front so they reach their arms out.
I'm back in the office, which is mostly nice, though I have to get up earlier and I miss seeing JD and G. I have to figure out how to fit in some other things- dishes, grocery shopping, more cooking and sleep, but overall I'm starting to feel like I have a bit of a life again. |
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| cripes |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|12:23 pm] |
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Ok I am just going to stop working on Fridays. For 2 weeks in a row I have managed to be at least partially if not wholly responsible for bringing down the helpcener's ticketing system....In neither case have I gone on to the server and done anything directly...but... COME ON . |
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| updatesky |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|01:03 pm] |
Friday had a very long day at work- as I was leaving I saw there was some kind of cook out going on behind our building. "Wonder what's going on there?" I thought. One of my old co-workers (he moved to a different dept) yelled out to me to come over and have a burger. Turns out he and another former co-worker are getting married the following day. "This is our rehearsal dinner," he says. I eat the burger and chat for a minute, then explain I have to go catch a bus- as I walk along the street trying to figure out where the stop is, I see my bus go by. DRAT. It starts to rain DOUBLE DRAT. I walk along toward Federal, thinking maybe I can catch something southbound, when one of my other coworkers calls out to me and asks if I need a ride.
"You live up North right?"
"Yeah, but I'm not going home. I'm going to see some friends downtown."
"That's ok, he says, I'll give you a ride."
I explained about my avoidence of driving downtown- missing the street signs, all the one ways, and the fact that I have no sense of direction.
"I have no sense of direction either, and I was an Eagle scout," he says.
Hehee, no wonder he's helping me- he really is a boy scout. :)
As we're driving along it starts to HAIL.
Okay, maybe everything that happened to make me miss the bus is PROVIDENCE. :)
Out with Alex and Lolo and Sarah and Kale-
Sarah held up bravely for a few hours - btw, that reminds me- good luck!
Steam was not nearly as good as the last time. Turnout was low. Drinks were weak (and for me to say that is really amazing- I am a mega lightweight that drinks about 3 times a year). Music might have been ok playing in the background while you were doing something else - I felt like it was too low energy and unfamiliar- frankly the few people that were there were not visiting the floor often and were not staying. Between Alex, Lolo and me, I think we requested about 8 songs and none of them got played. Adding insult to injury, at about 1:30 the DJ's are like "Come up to the stage and make your requests!"
We were like "Why, so you can choose not to play those either?"
So I suppose next time I head out I'll check out "the other night", but in any case, it was still fun to see my friends and get all dolled up- maybe JD can actually take me out sometime in the future... :)
I don't really remember much of Saturday- I think everyone took naps, then Saturday night we went out to eat at a new (to us) place called "Venue". They brought us some nice bread with a rhubarb honey butter, which was good because I was starved. I was a bit skeptical of the shrimp n cheese grits with cilantro (I don't really like cillantro), but it was really great.
I read off the kids menu to G:
"Grilled cheese, pasta with butter or tomato sauce, or chicken fingers." and he says "Ribs".
2 kinds of Ribs on the adult menu, so we split an order of St. Louis Ribs. They were yummy and meaty and he happily ate 2 or 3 of them.
We left without getting dessert there as it was getting late and G was restless- we went down the street and got ice-cream cones instead, which totally made his night. It was really wonderful to go out and enjoy dinner together.
On Sunday, I threw out a pair of JD's old jeans (which had a hole I could put my fist through) and told him I would buy him some new ones. He was annoyed but agreed, and so we went and found several pair for him to try on, and decided to buy 2. As we are waiting to check out, they annouce that a funnel cloud has been spotted from the mall, and would everyone please go to housewares. From housewares they funnelled everyone into the lounge where we waited for the storm to pass. So I don't think that really helped the situation, but at least now he has some smaller, newer jeans (with no holes). :D |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 26th, 2009|12:25 pm] |
I am tired of the rain and the cloudy days, although it's been going on so long that I think the sun is going to seem very harsh when it starts shining again.
The weekend feels like a blur. Saturday was ages ago- I don't really remember what we did- I think I took G to the park, and did some laundry or something- it's odd that I can't really remember most of it. I did make the world's best French toast and some maple sausage on Saturday morning. I took a day old loaf of french bread, sliced it up and dipped it in egg with a little milk and vanilla, and fried it up on my (still new to me) big 11.5" skillet. I also cut up some strawberries and put them in a little saucepan with some sugar and, upon tasting, a bit of orange juice. Slapped my strawberry sauce on top of the french toast and added a bit of whipped cream (from a can- but real whipped cream) and I thought it was pretty fantastic- JD and G seemed to like it too, though G ate all the strawberries and kept asking for more, rather than tying into the french toast. Later on though, he said "Thanks Mom. You did a good job." ^_^
Sunday I took G to the rec center- it was nicer than I thought it would be. They have an indoor pool with a waterslide and lazy river (which G is still too small for), 2 spas (filled to capacity, drat), some swim lanes and a shallow pool for the kids to play in, with fountains, sprinklers, a waterfall, and a butterfly slide. G kept getting stuck halfway down the little butterfly slide, but he kept doing it anyway. :)
After the pool we stopped at the indoor playground, which is pretty neat- they have climbing platforms, tunnels, a bridge, and a large slide. He went through it twice before we came home. After we got home we went for a walk with JD, and then we took naps.
On Monday, MiL came and took G to a cook out at JD's sister's. JD and I watched "Top Gear" and I can't believe how much I love that car show. Of course the reason we love it is the british comedy, with the 3 cohosts constantly competing with, sabotaging, and insulting one another. In this episode they were driving through the south in cars they bought for $1000. They "decorated" one another's cars with slogans like "Hillary for President" "I'm Bi" and my favorite "Man love rules". They were chased by some good ole boys and had to flee and wash the cars before the dudes caught them. Man the south is awful.
Went and rode Trudi, who's been a booger lately- she wanted to fight a little but I pretty much got around it- it will be nice when I can let her run off the piss n' vinegar.
Came home in time to meet G on his return home. He was overtired and as we did a puzzle he freaked out about a piece I had placed.
G: "I wanna do that piece."
Me: "I already did it."
G: (whining) "I want to do that piece."
Me: "No, there are a bunch of other ones."
G: *MELTDOWN*
I let him cry a few minutes, put him in time out, let him out, still he cried.
He cried, and stuttered, and sobbed for about 15 minutes straight. I told him if he put all the other pieces in he could take that one out and put it back in, so he stubbornly did the last 20 pieces or so, crying the entire time. When he had placed the last one, I let him take THAT PIECE back out and put it back in.
Me: "There. Was that so satisfying?"
G: "Yes."
GAH.
He wanted to watch TV then and I was like "Uh, no, you are having dinner and going TO BED."
He complained a little and asked me to pick him up- I told him I would if he stopped crying, and he stopped.
I tried to explain to him what sharing and cooperating and playing together means. I tried to explain why he was being unreasonable.
G: "But that was my FAVORITE piece" he tells me. And I believe him- he was sincere. The incomprehensible mind of a 3 year old...
Put kid to bed at 7:30 and he was down and out.
JD had had some junk food cravings earlier and bought chips and cookies and lemon bars. I had my own craving, and decided to just get it over with, so I headed to the store for brownie mix. I figured a 2 mile walk would assuage any guilt, so I hoofed it there and back. It was raining, but not too hard. I had some good songs on my ipod and really enjoyed it. I like to walk in the rain in the evenings as long as it's not coming down too hard, (and I don't have to look nice, and I know there's a warm bath and dry clothes in the near future). It was the final ingredient I needed to bring me out of the funk I'd been feeling on and off over the weekend.
I bought the stuff for the brownies and some colace - not for me, but, I can just imagine what the clerks thought (ANOREXIC). I made Ghiardelli (sp?) dark chocolate brownies and swirled some cream chesse through the batter. YUM. Stupid delicious desserts... :) |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 21st, 2009|07:11 pm] |
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Does anybody know a good lawyer? I think I may need to sue Qwest. |
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| Weekend update |
[May. 18th, 2009|12:06 pm] |
Saturday - MiL came and took the boy for a few hours- so JD and I went and bought some screws to fix the broken big wheel (the entire thing is held together by a single skinny 2 inch screw, which my 3 year old managed to snap- wow, KWALITY). Then we went to a movie- JD picked Star Trek. I have to say, it's one of the better movies I've seen this year (I have only seen 4 movies this year). I liked it ok- I watched the original TV series a few times as a kid, but only when nothing else was on. I'm no trekkie so there really wasn't anything about it that offended me. There were a few times where I was like "Why don't they just..." but overall it was a decent movie and it was sure a hell of a lot better than star wars episode 1-3-- and I always liked star wars way better than star trek. It was weird to see the bad guy from Heroes as Spoc, and pretty funny to see Wynona Ryder as his mom.
Went and rode after that, and Trudi was a good kid.
Came home and cleaned up, and Alex and Lauren came over and we watched Speed Racer with G. Much better than I thought it would be, though I couldn't really watch that closely. G enjoyed the crashes very much and was completely taken with Lauren. He scootched over next to her and got right up in her face. "What are you doing?" *bats eyelashes* *flashes dimples*.
Sunday was kind of a blur- made pancakes, and after I had just put 2 on a plate, a pair of spring-loaded tongs suddenly snapped open and sent the plate crashing to the floor. The plate shattered into about a million toothpick sized shards that went as far as the dining room. I was more upset about the loss of the pancakes than the plate...
Took G to the park, he ran around and then said he was tired. We came home and I put him to bed, where he proceeded not to nap for about 2 hours. Got him up, went and bought a down blanket for summer, and he whined and complained about how tired he was. Made pork chops for dinner, put the kid to bed, got on the computer and then didn't sleep till about 2 am- I was pretty much overtired and couldn't sleep...
Best wishes for JD tomorrow...
And another amusing G anecdote-
Yesterday as I was shopping for my blanket, G said to me "I want to be a girl!"
"Why?" I asked.
"Cuz...girls are BETTER," he said.
"Nah," I say, "Boys are stronger and faster."
It took me a while to convince him of this but eventually he seemed to accept it.
Fast forward to today.
We are in the car and Kylie Minogue's "Can't get you outta my head" is playing.
"I like that girl song," G says. "I like all your girl songs. I don't like your boy songs though." His voice gets all sly and he says "I *LOVE* girls."
Man, I think I am going to have like a hundred grandkids.... |
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| I had a big day |
[May. 8th, 2009|09:27 pm] |
Worked in the morning, went and got some shorts for G, forgot his lunch at home so took him to McDonald's- took him to daycare, went to the credit union, came home, ate lunch, mowed the lawn, rode Trudi, and went back to get G. Went to Costco, got food, came home. Unpacked the fire extinguisher I bought and made a beeline for where the old one was (which I had of course been previously unable to locate. *sigh*). Gave G the lunch I forgot to take to daycare (HA! Take that, forgotten lunch! See, I'm not ALL stupid!) and made myself a ridiculous cheeseburger- ground chuck, american cheese, avacado, a little mayo and topped with a fried egg. Gave us baths, read the boy a story and put him to bed. Whew.
Also my grass still looks crazy. I fertilized it this year, but the spreader wasn't working so I just scooped it into a flowerpot (with holes in the bottom) and walked along shaking it. So now our yard has this spiralish pattern of green, lush grass, and less green grass....
*sigh*.
Also excited about the lily bulbs I got at costco- one of the varieties is called "eyeliner". How could I pass that up? |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|12:17 pm] |
We went to "My Bloody Valentine" last week. I spent like an hour trying to figure out what to wear and it was another annoying reminder that I am old and many of my old going out clothes don't look good on me now (hey kids [aka ppl younger than me], let me know if you need free stuff. No, that doesn't include my corset [whoo, strap me in!] or poofy tulle skirt :D).
I wasn't keen on the opening bands, or on them starting at 10 (show started at 8) and I felt bad for JD because he really wanted to hear them and we could only stay for about 5 songs of MBV. But the first 2 songs were songs I really like from "Loveless". It wasn't a super great experience though- I forgot how big the Fillmore is and some guy was smoking weed directly behind me, and I so hate the smell. I wanted to smash him in the face but I restrained myself. It was mostly an older crowd than I normally see, with chucks in every color. The band is really good but they needed to turn up the mic for the vocals and it was pretty overpriced for us- but I think it made JD happy to go even for a little while, and I was happy to be with him. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|03:08 pm] |
Wow, it's been a pretty long time since I actually posted. I've been pretty busy and kinda grumpy off and on, so rather than bitching all the time I figured I should just... not.
G is doing well, he keeps seeming taller and skinnier and older. He's still pretty great. Trudi, after 5 months off, has pretty much healed- the suspensory ligament has reattached to the bone and I can start riding her again, just need some free time.
This year seems like a wash, for the most part. It's nearly May and I kind of feel like I've just been surviving 2009. I am happy I've been able to see G and JD a bit more, and I think I will really miss seeing my little boy in the mornings- he usually wakes up happy and cuddly and excited to face the day. I think physically I'm a little run down, but then I see poor JD and what he has to deal with and it's like "Ok, I'm lucky". So anyway- hey to all you out there, I'm still around, and I'm happy to have you in my life even when I'm being quiet. |
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| More kidspam |
[Apr. 8th, 2009|09:29 pm] |
The full size images of him seem kinda artsy to me (the ones I posted I shrank to about 1/3 size to save space)- makes me want to do some kind of piece or exhibit or whatever with them- all the different expressions, starting with the serious, more relaxed, serious, relaxed, etc, and then the last one of him totally a kid sitting on the steps... but I think that's just the proud mama in me.
Clicky for picky if you want |
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| For Ray |
[Apr. 7th, 2009|11:39 pm] |
So I admit I haven't seen "Dance Fights" yet. But I think I may have an idea that will top it.
FLASHDANCE.
See, I was sitting in the tub, song stuck in my head, thinking yeah, good song, good 80's band, good 80's songs, and I thought of "Flashdance". And then I thought about dance fights....
So here is what you do- leotard, tights, legwarmers. And STUBBLE. And then you dive roll a table of "judges", do a little routine, and the finale? The chair and the bucket of water.
It would be AWESOME. |
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