Fun with site tracking...

Since the inception of this blog, I've been using Statcounter to check how many people come to visit. (In case you are wondering, the answer is not many.) But I've recently found the handy dandy little feature that allows me to look at what you typed in the search box that landed you here. And sometimes, it's kinda funny.

A few months ago, someone found this puny entry whining about a sore throat by Googling: Why does my throat hurt when I walk

charlize theron looking like a oompa loompa led some poor searcher to my one attempt at fashion critique.

A surprising number of you have searched for $5 shoes. Who could blame you? We all love a bargain. Here's where they ended up. Someone also landed there by searching for fake chucks shoes.

Sometimes I find things out about my blog from the searches. For example, I invented a new word in this post in my other blog about Christmas decorating. I found out because someone in India searched for christmas window decorationing. oops.

And sometimes I find other gems on the internet this way. Someone searched for knitting pattern hat om symbol (My post was a rather boring one about making an OM dishcloth) . Since I, too, would like to knit a hat with th OM symbol in it, I clicked on the same search. It led me to The Panopticon. What a great blog, if you like knitting and pet sheep and wit. And everyone loves those things, right?

Keep searching, people. You just never know what you'll find.

Whiny Monday

I'm feeling very whiny today. I hate Mondays. After a lovely weekend of having my husband home to keep the children from tearing down the house while I try to do anything, Monday leaves me here alone with them. And the unwashed dishes. And the rest of the laundry. I got a phone call that lasted all of two minutes, until I heard my daughter holler, "Mommm, Nige is coloring on the floor!" But the floor wasn't really the problem. By the time I got off the phone and walked the 4 steps to the kitchen, the artist had applied purple crayon onto three drawer fronts, and ALL over the dishwasher. Just what I wanted: another thing on the to-do list ot household drudgery.

Have I mentioned that Mr Crayon Artist has a cold? Damn he's cranky when he is sick. I cannot blame him, but it's hard to deal with all the same. Especially as I have the same cold.

Today's word of wisdom: Telling a 2-year-old to 'stop whining' doesn't work.

In case you are laugh-deprived

I must first apologize for the tardiness of this post. It's been rattling around in my head for weeks, but between the Holidays and my penchant for procrastination, I'm just now getting around to writing it out. And yet, it is still not well-written.

The history: A couple of years ago I stumbled upon a page that showed some Weight Watchers Recipe Cards from 1974. They are scary. Very scary. And funny. I have loved that site so much, I've even popped back there just to get a much-needed laugh every once in a while. It just might be one of my favorite corners of the World Wide Web.

Whilst shopping on Amazon for a couple of Christmas gifts, I broke down and bought The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan: Classic Diet Recipe Cards from the 1970s. It really was a necessary purchase, as it helped get me that much-sought-after Free Shipping. After all, why pay shipping when you can spend a few more dollars and get a book, right? So I waited for it to come in the mail. I started reading it and realized that it might be the best ten bucks I've spent in a long, long time. If ever you've wondered why people were so crazy in the seventies, it might be because they were eating things like the Frankfurter Spectacular or maybe Marcy's "Enchilada" and washing it down with lovely drinks like the Slender Quenchers, a lovely combo of bouillon and sherry extract (extract??). And the book has even more of the spectaular debacle that was. Ew.

Previously, I had believed that there were intense socio-political issues, causing the oddness of that decade. But now I know that it is all Weight Watchers' fault.

Why oh why did we invite people over?

A couple is coming over for dinner tonight. It is the best option, since they have a baby, and we have two kids as well. But the house is such a mess. And I forgot to write this dinner down in my calendar, so I didn't really know about it until Wednesday night. Argh. Yesterday I managed to un-bury my desk, and clean the leftover decorations off the dining room table. But today I need to make the house look presentable to others who have not visited us here before. No small task, since the house is half under "remodeling" status. The other half is decorated with children's toys and mismatched furniture. Even when spotless, my house makes me cringe.

I'm hosting a party on the 20th of January. My newest goal is to have the living room wallpapered before then. I'm thinking about calling a bookie and allowing people to bet on it. (Odds are pretty long on that one, though.)

Must now get off computer, and try to make our kitchen look less "apartment squalor", and more "rustic farmhouse". Then I need to make bread for dinner tonight. I work well under pressure, but I've left myself a huge task. Double argh.

My boy is heading to the dentist today

My poor little guy has bad teeth. To be honest, it's only 4 of them that are bad. They have varying amounts of enamel missing. They are probably decayed. (I only say 'probably' in hopes that denial actually works.) We are heading to the dentist today. It's going to be horrible. He's only 2, and there is no way I can make him understand that the guy in the mask in the room with the x-ray is going to help him. The dentist reportedly has "the touch" with young kids, and can put otherwise jumpy children at ease, but I'm not convinced. I'd almost rather take him to a dentist that will sedate him. But I'm more afraid of sedation than of a screaming toddler. There is no joy here today.

I hope that the roads in Peoria are better today. We spent 3 hours travelling to nowhere on Saturday. blech.

On a more positive note, my girlie gets to spend the afternoon with Grandma Karen. She'll enjoy that, I am sure.

For anyone keeping track, my body has now been host to 3 unique viruses in the last 2 weeks. Overnight I came down with my kids' cold. And it's not even full-fledged flu season yet. oy.

Keep your fingers crossed!

I know no one but me really reads this, but it's a good reminder for me. I *think* we're all on the downhill side of a week of illnesses. Last week, I had a sinus'thing' and a stiff neck. It really hurt. I got over that on Friday, but then came down with the pukies on Saturday afternoon. I hate pukies. yuck. Sunday morning, both my kids wake up with colds. I am indeed counting my blessings that a) I was sick on a weekend so my husband could take over as the resident human for 18 hours, and b) the kids woke up with colds and not involuntary protein spills.

So yesterday afternoon, I get home from a walk with the kids (it was 62 degrees on November 27 -- what's up with that?) and my poor husband was sitting in the family room, complete with blanket up to his chin. Luckily, he was spared any pukage, but he felt pretty crappy just the same. He went to work today. I hope he feels better as the day wears on.

Aside from the sickness, we're trying to decorate the house for the holidays, and it is going very slowly. We had just moved in and didn't decorate at all last year, so I'm trying to figure out how to do it this year. Our previous home's exterior was much easier to make festive, as it turns out. I'm about this > < close to buying a bunch of those 8-foot-tall inflatable Santas and snowmen and maybe a Spongebob for good measure and putting them all out in my sizeable yard. My kids would be convinced that I'm the best mom ever. But people might drive by and take pictures of my yard and then post them on the internet as examples of extreme Christmas tackiness.

So anyway, thats most of what is happening in my life. I now need to go finish washing my down comforter upon which a cat puked up faux pine garland. Ah, the joys of Christmas and pets. At least I was smart enough to buy plastic ornaments for the lower third of the tree. I hope that we'll be all healthy enough to get a tree sometime this week.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

It's boring on the shampoo bottle, and boring in life, too. As a non-outside-of-the-home mom, I do a lot of lathering, rinsing, and of course repeating. I just spent an hour preparing, then scrubbing and mopping the kitchen floor. It is all clean at this very minute. Once it dries, I'll move the table and chairs back in there, and commence re-dirtfying the floor. By 6pm, it will have a whole new array of spots, streaks and crumbs.

Next on the list is the front room. We aren't currently using that room for much, so it has become the catch-all room for the extra toys and mismatched furniture (both of which are plentiful around here). It's the largest room in the house, though, and there will be 16+ people over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. So I need to clean it. In order to do that, I need the kids to be there with me. So while I'm lathering one end of the room, the kids will be playing at the other end. You with children know how that it going to play out. oy.

At this very moment, there is laundry swishing and tumbling, only to be folded, put away, worn, and sent back down the laundry chute. (Yes, I have it better than you who have to schlep you dirty clothes in baskets though the house; my life isn't all bad.) But the neverending cycle of housework goes on.

Lather, rinse, repeat. It just doesn't have the same ring as that mantra from Finding Nemo, Just keep swimming, does it?


note: I tried to bring this entry around to a tidy point, but I can't seem to make that happen. As it turns out, I'm just whining about the neverending housework. Go figure.

U no what I h8 about Myspace?

The stupid abbreviations. Maybe they wouldn't anger me so much if I ever used text messaging on my phone. No, I think that the excessive abbreviations are evil and are tearing apart the fabric of America.

Sorry for the hyperbole there. Really, I think the abbreviations are fine on cell phones, but serve no purpose except to appease lazy fingers. And if you are a real internet addict, you should be a good typist in pretty short order. It truly doesn't take more time to type night than nyt. Serously, folks, take a typing class if it's so hard!

I promise to get back to regularly posting here soon (I know, promises, promises). Problem is, most of my writing lately has not been stuff I really want to put out in public. I'm nutty like that. Like I saw on a t-shirt the other day, "I post intimate details of my life on the internet and I don't know why." Ain't it the truth.

ouch.

My throat hurts. Well, the left side of it, at least. Am I the only person on the planet who routinely gets a unilateral sore throat? Both of my ears are plugged, however.

The hubby is home sick today, too. Nora is delighted about that. She only sees the fact that she gets to watch Scooby Doo's Pirate Adventure with him. She sure is a daddy's girl.

It's a good thing I wear $5 shoes

The other day I was walking to work (only about a 10 minute jaunt through my little burg). It was one of those fall rainy days, and I spent the first half of the walk kicking myself for not having driven the car. It was windy and wet and not really fit for humans to be out. About halfway there, I crossed the street and headed up past a local insurance agent's brand new building. I had seen the concrete and bricklaying crews there that week, and noticed that they must have gone inside because of the rain. Or it could have been lunchtime, but that's not important. What is important, however, is the fact that in their haste to leave the worksite, the concrete crew had not put up any barricades on the brand new sidewalk. I assume you can see here this is heading.

Yes, I plonked my right foot (shod in $5.00 black fake-Chuck-Taylors) 4" deep in fresh, wet, concrete. Of course, my left foot had already begun it's next step. Left foot now also 4" deep in fresh, wet, concrete. Now you are wondering, Wwhat exactly does one do after putting both feet ankle deep in wet concrete? I'll tell you.

1. Mumble "shit!" and a few other words of the blue persuasion.
2. Quickly look around to see if anyone is pointing and laughing. (*whew* No one around.)
3. Hop out of the sidewalk as quickly as possible and start walking fast away from the scene of the crime.
4. Do not under any circumstances stop within eyeshot to assess the damage.
5. Once safely away, use napkins from your purse to wipe off anything that would make you look like you escaped a botched mob hit.

And a few days later, when you walk by that sidewalk again, you look like a kid on his first trip up an escalator, because your feet surely do not believe that the concrete is set. They did manage to re-fill my shoe marks.

Tuesday's post

It's cold here now. I think the heat is on for good. *sigh* A couple of weeks and the trees will have no leaves (many of them will be lodged in my gutters), and the short sleeves will be packed away for 6 months. We have the furnace company coming out on Tuesday to give her the old once-over. I wonder if they can get the Yosemite Sam figure out of the heater pipe. My daughter was pretty sad when her little bro sent Sam a-packing down the vent. But mostly, I just hope that they don't find anything seriously wrong. I'm sick of paying people to fix stuff. Aren't we all?

We went to WalMart today. I hate that place. But for us it's a necessary evil. We did find Nora a winter coat. She's so picky, I was afraid we have snow before she saw ome she liked. And I bought some clearance rack shorts for Nigel, too. Now I have to remember where I put them so we'll be able to have them next summer. I really ought to be better organized. Hmmm-- I'll put it on my New Year's resolution list.

A little update

I'm cursed with a complex, I think. Im absolutely convinced that my life is too boring to blg about. But I also feel like I should keep this just in case something interesting happens. Nigel had his second birthday last week. Nora is now too tall for last year's jeans. DH's new job is going well. And he even packs his own lunches. (woo hoo!)

Me? I'm just sitting here with Nigel and his cold, sleeping on my lap. That's right, I'm blogging one-handed! How's that for a party trick?? I made my wallpaper-hanging debut yesterday. That's featured in our house blog. It's important to note that I will never be a professional wallpaper hanger. Not only does it take a level of attention to detail and precision that I do not possess, but it also has my neck very angry with me. I have a yoga class tonight, so I hope to be feeling better after some stretching and meditation.

I can think of nothing else for the moment, so I'll sign off for now. I promise to check in if anything earth-shattering comes up.

Fall is coming!

I'm not a huge fan of winter, but fall sure is nice. We've had the windows open and the air conditioning off for a week now, and today my husband and daughter picked the first pumpkin. She helped start the seed in April, and then helped put them in the ground in May. After checking on it several times a week for a few months, she got to pick a pumpkin. She is so proud of it. Of course I jumped at the chance to take a picture of my girlie with the fruit of her labor. There are about 6 or 8 more out there that will become jack-o-lanterns in October, provided no critters or hooligans wreak havoc upon them.


In no time at all it will be time to break out the flannel jammies and woolen socks. And then I'll start posting about how I wish it were summer. It's a neverending cycle of complaints, I tell ya!

Leftovers

One thing I did not forsee when my husband left the restaurant industry was that he would need to begin taking a lunch to work with him. That means that we need to have food for him to take. Now this represents a problem in two ways. One, we need to remember to get the lunch prepared the night before. Second, I now need to make enough food for dinner that there are leftovers for him to take. The alternative is for him to eat sandwiches at lunch every day. How boring is that? Now I dislike leftovers, as a rule, so in the 10 years of our marriage, I've learned to make just enough for the family to eat at the one sitting. My husband, who is happy to eat reheated, day-old food, has been eating at the restaurant: I never really had to think too much about his nutritional needs. So far, he's taken a salad each day.

This whole lunch-packing thing is going to be a learning experience, for sure.

New job starting today

My husband, after many months of searching, finally found a new job that is not in restaurant management. He started today, managing a warehouse crew. I'm sure he'll be super at it, although he's a bit worried. He's "not already an expert" at this, and that is new territory for him. He'll be done in about 3 hours. I cannot wait to find out how it went.

Lemme tell you about my friend

I have been a part of a couple of internet comunities since late 2002, when my daugher was a wee babe. I've gotten to "know" several women very well in that time. Some of them, just for fun, and some of them because of hard times. In particular, last year, one acquaintance was reeling from some pretty horrible medical news. She had recently found out that she had a genetic predisposition to cancer, and had unfortunately passed the gene on to two of her children.

One day, she had an acute need to talk to someone, so I gave her my yahoo IM name. We chatted a little. We didn't know each other very well at tthat point, but I knew she had a real need to vent about her situation. I don't know if it helped her, but after that, I felt like we were linked. There was now a bond with this woman. In the last year + since, she's had several surgeries, countless different drugs to try to help her cope with the side effects of said surgeries and cancer, as well as a move across the country. As if she doesn't have enough to do, she decided that homeshcooling was the best thing for her kids. I don't know where she gets the energy for all that.

We don't talk much anymore-- she's too busy with life to 'hang out' on inane internet message boards, but I read her blog when I have a chance. And I wish that she lived close enough that I could hug her and make it all easier for her. But I'll have to settle for knowing her online, and drawing strength from her humor and fortitude in the face of a all sorts of crap.

And she's a better writer than I. ;)

How does my garden grow...

While I've been indoors during the heat wave, my veggie garden has been busy. Unfortunately so have the weeds. BUT, I have some tomatoes, and yummy peppers to show for it all. There are teeny jalapenos out there too, not yet ready for picking. And with a little luck, Nora and Nigel will have home-grown jack-o-lanterns this year.

Next year, I hope to have a much larger garden. If I get really ambitious, I might grow all sorts of things, and learn how to put them up in the fall. Grandma Bug will be so proud of me.

It's not 99 degrees today!!!

After we got back from vacation, the nasty stomach flu made ts way through our humble home. Once we all felt better, it was hot that no sane human would go outside. Unless there was free food involved, of course. So finally, FINALLY, everyone is healthy and it is only 76 degrees out. It's supposed to rain again this afternoon, though, so I better get some clothes on the kids and go for that walk before we lose our window of opportunity.

I'm outta here

The house is too stressful. So we're heading off to the lake to boat and swim. I hope to get some good pictures!