Category: Uncategorized

Testing the posting-by-email feature… Let me know if I’m annoying you, OK?

Sorry for the huge pic, there, guys. Hopefully nobody got stuck trying to download that post for five minutes. You dial-up people (and you know who you are) have my sympathy.

So tomorrow morning, we’re going to do the “World Walk for Breastfeeding” at Northwest Plaza, wherever that is. It benefits La Leche League, and we can dig that. Plus, you know how Auggie is just a huge media hog. He’s all about getting his mug on TV. None of that newspaper mention stuff. He’s ready to go big time.

Another totally rad thing about this Blogger Pro deal is that we get a free Blogger micro-ad. Here’s ours:

(Imagine this is a little blue box)

Perfect from now on

Read all about the toddler who is Guided By Voices

And they click on it and they come here! Whoopee!

Tim was like, “Our server only allows 10 concurrent connections.”

I’m like, “I don’t think we need to worry that just yet, baby.”

Auggie’s like, “Da! Ma!” (makes farting sounds on arm)

Woo hoo, impetuousity! I had one of my trademark changes of heart and just decided to buy the dang Blogger Pro already! And it is so neat! I feel totally over my head in geeky goodness already.

So, I’m basically just testing it out right now, while Auggie is sitting on the floor, going through my wallet. He is very deliberately taking out all of the cards and receipts (geez, there are a lot of those…). Yes, I already took out the cash. (Ice cream man!)

Here’s a pic, just to test that dealie out:

Let’s see how it works!

I swear I’ve been blogging every day, I swear! Apparently, we’re having some sort of trouble FTP-ing from Blogger. Hopefully Tim will get this taken care of post-haste Friday morning.

Oh, my, what a day. After an action-packed morning, complete with “where are my interview notes?!” freak-out, Auggie and I hopped in the car to jet down to Cape to see the new cousin. Apparently, his name is still under consideration. And Easton is nursing! That is so wonderful! I hadn’t even let myself hope… Here’s hoping that she sticks with it. I tried to be encouraging, but hopefully did not come off as rabid.

Auggie had his first Wib’s barbecue sandwich! And he loved it! My mom was worried about it being too spicy for him, but she was quickly appeased after the gazpacho story. The thing that makes Wib’s the best barbecue ever is that it’s basically just thinly-sliced smoked pork on toast, with a light spreading of barbecue sauce on the inside of the toast. Mm-Mm! My favorite is the “combination” which is the barbecue sandwich with pimento cheese. I know it sounds weird, but it is so good you just want to melt. Wib’s also used to make the best malts. But no more. Was that a haiku?

The ride home was very stressful, as Auggie cried for 45 miles of the trip. He was constantly chomping on his fingers, so I’m guessing that tooth #6 is working its way toward daylight. Poor little guy.

Anyway, once we were home and everyone was fed, I needed to get some serious work done. So I packed up the iBook and motored up to the local Starbucks concern. I’ve only been to Starbucks once before, so I was a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of things that could be “frappachino-ed.” I ended up going with a mocha frappachino the size of my head and it was mighty tasty. It’s easy to see how they are taking over the world, one four dollar coffee concoction at a time.

I guess that’s it. No big ideas today. No tirades on society’s ills.

Sorry.

So tired…

One more stinking article done. I can’t believe it’s come to this. But, hey, tomorrow’s only the first! I mean, it’s been, like, the 3rd and I haven’t even had the articles started before, so this is a piece of cake, right? I guess I’m just frustrated because every single dang month I pledge to not be scurrying around at the last minute the next month, yet here I am again.

Nuts.

I’m just itching to get down to Cape to see the newest member of my family. My cousin Easton had a baby boy this evening. So he’s my second cousin, yes? I don’t understand all that stuff. Or rather I should say that I don’t care enough to understand that stuff.

His name (the baby’s) is Jovarion. My grandmother was so cute. I was talking to her on the phone about his name and she said, ‘I don’t know if you know this, Beth, but the baby’s biracial.’ I was like, ‘Um, yeah. I kinda got that from the fact that most of our family doesn’t even acknowledge Easton anymore.’ Grandma said that she’s going to call him Joe.

This is something most people don’t know about me. My family is extremely bigoted. Not a big surprise for those of you familiar with southeastern Missouri. To tell you the truth, I have no idea how I didn’t turn out to be the biggest racist on the planet. Yet another bonus point for my incredible mom, I guess.

It’s just hard for me to understand why people even care what race people are anymore. I could make all kinds of excuses for Cape — it’s backwards, it’s conservative, etc. But they’re just that — excuses.

My cousin likes to date African-Americans. Big deal. I liked to date smart guys (married one of ’em too). Did my aunts and uncles ever care about that? Hell no.

Anyway, I don’t want to get up on a moral high-horse here. My family is what it is. You have to take the bad with the good, and all that. I’m just happy that Easton and her son are OK. If you are of the praying sort, though, could you say a quick one for them? With very little money, questionable support from the father and a community that is not exactly welcoming, they’ve got their work cut out for them. They can use every break they can get.

Thinking about Easton and her new baby reminded me of my first night with August. He was born at 6:21 p.m., so by 11, everyone was gone, including Tim, who I sent home to get some sleep. The hospital was quiet, my room was dark, and I was supposed to be getting some rest myself.

But I couldn’t stop staring at my son.

Just watching him breathe.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him, lest he stop breathing at that exact moment. Eventually I did have them take him to the nursery, just so I could try to sleep for an hour or two. I ended up walking down there an hour later to bring him back. I couldn’t stand not having him with me, since he had been with me every moment for the previous 40 weeks. It was like telling them to take your right leg away for a couple of hours. Just didn’t feel right.

Plus, I figured that you never heard about babies dying from SIDS in the hospital anyway.

Now he’s so big. Starting to take those first Frankenstein-esque steps. Or as my brother says, ‘Having a toddler around the house is like living with a drunk.’ He points at stuff he wants to check out. He likes to hang out with his friends.

I can’t believe it’s almost been a year.

Finally! One article has been completed! I’ve found that once I get past the first article, things usually start rolling pretty quickly. And since I need to get all seven articles written and submitted for approval by the end of the week, “quickly” is the operative word. Tomorrow afternoon will pretty much be dedicated to getting these babies done. I may have to send Tim to MoKaBe’s without me… *sigh*

More teething related fun times today, as Auggie took two 45-minute naps today. That just does not cut it for my little guy. He did not want to go down AT ALL. So putting him down for his morning nap was an hour and a half long ordeal. (I know there are supposed to be a lot of hyphens in these adjectival phrases, but I’m just too darn tired to deal.)

You know what font I really like? Chicago. It reminds me of college. Sure, lots of people gave me a hard time, because it’s a big font and it fills up pages more quickly than, say, Times New Roman. But I really just like it because it’s easy to read. I think it’s maybe just a Mac font, anyway, because I haven’t used it in a long time. God, I’m such a geek.

So I know you’re wondering why I didn’t get any work done on those aforementioned articles this evening. Well, let me tell you! We went out to dinner is why. A spectacularly overpriced dinner, at that. You see, someone recently mentioned that TGIFridays was a particularly “child-friendly” restaurant, and I haven’t been to one since, like, 1995. So I figured, what the heck?

Eh.

I was adventurous tonight. I got the gazpacho. It was not so good. Kinda like eating cold salsa. With cucumbers. Not so good.

Then I got some kinda shrimp entree that sounded pretty good. Sauteed in a spicy sauce, with corncakes to balance the spice. Well, the corncakes were WAY too sweet. The shrimp was OK.

So, all in all, I’d recommend sticking with the salads if you are ever forced to eat at TGIFridays. I think I’ll wait another seven years before I go back.

I haven’t checked the odds in Vegas today as to whether I’m odds-on to fail at my every-day-posting pledge today or tomorrow. All I have to say is, bet the farm that I’m going to make it. You know how I love a long shot.

This iBook is not good for my carpal tunnel. I’m occasionally frightened when I imagine the future; all of us with our shriveled, crippled forearms after years of typing nonergonomically. When I had my massage back in May, the therapist massaged my carpal tunnel muscles and it hurt like the dickens. She said that they were really tight. (Like my neck, my back, etc.) Man, I have got to get back for another massage. It was soooo wonderful. (I know, I know, stating the obvious…)

Tonight was a fun night for our little family. Once Tim got home, we all set out on our bikes (Auggie in his trailer) for Grant’s Trail, which is about three miles from our house. We rode down to the end of the trail towards the river, another 3.5 miles. So, all told, we covered about 13 miles today! Woo hoo! And there was

this totally huge hill that I had to use the tiniest gear to make it up. And this mean guy yelled, “Pick another route!’ once we were at the top. I gave him the finger. Not a good example for my son. Bad Mommy.

Anyway, once we got home, I cooked up a Mexican feast — Auggie’s first. And he loved it! He was covered in shredded cheese, refried beans and tortilla once all was said and done.

Now it’s nearly 11 and I need to get off to bed. Auggie woke up at 1 last night and was completely inconsolable. Our best guess was that his tummy hurt, so I brought him back into bed with us, where he nursed all night and I barely slept at all. However, tonight Tim noticed that another tooth had broken through his top gums so there you go! He is teething! Perhaps that explains all the biting! So if he wakes up tonight, we’ll try the gum-numbing stuff first. Poor Auggie.

Still no articles written for my newsletter project… I did go over some of the information I will use to write said articles, however. That’s a step.

I’m such a bloody procrastinator. It’s a sickness, really.

Based on Beth’s post from yesterday, I thought I’d direct you to a couple of fun versions of this page. All are translations from the “Dialectizer”

This page in Cockney

This page in Elmer Fudd

This page in Jive

And Finally, This page in Sweedish Chef!

So I’m all in a tizzy about Blogger Pro. Tim has okayed the purchase, but I feel like I need to justify it in some way before spending the $35. (How frickin’ sad is it that I’m making myself work daily in order to spend $35, when last week I spent $200 on a bike trailer without thinking twice? OK, thrice.) Anyway, the deal is that I have to blog seven days in a row before I sign up for Blogger Pro.

This is all a part of my goal to be a Blog of Note. Is it wrong that this goal is now on my Top 10 Things To Do Before Death List? *scratches head and frowns*

In other developments, one of my friends emailed me last week that if my “cycle” continues to occur in this same 28-day pattern, I will be “cycle-buddies” (my horrible phrase, not hers) with her and another friend. I think I might cry… It sounds like a bad pop ballad, ‘Even though we’re miles away, we still can share this bloating today…’ Where’s Celine Dion when you need her?

Tim and I took the bike trailer on its first official trail ride Saturday morning. Auggie woke up God-awful early and we actually made it out before it got too sweltering. We went down to this new bike trail that starts at Laclede’s Landing and follows the river up to the Chain of Rocks bridge, 11 miles away. Me being the big out-of-shape wimp-o that I am at this point, we only made it 5 miles up the trail. But hey, that’s 10 whole miles! I was completely fried by the time we got back to the car. I could tell that Auggie was impressed, however.

That evening, we hit the official Dave and Shannon are Getting Married Barbeque and had a delightful time meeting up with some long-lost buddies from college. Tim went along for the subsequent bachelor party and spent the rest of the night getting to know some of Brooklyn, Illinois’ more “discriminating” strip clubs. Why am I so fine with this? Because my husband admitted that he spent a lot more time ogling SportsCenter on the TVs instead of the ladies. I know this is completely true, as we do not have cable. Poor Tim.

Robourbon, you have to ask Tim about what happened with Slice… Unbelievable.

Anyway, pressure continues to build inside my skull as I contemplate Auggie’s impending birthday party. Did I mention that we’re having two parties — one for the playgroup on Friday, then family on Saturday? Did I mention that the guest list for Saturday has swelled to 24 people? And that’s close friends and family? Who knew we had that many close friends and family? Que horror!

And I’ve managed to get absolutely no work done this weekend. I’m a louse.

Oh! I happened onto a link to this incredible site called babelfish that will translate anything from English into, like, eight different languages. It reminded me of one of the first Web sites I remember from my early days on the Internet, which was the Swedish Chef translator. Remember the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show? He was totally my favorite! That memory led to another great memory of the ill-fated (and foul-tasting) Swedish Chef “Croonchy Stars” cereal that my brother and I eagerly purchased as youngsters. (Well, my mom actually did the purchasing, but my brother and I did our part by bugging the crap out of her until she did.) Ah, croonchy stars. We kept that box forever. It’s probably still in the pantry at my dad’s house…

Dang. I forgot what I was going to say.

Oh! Now I remember!

As Tim put it, “Your two-year ovary odyssey is over.” That’s a tasteful way of say that I am a member of the Tampax club again. Boo… I was pretty surprised by the whole thing this evening. I mean, the last time was back in October of 2000. October of 2000! Of course, the four weeks of postpartum bleeding help to make up for the lost periods…

I think Tim was thinking that I would be more emotional about it. You know, the whole lamenting another sign that Auggie is getting older thing, etc. I guess I thought I’d be more upset as well. But I’m not. It was almost like the return of an old friend. That just kinda sounds wrong, but, hey, I can’t help what I feel.

I’ll move on…

Auggie has infected his play group! I was bombarded with e-mails today about how everyone’s babies have been sick over the weekend with 102 degree fevers! Egads! Luckily, they have kindly decided to not ostracize us (for Auggie’s sake only, I’m sure). Actually, it seems that a virus is going around with these symptoms and everyone seems to be getting it. I’m still not totally convinced that he was sick, since he was totally fine the next day. The drooling has tapered off, though, with no evidence of new teeth.

So Auggie and I ran around all day (read, I drug him around all day) and ended up selling a load of baby clothes and such at Kangaroo Kids and using the proceeds to help offset the cost of a new bike trailer for Auggie’s birthday! This is actually more of a gift for Tim, so he can get back to riding his bike regularly and not feel guilty about not spending time with the boy. Auggie seemed nonplussed during his inaugural ride, but here’s hoping that he grows to love it.

This evening was also my first time back on a bike in, well, almost 2 years. (No, the coincidence of the two events is not lost on me.) I was pretty “wobbly” as Tim put it. However, he was gracious enough to blame it on the bike’s frame “stretching me out” too far. Thanks, honey. I’m just pretty unsteady on bicycles as a general rule. At least I didn’t fall down this time.

Thanks to Heidi’s husband Dan, who forwarded Webster’s word of the day for July 15: august! I suppose I should print it out and put it in his baby book.