Laurel and I were walking this afternoon to run an errand and saw the B-24 Liberator (Ol' 927) fly out and back from Addison Airport. Crossing the parking lot by the dollar store, she looked close enough to touch and I had to fight the urge to yell "the sound of freedom!".

After that I told her about Uncle Stir, her great-grandmother Dorothy's brother, who was a waist-gunner on a B-24 during World War II.

Thanks for serving, y'all.

I finally got around to picking up a network cable on Christmas Eve. I installed the wireless card through the Add New Hardware wizard, instead of the Linksys CD, and it's worked like a charm since.

While we were preparing Christmas brunch ahead of time, my niece and nephew finally got a Santa photo done at Bass Pro Shops. The third time was the charm for that! (After my previous update, they had gone to see Santa at Southwest Plaza and waited an hour only to learn that the photo printer was not working so they were not offering photos at all.)

We had a lovely Christmas morning with the family, then took Laurel down the hill after lunch to spend the night with her paternal family. She had a great time catching up with them and came home with a new card game to play, Guillotine.

Hung out with the family all day Friday and early Saturday, then saw Amy, Sarah, and the kids off on a road trip to Craig to visit a friend after scrubbing the same trip at Thanksgiving due to weather. After playing text tag on Sunday, I caught up with karaksindru; we hung out for awhile and had dinner at Beau Jo's.

Now Amy, et al are due home this evening, I'm about to head out to the library with Laurel for her to find some sources for a school project on pandas, and we leave Denver early Wednesday morning.

Awful Super Shuttle experience (avoid van 787 in Dallas), uneventful flights. Traffic on I-70 was at a standstill and it took four attempts to get over to an exit lane. Stopped at Carniceria Guadalajara on the way home, where Laurel stuck her fingers in her nose the entire time.

The stomach bug that my parents and brother had gotten earlier last week hit Sarah and Laurel on Saturday, me on Sunday. Did a little shopping on Saturday around taking the littlest kids to see Santa at Colorado Mills, but when we got up to the front of the line, Austin got bashful and Maria puked on me and the floor. Quiet Sunday, pretty quiet today. Laurel still has some stomach upset, I have a sinus headache from the front coming through tomorrow; 4-9" snow predicted between 4-10 PM.

Will post more later. Have to hook my laptop up to a wired LAN connection to reinstall the wireless card that doesn't want to play with WinXP, I'm using my sister's laptop now (and not putting midget pr0n on it).

Courtesy of realta_dubh, A Thanksgiving Meme:

Name the top five things you are most thankful for this year.

1. My family. They put up with my foolishness, call me on my rackets, and love me anyway.

2. Our veterinarian. They were incredibly kind when Maxwell died and were happy with us after the arrival of Squeaky. Squeaky, in turn, was confused by all the people but loved them anyway.

3. Health insurance. I try not to think about how much Vogon's ER visit and subsequent endoscopy would have been without it.

4. My mother. Because she deserves her own line item.

5. Clearance racks. They provide me with a near-endless supply of snark, inexpensive craft supplies and hours of sorting happiness (mostly the $5 "bag-o-parts" from Altex).


What are you thankful for this year?

I procrastinated on finishing Laurel's costume so I did not begin carving this year's pumpkins until Halloween evening.

Not sure of how far I was going to get in one evening, Vogon cleaned two for me and chunked up the third to roast for puree, which is now processed, packed and frozen. My wrist started twinging about half an hour ago, so I have one pumpkin done (Domo-kun), one underway (based on a photo of an 82nd Airborne fun jump at a 2006 airshow), and one or more in the pipeline after we go buy a couple of 2/$5 pumpkins later today.

I'll post photos of all the finished pieces to Flickr sometime Saturday night or Sunday, as well as a photo of Laurel in her costume (she went trick-or-treating without the makeup and hair color, and we'll just do that for photos), but I will leave you with a tease of the in-progress pumpkin:

( Airborne work-in-progress, 63kb .jpg )

Dear Laurel,

Eight years ago today, you were born. In that time, you have more than doubled in height and septupled in weight, developed your own sense of style, and made it abundantly clear that you would like a daybed. (We are working on that last item, but you'll see that when you come home from summer vacation.)

( Read more... )

The same way I spend most weekdays: work a little, nap in the sun, catch the afternoon Law & Order reruns. Vogon came home sick so we didn't have our usual lunch together, but he drove me over to Laurel's school to help out at the class party. I walked home afterward, folded and hung up clean laundry, and went with him to pick up Laurel from her after-school program. We decided on the fly to try out Ruchi Palace, the new Indian restaurant in our neighborhood, for dinner and were pleasantly surprised by their excellent south Indian food. I had the rest of my paneer butter masala for lunch today.

Now that I have caught up on sleep and feel (mostly) human again, there are a few things I want to note before they fall out of my head.

- Our holiday travel dates are 23 Dec and 3 Jan. If you're in Colorado during that period and want to get together, let me know.

- We went to Tokyo One for Thanksgiving dinner. It was, as always, made of win.

- We haven't seen Biko at the outdoor dry food bowl in a few weeks. What I have seen: the ragdoll tom that's been outside for 3+ years, a little brown tabby, a young raccoon, and one visit from a [redacted] opossum. I'm sure none of them appreciate that they're chowing on Iams Weight Control, but hey. Bubby's inside and he's a hefty boy.

- I finally fished out the spare webcam and where is the one person that keeps asking me when I'm going to set it up? Not online tonight. d;

Other than the Vonage service ringing through to my cell phone without ringing in the house first, the ARD meeting by phone has been the easiest meeting ever. It helped that I had the binder of IEP/ARD records on hand so I could ask about last year's speech therapy objectives.

Several apartment complexes in North Dallas saw a spate of tire slashings last night. I wonder if our automotive karma (our tires were slashed a few years ago) protected us. I wouldn't be surprised if our upstairs neighbors' teenager was involved, since we already know that "he's only four-TEEN" and therefore cannot be held responsible for his actions. (Parents, please don't use this as an excuse for letting your children run wild. It is not sufficiently effective in culling them from the herd and annoys everyone else.)

The cleaned-out pumpkin we got in return from the kiddo's class (families were asked to donate pumpkins of various sizes for a class project to familiarize the students with science fair projects) went bad before I got around to it, so I bought two larger pumpkins that are awaiting this year's magic. Without spoiling too much, I'll tell you one is inked up for Dewey decimal classification. Photos tomorrow -- later today, whatever.

Happy birthday, sage_and_sea and revme! I love you guys.

I found some light reading to offer you as an e-gift that is FULL OF AWESOME: "The Trouble with Tribbles" if adapted for television by Edward Gorey, drawn by Shaenon Garrity.

Happy birthday to digitalusrex, greenisgood, kafkadreams, tinder, wanderingrogue, Audrey Tautou and every other Leo celebrating a birthday today.

Thanks to all of you who've left birthday wishes for me on Livejournal and elsewhere on the intarwebs.

In the Evergreen area today? If you pick up a copy of today's News or Post, you can see Laurel on the cover of the YourHub.com print section.

She's wearing a propeller beanie for the Fourth of July in the first and second photos here: http://denver.yourhub.com/Evergreen/Stories/Holidays/Independence-Day/Story~330415.aspx

Dear Laurel,

( Seven years ago today, you were born. )

Note to self: Taste Addison had better music on Friday night. I've seen Blues Traveler live twice, so that would have been okay again. When we were there tonight it was The Valentines, followed by Jon Christopher Davis. The former were forgettable, but the dude? Should have already died of mediocrity. We left before the dude from American Idol came on because we'd had enough mediocre noise.

After we bailed from the festival with Laurel wearing a plush monkey hat (will post a photo soon, it's hilarious), a bunch of adorable bows for Laurel from My Little Lady Bug and some neat wooden roses, we hit Uncle Julio's.

Two things about Uncle Julio's:
- It's louder than hell on a Saturday night;
- They still have amazing service when they're down a server and the waitress for our area was covering at least a dozen tables. Props to John the manager for taking our order and making sure we got our check when we were done.

...

I failed to get the Mother's Day cards out on time, but I did locate Laurel's spring school photos to print and include in them so it's not a wash. My immediate gratification Mother's Day gift was a chair massage at Taste Addison; in the next week or so my gift will arrive -- a pair of Teva Pretty Rugged Leather 2 sandals to replace my well-worn 4-year-old pair. (And to appeal to my thrifty side, I had a 20% off coupon from REI.)

may_lyn mentioned I hadn't posted pictures lately, so here's a bunch of them: Laurel swimming after losing her first tooth, the messages she wrote on Easter eggs, a quick icing job I did on a cake, and a couple of photos from last week's first grade field trip to the Dallas Zoo. (We're going to the zoo again in a few weeks with my Cub Scout den, so I'll get better pictures then. And ride the carousel, since Laurel can't wait to ride the one there.)

( Six photos, 393kb total )

Vogon asked me if I was ever going to upload our New Year's photos. Here's our Christmas and New Year's photos in one fell swoop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddharmonic/sets/72157601006190616/

Despite our originally booked flights being canceled both ways due to weather at their respective destinations, we had a vacation. I've got a bunch of photos and a travelogue post coming, but I want to reassure all of you that I'm alive even though I haven't posted lately.

And now, how we rang in the New Year:

It seems my unspoken New Year's resolution has been to try new things that push my social comfort level, so Vogon took me to the Galleria on New Year's Eve to find a dress for our tradition of ringing in the new year dressed to the nines. The whole experience of shopping in a high-end department store was pretty surreal; I felt quite out of place poking around in my casual dress.

With his encouragement and much giggling on my part at the construction details on some of the dresses we looked at (I know I'm not into modern couture, but wow), we left Nordstrom's with a black sheath that I dug on first sight and a red ruched jersey dress with a deeper v-neckline than I'd pick on my own. I am quite amused that I own more dresses than jeans now.

After the mall, we hit Target for a girls' dress for Laurel and shoes to go with our dresses (black slippers with a beading detail for her, a pair of simple slides for me), then on to New Year's Eve dinner at The Blue Fish, where we thankfully weren't the only family with children in tow. Laurel has been demanding miso ever since, so it's time to either make or pick up a block of plain tofu for that. (:

I got distracted by the Law & Order marathon waiting for midnight and wound up watching a few episodes after Laurel went back to bed after the toast, so we all slept in on New Year's Day and had takeout Chinese for a late lunch/early dinner.

Now I'm getting back into the swing of housework with the return to regular FlyLady zones and getting this month's PTA newsletter ready to go to print. Wish me luck, or at least a respite from Laurel recapping cartoon scenes from memory for me every few minutes. (:

Happy repeal day!

December 5th is the anniversary of the day the United States repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and gave us all the constitutional right to consume alcohol. [trivia source] [image source]

...

I had to turn off the NPR live coverage of the Gates confirmation hearing because I kept typing phrases I found funny into the PTA newsletter I'm preparing for print.

...

I saw trshtwns01 late this morning so I have been dancing around singing "panang" to the tune of that M.I.A. song again, but no-one's around to hear it so you're all safe. T., I'll send you a list of menu options either later tonight or tomorrow.

I looked up my favorite toy store in Denver to find pictures of the menagerie of non-monkey sock animals I mentioned to her. They don't have the rhinoceros I like so much online, but they do have a sock gorilla, a sock turtle, a sock moose, a sock bear and a sock frog. Cute! Last time I was there I bought the "beep-beep car" that's my Travel user icon and Laurel charmed her way into a whole bunch of things, including a pair of castanets that look like a ladybug. I think I like toy stores a little more than the average adult.

...

I dared myself to sit down and type up meeting minutes as soon as I got home from the meeting last night. Around noon, I got an e-mail from one of the recipients of said minutes (which I'd mailed as an attachment with a summary of the actionable items as the main body of the e-mail) that read "Thank you! You rock!" and I am feeling absurdly proud of that.

I'm going to let Laurel get some free time in on the computer before dinner. I'll be around later after tonight's meeting since House is a repeat tonight ("Three Stories", the Carmen Electra cameo episode). It's a rather embarrassing reflection on our cultural literacy that 54% of poll respondents on the House website didn't understand the "thirty pieces of silver" reference at the end of the new episode that aired 28 November 2006. Hint: the episode's title is "Finding Judas". *palm to forehead*

(gently borrowed from may_lyn)

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate, preferably Stephen's Gourmet.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Mommy wraps the presents. Santa's just a carrier like FedEx, only without Andy Spero.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Our tree is pre-lit with white lights. The outdoor lights are alternating swags of blue and white icicle lights.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I haven't in years.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Around the first week of December, then stockings up the night before Christmas. This year I'm feeling lazy and the kiddo and I will be out of town for over a week around the holiday, so we just have our wreath on the door for now.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Sweet potatoes. Not with all the sugary junk on it, just plain cooked sweet potatoes.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: the year my cousin carefully bit the bodies off the chocolate babies on my grandparents' tree.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember not knowing. We talked about Santa, but in an abstract way like Lady Liberty.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Mostly in blue and white -- it's prelit with white lights and we add blue bead garlands, blue and silver glass balls and a blue-robed angel. Laurel adds her special ornaments, like the felt gingerbread kid ornaments I made for her class party last year, and we're good to go.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Eh. I know how to dress appropriately for the weather.

12. Can you ice skate? I'm so-so in figure skates, but I can fake it in hockey skates.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? No. Do you want to my favorite thing I bought someone else as a holiday gift this year? A package of yellow Tonka trucks in just-slightly-larger-than Matchbox car size. I took a page from auntiesiannan to inaugurate my aunthood as the auntie to give them 'gucks.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Gingerbread. Tamales dulces. My grandmother's sticky buns. Tres leches cake.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? It used to be Madrigal Dinner. I'm not sure what it is now, but this weekend I'll be singing wassail anyway because it's ingrained in my brain now. All your figgy pudding are ours. (Someone please assuage my pangs of missing Madrigal again this year. Life your wassailing bowl and think of me.)

17. What tops your tree? An angel.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? I plead the Fifth. (Look, I didn't make a Dan Savage joke!)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Carol of the Bells.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I like peppermint but I'm not really into eating candy canes. I like them for gingerbread house decorating.