CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Grandma and ALi G hangin'
















You lookin' at me?















The prize winning picture, Ode to Three Goslings

















Just when we were getting used to seeing all her teeth again - POP!

Posted by Picasa

Another Fly By

Well, whew. I probably have about 5 minutes before Ali G wakes up but I'll see how far I can catch up.

  • She started crawling! Finally. She's been skooching around for a couple months now but she hadn't really gotten the hang of the whole up on hands and knees crawl until today, her 11 month b'day incidentally. And of course, 3.4 seconds later she'd pulled herself up on a box in the hall and was going after all the stuff there that moments before had been safely out of reach. Time for baby gates!
  • Dh and I tested for our yellow belts in TKD yesterday. I think we did fine. We certainly practiced a lot. Dh was worried about social promotion butI think he'll find he passed on his merits. Anyway, as yellow belts we get to/have to start sparring so I doubt the master is going to want anyone doing that who really isn't ready. I'm psyched, watching the red belts test was inspiring, they were sparring 2 against 1 and breaking boards and it all just looked too cool. And, as in every class, Ali G and the Bunny were so unnaturally well-behaved. Ali G watched most of the testing just chirping away encouragement and cheering during the sparring. The Bunny was extremely responsive with toys and snacks as needed and they both made me just as proud as a parent can be. Just like always.
  • We've made a little progress on the deck but more on getting the upstairs furnished and comfy. The guest room has a king sized bed, we have a real closet and the Bunny's room is pretty much fully decked out and girly. We could still use storage furniture everywhere but at least we're making a dent.
  • Mom's visit was actually fine. She really helped out with the girls, doing pick-ups and drop-offs and lots of baby watching. I think having a clearly stated purpose other than 'vacation' made all the difference. the only crazy part was her belief that she could have any control over the natural world outside the widow. The day after she arrived the geese appeared with three little goslings. They were adorable but also irresistable to the X dog and within days she'd killed two of them. So Mom made it her job to keep Xoche tied up and any time the Bald Eagles came around she'd go out and scream and wave her hat and make a fuss until they went away. She even made a scare crow to put out in the meadow to stand in for her while we weren't home. But during our final meal on her last day we heard panicked squawking and honking and looked out to see Xoche had pulled her leash free of its tie and was violently killing the last gosling. It was absolutely awful and Mom was beside herself. So that was a bummer of a way to end the visit but probably an inevitable end tot he gosling. I just wished that one of the eagles had gotten it instead, I've been having mixed feelings about the X dog for a long time and it's hard to love her when her wild side takes over.
  • I've pretty much flatlined on making friends it seems. My plan to focus on that got kind of derailed while we were bogged down with dh feeling like an asylum candidate and then I got further adrift while mom was here. The women I have met have been so nice that I'm still hopeful that if I can just put myself out there a bit more it won't be hard to make some real connections but it's been feeling a little lonely this week. I don't know, it's kind of silly. There are so many activities happening here I just don't have time to hit them all so the answer is probably pretty easy, make more effort-get more reward. Right?
  • The Bunny won second prize in a sidewalk art contest that was held a couple weekends ago. She was thrilled to get the ribbon and the prize and it was a joy to see her face light up as she listened to the message telling her she'd won.
Whew! i think that's pretty much the update! As it turned out Ali G slept fine but who knows when she actually woke up since the monitor wasn't on! Doh! Well when I went in to check on her she was sitting up in bed smiling and looking happy and rested so it was all good. But add another chip for my Worst Mommy on the Block candidacy.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Quick Catch up

Well it has been nonstop busy here, and I am left wondering how real bloggers find time to keep things updated daily. Whew.
So we've made a bit of progress on the house now. Dh's bout of unbelievable depression (read panic attacks 24/7 for about 2 weeks) has lightened up as have his allergies. That was rough. It also brought everything to a dead halt around here so I'm glad it's over on all levels.
We pulled the dopey roof off the front of the house, we've added gutters and we dug and poured footings for the deck we're now working on. We had been toying with the idea of shingling the house with cedar shingles but in the end it seems like a very time consuming and expensive project to start with when the stucco is fine. Ugly, but serviceable. And we didn't want to blow all our energy for working on the house on something non-essential. So we're building a deck instead. lol Okay, so that is non-essential too. But at least it will be useful in a way that the shingles wouldn't, and now that we've got the layout figured out (that alone took us weeks to decide) and the foundation mostly done - three holes to go today - it should go pretty fast.

We've also been scoring some terrific deals on kitchen gear. I had been fantasizing about a big 45" or so cooktop for an island but I was getting bummed about the cost (well over $1000 for the ones that looked good to me) plus the added expense of a decent vent (another $1000 or thereabouts) and then my super dreamy wish list item a double wall oven (in the $1500-2500 range) I had basically stopped thinking about it because I didn't want to face the budgeting part. But, now I pretty much have found all of that at the local thrift store! A sweet stainless 47" Jenn Air cooktop with interchangeable elements with a grill and downdraft vent for $100 and a KitchenAid double oven with convection, start/stop timers etc for $250. And they work! Thank goodness Dh knows how to wire them up, I wouldn't have had a clue but he had them each up and running within hours. How awesome is that? My $3000+ kitchen for $350! Now we just have to build an island for the cooktop and a cabinet for the wall ovens. . . and a pantry, and decide on countertops and lighting and flooring and a new sink . . .

And, my mom is here. She had scheduled herself a trip north of here for the end of Oct which was crazy because the place she's renting is hardly a day trip away and because she'll miss all the nice weather here. So I'd asked her to come for a week. She picked the week that dh will be away checking on his mom. So then I thought that maybe it would make her feel good (and help her behave more responsibly) if I asked her to come for a second week while dh was here so that she could be the babysitter while we made some progress. So far the plan seems to be working. She's definitely helping out more than she ever did when we lived in San Miguel. She's not only watching the kids a ton but she's helping wash up after dinner and has even changed a couple diapers (something she never did with the Bunny, she said then, with a wrinkled nose, that she'd changed enough in her life and didn't plan on doing it ever again). So that is real progress. And she seems to really like this place. She says it reminds her of where she grew up in Connecticut so I'm sure all those positive feelings help her ignore the exposed insulation and wiring and subfloors. And the drama happening outside the window has her pretty riveted too.

Our geese, the indignant group of ladies, hatched three goslings the day after my mom arrived. The same day, a group of canadian geese arrived. We hadn't seen them around at all since May but now they're back. We had been guessing that maybe our geese were the culprits in the deaths of the canadians two goslings back in May and so the speculation that the pair had possed up and come back seeking vengance was hard to suppress. Well, the goslings are pretty cute and so it was extremely upsetting yesterday when dh and I discovered the X dog with a dead one in her mouth. She spends her days hunting rodents so it's hardly a stretch to see how tempting a fuzzy little gosling would be but I can't overstate how disappointed I was to see that she'd made the leap. And now I suspect that she was the one who offed the other two too. It was doubly sad too as I had only just saved one of the goslings from a footing hole. The adults were all crowded around the hole honking and flapping and obviously distraught and they all looked relieved and almost grateful when I scooped the little one out and he went flapping and squeaking back to his mom (whichever one she is). There was no doubt that they didn't want to lose one so the thought that maybe geese can't keep track of how many goslings they have kind of went out the window.

Well, my little gosling is awake now too and with that my time for blogging is up. Adios amigos!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Happy 4th of July


Here's me and Ali G after the little 5k we did bright and early. We didn't break any ground speed records but we moved faster than we'd planned and had a good time doing it. And I was happy to give my 2008 Dingo shirt a real workout. Later Ali G got a medal which she wore with pride for the rest of the day.

Do you recognize the Bunny in the bee costume? Her group from camp took part in the parade (which was yet another moment that looked like Hollywood had been hired to do an idyllic small town scene). The parade was remarkably long for such a small town and this year's theme was island pets which meant tons and tons of dogs. Nearly all of them looked thrilled to be there, too bad the X dog isn't really a parade kind of girl and Ninj probably wouldn't have thanked us for taking him either.


Post parade we stopped in at a picnic that was packed with locals. There was music, food and face-painting but we only stayed for a Dove bar and the Bunny had a butterfly painted on her face.


Later that night we drove into town to watch the fireworks over the harbor. The setting was certainly beautiful but as far as fireworks displays go it wasn't any grander than a midsize wedding in San Miguel. But it sure was safe! But it did make us all a little wistful for our rooftop view back in SMA, though I'm sure X dog was very glad that the booms were 3 miles away instead of directly overhead!

All in all it was a nice way to spend the day.
As we drove home from the fireworks the Bunny said,
"So, what was that all about anyway?"

Posted by Picasa

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Sweeties


Can you find the tooth nub in the second picture?
















My little sushi eating monkey nuts. The bunny must have been japanese in a past lie, she gets panicky if she goes too long without her seaweed wrapped rice, raw fish is a bonus but not required.

Posted by Picasa