Saturday, January 30, 2010

For the love of all that is good and holy, please, PLEASE let the Dude sleep tonight. He’s sick so I haven’t sent him back to the factory, but holy snap, 3 nights of no sleep… I’m about to lose my mind.

Friday, January 29, 2010



I need new shoes, I’ve done my research, and I can’t decide between these two.  Same price, different vibes.  I need a heeled version of my balck mj’s I wear all the time.  I love how hawt number one is, but totally functional and classic.  And number two looks all scholarly and fab, but maybe too trendy?  Which would you pick?

Thursday, January 28, 2010

unforgiven

Ug, Smitty is right.  I remember hearing about Uncle Ted’s bill, and since it’s “household income,” I don’t get to cash in.  Darn Husband for having a good job*.


*Totally being sarcastic.  I am so turned on by his gainful employment, even when it gives him an excuse to buy really, really weird/deadly/sparkly things.

forgiveness?

Anyone catch that bit in the State of the Union where the prez announced the idea that college grads should only have to pay 10% of their income on student loans, and that they should be forgiven after 20 years, or 10 if they go into public service?  I was wondering when I can sign up, what with my current income of zilch?  Purty please??

Wednesday, January 27, 2010



GPOYW - wedding ring edition. What with the cold, the wiping noses and bums, cleaning bottles and washing up 680 times a day, my hands are cracked and raw. And my ring isn’t fitting since I’m freezing, so I haven’t been wearing it lately. This morning in the shower, I remembered how against the whole wedding ring I was back when were engaged. I just don’t like stuff on my hands. But it meant so much to Husband, I put it on. My left hand, even. That’s a pretty big deal for a fiddler. It drives me nuts when I play. But it’s Husband’s Ownership Ring (Homer’s words, not mine), and I gotsta get wearing it, even if it’s making me nuts. I forget how sparkly it is, and just right for my crazy hands. Huh… Kind of like Husband. Drives me nuts, but just right for me.



Sheesh.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

blah

It’s cold.   My brain has frozen and I can’t think.  I am also sure I will never see the sun again.  And there’s an ice cream social Thursday - it’s going to be -3!!!  Good golly.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010



GPOYW - The oooo, lookie at the scarf my man brought me in NYC yesterday! edition. A nice consolation prize for single parenting it for 3 days now ( he’s got a meeting tonight too). sigh…

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Last week we were shopping for a nice wool coat for Husband to look spiffy and warm in.  After we found it, he let me wander off to see if there was something in the women’s dept. that struck my fancy.  Nothing did, but having the freedom to wander alone in a store while he wrangled the kids for a few minutes was luxurious indeed.


When I eventually meandered back to him, he was standing in front of the jewelry counter and asked my opinion of a very sparkly, very fancy necklace.  I looked at it, and at him, and he had this happy, happy expression on his face and I could tell he was thinking of me and our anniversary that week. 


“It’s lovely,” I told him,  “but it’s just too much, and where would I wear it?” as I looked at the stroller full of my loud day and night jobs.


“That doesn’t matter.  Do you like it?” he pressed, and I repeated myself and then he repeated himself.


“At least try it on,” he insisted.


So the nice lady behind the counter came over and gave it to him, and he put it on me.  Sidenote, has a man ever put a necklace on for you?  Surprisingly sweet.


I looked in the mirror and saw me - the 30 year old mother of two, with the plain,  chunky sweater uniform I have to don for the frozen wasteland we live in and circles under my eyes that prove I have a baby - and this necklace that looked like it belonged on someone with a like much more glamorous than little old me.  It sparked though, the likes of which I’ve only seen in the brief moments my wedding ring isn’t covered in baby food and hand lotion.


And I looked at him, smiling broadly at me.  “It’s too much for me,” I repeated.  He shook his head again.


I looked back at myself, and had a flash of myself and what we’d been through in the last 5 years.  For the first time I saw myself as His Wife.  Married.  Mother of his kids.  That doesn’t sink in, no matter how long its been.


Suddenly the necklace just looked like the kind of the a married lady of 5 years wears.   


My smile matched his.  5 years looks good on us.



Persistance



“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”


~ Calvin Coolidge



Pretty sure this isn’t what Calvin had in mind, but yeah.


(via ooliquidnightoo


Photobomb, woohoo!!

update from the frozen tundra

I’m too busy being a stereotype to blog. Mothering, trying to stay ahead of the chaos (not winning that one) and trying to not smash a lamp into my face to brighten up the gloom out here.  So dark, so cold, SO ABOUT TO GO INSANE.  Also, Husband is out of town.  I can manage the 2 on my own, but it’s not condusive to sanity.


Found my keys though.  Lost something else though.  Grr.


Also, the house really is getting scary.  I keep throwing things away in an effort to have less mess, and yet more things appear.  WonderGirl is trying to kill me, I think.  I checked into some housecleaning services to see if they’d fit into our budget because HOLY SNAP we need an intervention here, but it’s not the same as in Brasil.  Our lady there (a dear friend and amazing woman) had a set fee, showed up a few times a week and just cleaned what she saw needed cleaning.  Tidied where it was messy, whatever fit into the time she was going to be there.  Did whatever was left or around the next time, easy.


American cleaning peoples?  They all give me the riot act about how they will NOT touch clutter, they’ll clean only what they put on their contract and the rest is up to me - they won’t even dust something if I don’t take everything off the shelves, etc.  Isn’t that a bit extreme?  If I could do that, I would at least do that - but I’ve found I simply can’t mother and do anything else.  Making dinner can’t even happen most days.  I don’t want to divy up and nickle and dime - can I just pay someone to hang out in my house for a few hours every now and then to tame whatever insanity they can?  I’m not picky, I just need some help.  Is that too much to ask?


I need HELP.  I need a Brasilian. 


Hrm.. conicidentally, WonderGirl is technically a Brasilian citizen.  She’s not that much help with the un-clutter part of the equation, though…

Monday, January 18, 2010



I have frozen ever Mac I’ve ever used.  Once I froze up 7 in a row in the computer lab in college before they asked me to leave!


(via theyahooanswers Submitted by: dailylolpic.tumblr.com)

musichistory: “If I Were a Rich Man” by Zero Mostel [1964] Random Music History Song of the Day I could go dozens of places with this post, but let me start here… Classical music finds its way into more “popular” music more often than one might realize. There are the obvious examples like The Toy’s 1965 hit “A Lover’s Concerto,” for which the melody was taken directly from “Minuet in G,” composed by Christian Petzold in 1725 (often mistakenly attributed to J.S. Bach). There are also less well-known examples. Both “The Free Design’s “Kije’s Ouija” from 1970 (a previous song of the day) and Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas” from ‘75 take their melodies from “Troika,” the fourth movement of Sergei Prokofiev’s 1934 Lieutenant Kijé film score. “If I Were a Rich Man” takes both its style and melody from a theme in the third movement of Gustav Mahler’s 1896 first symphony (click to 2:35 into the linked song), which itself was partly a reworking of the traditional European folk song “Frère Jacques” into a funeral march. Follow all that? The point, then, is that new melodies are hard to come by these days. Where modern artists make their mark is in performance. Zero Mostel’s interpretation of Tevye, the Russian Milkman protagonist in Fiddler on the Roof, won him a Tony Award, and for good reason. The most impressive moment in the entire musical for Mostel came with “If I Were a Rich Man,” a performance so overflowing with personality it became arguably the defining work of Mostel’s career. The small idiosyncrasies he incorporated brought out both the solemnity and humor of Tevye’s life. The fun version of “If I Were a Rich Man” posted here comes from the cast recording of the 1964 original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. I have a ton more fun facts and interesting angles to take on this song (did you know Bea Arthur was an original cast member in the ‘64 Broadway production?), but I suppose this post is long enough already…

musichistory:



“If I Were a Rich Man” by Zero Mostel [1964]


Random Music History Song of the Day


I could go dozens of places with this post, but let me start here… Classical music finds its way into more “popular” music more often than one might realize. There are the obvious examples like The Toy’s 1965 hit “A Lover’s Concerto,” for which the melody was taken directly from “Minuet in G,” composed by Christian Petzold in 1725 (often mistakenly attributed to J.S. Bach). There are also less well-known examples. Both “The Free Design’s “Kije’s Ouija” from 1970 (a previous song of the day) and Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas” from ‘75 take their melodies from “Troika,” the fourth movement of Sergei Prokofiev’s 1934 Lieutenant Kijé film score.


“If I Were a Rich Man” takes both its style and melody from a theme in the third movement of Gustav Mahler’s 1896 first symphony (click to 2:35 into the linked song), which itself was partly a reworking of the traditional European folk song “Frère Jacques” into a funeral march. Follow all that?


The point, then, is that new melodies are hard to come by these days. Where modern artists make their mark is in performance. Zero Mostel’s interpretation of Tevye, the Russian Milkman protagonist in Fiddler on the Roof, won him a Tony Award, and for good reason. The most impressive moment in the entire musical for Mostel came with “If I Were a Rich Man,” a performance so overflowing with personality it became arguably the defining work of Mostel’s career. The small idiosyncrasies he incorporated brought out both the solemnity and humor of Tevye’s life. The fun version of “If I Were a Rich Man” posted here comes from the cast recording of the 1964 original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.


I have a ton more fun facts and interesting angles to take on this song (did you know Bea Arthur was an original cast member in the ‘64 Broadway production?), but I suppose this post is long enough already…


Friday, January 15, 2010

I DID IT. Man, these anniversary videos always take 2 weeks to put together, but this year I just could NOT come up with any ideas. No songs seemed to fit. And then yesterday morning, BLAMMO. It took only a few hours and is therebynot as polished as I would have made it, but regardless, I decree it AWESOME. Some explainations: 1. Why the A-Team theme? Husband is obsessed with Mr. T. OBSESSED. When we were dating, he actually had A-Team sheets on his bed. And I arranged it for my HS orchestra (I was a teacher, remember?) to play at our wedding reception in ATL as a surprise for him. He loved it, FYI. Now, why I used it was this - the first part of this year was HARD. Doesn’t look so much by the pictures, but who takes pictures of the crummy stuff? I was sick and pregnant, and then he was laid off. We had two choices - pray we could to stay in ATL and wait until something happened, or face the facts that the job market in Georgia was awful, so we rennovated our house as much as possible to get it ready to sell and Husband flew all over the country for interviews. It was scary. It was depressing to leave all the people we loved, especially 8 months pregnant. But we did it because it was the right thing to do. The A-Team would have done the same thing. :) 2. And Dare You To Move? Good gravy, did you listen to the lyrics?? Holy make-me-bawl, Batman. We’ve moved 5 times in 5 years. We didn’t want to, but we had to take risks and do what was best for our family. We are not the sedentary kind, I’ve noticed. It’s paid off, and we’ve been extremely blessed. It has NOT been easy. But it has been worth it. PS And the last bit? One of our favorite movies of all time. I mean, we ARE Mormon.





Wednesday, January 13, 2010



GPOYW - the holy-snap-Gabby-made-my-day-and-some-headbands!!! edition. Also, Husband found the pictures, phew. No word on the keys tho…

can't post

I’m going crazy here.  I lost my car keys last week, and I lost all our pictures from November and December, and I can’t begin to find them.  I try to look, but I have to calm, cook, hold.. and I’m so tired I can’t think straight, which is why I’m losing everything in the first place.  I’m about 4 seconds from being institutionalized, seriously.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

HEAR YE. I need to document the fact that I ran 3 miles and didn't feel like death.  So just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I did...