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me, me, me archives (summaries | full text)

One resolution down, more to go:...

I am SO off the (wagon|rails) with my eating. All the resolutions I make upon waking up each morning have been broken by 11am, which means those of you who'll be seeing me in San Francisco next week will be seeing someone who's at the high end of her "normal" weight range (as opposed to decidedly fat, thank god; that would be 10lbs. northward of where I am now). It's rather unlikely that I'll be at my goal weight...

I'm on Day 2 of 7 where I'm responsible for watching the Beaner from 8:30-11:15am, then working from 11:15 to 7:15 as well as for my usual hour or so after he goes to bed. In order to fit my trip to the gym in and get back and showered before Al has to leave for work, I have to get up at 6:30am....

I'm sure I've probably mentioned this before in passing, but in case I haven't: I'm going to a gym these days. I "won" a six-month membership at the Beaner's school auction ("won" being in quotes because what I won was the auction for the membership, not the membership itself—meaning that it still cost me a decent amount) a couple months ago, and upon returning from our Spring Break trip to Disney World, I started the clock on it....

I finally got the roll of film that was in the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim back, and thus I was able to finish off my My Every Day set on Flickr last night. I then stayed up past midnight clicking through each and every photograph in the set, reading the copious notes under some of them, wondering at the choices I made to represent certain days when there were 20 or 30 or 100 photos to choose from,...

I started the day sleep-deprived (on account of staying up late to see the west-coast Sharks beat the Dallas Stars in overtime—woot!) and a bit depressed, and there was a moment where I almost burst into tears for no particular reason except that I was sad and not liking the feeling. BUT! things improved as the day went on, mostly due to three important factors: (1) Al recognized the malaise and most generously offered to stop the car along...

I have so many things to say, but for one reason or another—discretion, a desire for privacy, laziness, technological hurdles, lack of time, guilt that I should be doing work/playing with my kid/tending my garden instead of blogging—I'm not saying them here. I've been Twittering some of my observations because sometimes it's easier to blurt out a thought in 140 characters or fewer than it is to expound on it (with photographs!) here, but other observations are just stuck...

Yesterday I went to a meeting in New York, a "face-to-face" meeting/discussion/series of presentations with some folks I either don't know at all or have only interacted with via telephone. It occurred to me, when I noticed that one of the other people at the meeting was staring at me, that maybe it wasn't quite proper to be snacking on nuts while taking notes? Later, I wondered if he was staring not so much because of the nuts, but...

As I mentioned in the last post, I spent last week at my company's technology summit in San Jose, CA. Aside from brief internet access on Monday morning and Friday evening (the latter's when I pushed the last post, written Wednesday, live), I lived on my iPhone. I'm thrilled that that was even possible, but not having anywhere to download all the photos from my camera and having very little time to get my blog thoughts together means that...

Short-answer questions from Unit 2 of my online C++ course, and my short answers:...

Hey, want to see me making a total fool out of myself? I knew you would! Al, the Beaner, and I played several games of Dora on Sunday morning, with the Beaner assigning us various roles ("ok, this time I will be Swiper and Daddy will be Dora and Mommy will be Boots") and the three of us acting out Beaner-defined adventures. Here's me in the role of Dora, after Swiper (the Beaner) stole my toy Lexus that Boots...

If someone suggests that you take an online course, especially one in some type of programming language, please remember to stick to your guns and say NO firmly and unequivocally. Whatever happens, DO NOT CAVE. Your happiness and well-being depends on this....

I, like many others, tend to complain when I'm sick but forget to celebrate when I'm healthy. You notice the headache, but not when the headache goes away, as it were. The same is true for my bouts of depression; when I'm low, I know it, and it weighs on me, often dragging me down further. When I'm not, I don't really notice, and I certainly forget to mention it. You can probably guess just from the tenor of...

For any of you who were curious, the doctor just called: It was indeed strep throat. Luckily the antibiotics did the trick, and I'm fine now. Just a little lingering goo from the cold/sinus infection that preceded the strep, but that's manageable....

I've been really sick for the past few days with what I at first took for strep throat, but which I now think was probably a major sinus infection. The latter makes more sense, as the Beaner had all the same symptoms *except* for the sore throat, and the icky green goo was coming out of his nose instead of going down the back of his throat, as it was in my case....

I realized this morning that all the (non-work) projects on my list involve re-designing/re-configuring. Apparently I am in need of change. I want to rearrange my office, get a new chair, and get an L for my current desk so I have actual space for all my computers. Currently my MacBook is up on a pantry rack, both to keep it cool and so that I have space for two mice underneath; my personal laptop is on the too-high-for-a-seated-person...

I'm starting to find my footing again at work, but at the same time I find myself wishing I could have more time off. Running the household, I found in 2003-2004, is a full- time (or nearly full-time) gig. Why I think I can do it competently while also taking on more responsibility at work, I'll probably never understand, but that's my expectation....

So I've been packing on the poundage lately, most likely because (a) I've been depressed, (b) I've been sedentary (well, I *did* start walking daily in August and playing hockey in September, but before that my injured ankle made me less active than usual), and (c) I can't seem to get the pregnancy and nursing nutrition guidelines, wherein fat = good, out of my brain. I haven't been nursing the Beaner since December, 2005, and yet I'm still eating...

For those of you wondering what happened at Target on Friday—did we get party hats? did we get presents?—an update. It was not necessary to buy presents at Target because when I came down to the kitchen at the (early) end of my workday, I found a bag from the AT&T store sitting on the counter. I tracked Al down and said, "did you buy me an iPhone?" He smiled and nodded....

Last night when I put the Beaner to bed I told him that tomorrow would be my birthday, so when I came in to wake him up in the morning, I'd say, "good morning, sunshine!", and he could reply, "happy birthday, Mommy!"...

I'm back from San Francisco and eager to see if the trip helps me get through this week. I suspect it will, if for no other reason than I have some small, specific tasks to work on which will be relatively easy to complete. Many small successes are exactly what I need right now....

Yeah. Title says it all, really. I didn't explain in my last post that one of the things that cheered me up on Friday was the decision very late Thursday night, after the disastrous work day, to fly out to the SF office for a week. I used frequent flier miles, I was so desperate to get out here and see my colleagues. So far it's helping; I'll have a better idea of where I'm at when I return...

The purple is in....

This photo is very compelling to me right now. I need to print it out and hang it on my wall....

I was saying to a friend today that it feels like for every step forward I take, I take another (bigger?) one backwards. Maybe because I get excited about being happy for a bit, and think it's going to last... and when it doesn't, I'm disappointed in addition to sad. I'm hoping that eventually the steps forward will be bigger than the ones backward. I'm clinging to that....

Just a quick post to say that I'm still alive, if not exactly thriving. I actually feel like I'm coming apart at the seams a bit—the demands of work, speaking, motherhood, housework, travel, and my spouse's work have combined to suck me very nearly dry....

I've got the blurry vision that precedes a migraine right now, which means that half the screen is obscured. Please forgive any typos; I'm trusting my touch-typing skills, which seem to be getting worse the longer I work on computers....

A couple hours ago, I was frantic, on edge, in tears. Over code, and over all the things that were due tomorrow (and partly due to falling hard off the low-sugar wagon). It's amazing what letting go (and a little real food) can do for you. The to-do list is still there, some of the code mysteries remain unsolved, I'm still not fully packed for our trip tomorrow, and the Red Sox are losing....

I don't think I even had time to mention that we were back from Denver (and that I sort of solved my strapless dress + sunburn problem) before I took off again for Seattle. I arrived home again tonight hot, nauseous, and not wanting to go on another trip again for awhile. (Hopefully the two roadtrips we have planned for later this month won't be as tiring as all the timezone-crossing plane travel I've been doing lately. Also, only...

I swear, I put on two coats of Coppertone Sport SPF 50 before going outside. But two hours of this:...

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SIT CROSS-LEGGED WHILE FIXING BUGS LATE AT NIGHT....

So a few weeks ago, when I was in San Francisco (i.e., away from my normal personal laptop with its handy mail filters), I got an e-mail from someone wanting to know if I wanted to help NPR. I deleted the message as spam without reading it. A week later, I got another e-mail with the same subject (prepended this time with Re:)... and from the same sender. This time I decided to check out the headers and maybe...

So as the caption on this photo explains, the ankle was painful enough on Saturday morning that I returned to crutches for the weekend. I think this was a good choice in any case, because we went down to visit my in-laws, and it's hard to imagine getting around their giant house—not to mention the stores, driveways, sidewalks, restaurants, and parking lots I had to navigate—with a bandaged-and-besocked foot sans crutches....

Dudes, I am walking around without crutches today!...

Every time I have a string of migraines, I resolve to write them down on the calendar to see if I can discern a pattern... and then I don't have one for awhile, and the resolve goes out the window. Sadly, I find myself resolving again today, as this is the third migraine I've had in the past couple months. This one, unlike the other two, is centered in my head, and is more typical of the kind I...

I was a little worried that (a) my ankle wouldn't be healed in time for the Vancouver tournament, and (b) that all this sitting around would leave me out of shape even if it did heal in time. (a) is still a possibility, but I don't think (b) is. GOOD LORD, getting around on crutches and up and down our stairs is strenuous! I feel like I ate a ton of food yesterday (again, while worried about (b)), but...

Things I wish I'd done before spraining my ankle last night at open hockey:...

OK, obviously I'm behind on blogging—after a week running around San Francisco meeting friends and former work colleagues for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and meeting current work colleagues for, well, meetings, I have a gazillion photos to upload and a few stories to tell. I also have the day off, but I chose to get a massage this morning to help mitigate the after-effects of Friday's migraine, vacuum the remodeling dust off every surface in the house, get caught...

Can I just say how much I HATE the fact that Al is considered the Taxpayer, and I am considered the Taxpayer's Spouse, when it is I who prepare our taxes every year? I am constantly misreading instructions in TurboTax and every other tax-related form I receive (hello, I'm talking to YOU, City of Philadelphia School Income Tax Form) because I mistake the you in "Do you or your spouse..." for me. "Your income" is not MY income, but...

Many people can claim to be accident prone. I am FREAK accident-prone. I am sometimes reluctant to describe how I got the various bruises, scratches, and other visible injuries to my body because they either sound so stupid as to be embarrassing, or because no one would believe me if I told them. It's not so much the actual injury-causing thing, most times, that's the unbelievable part. It's the HOW of the story that's nutty....

Last week I called Toppers Spa here in Philadelphia (the one on 19th Street) to make an appointment with my favorite massage therapist, Regina, whom I visit monthly. I've learned that it's impossible to schedule my next month's appointment directly after my massage because Regina's not in the system. (My theory is that they save her for last-minute appointments, based on my experience of being able to get one with her with less than 24 hours' notice.)...

I've been reading the surprisingly absorbing Cryptonomicon, and the other night I came across this paragraph, which hit me like a sledgehammer:...

I actually have a lump in my throat right now and feel ready to cry... over mouse software. It's bad enough that MouseWorks, the software that drives my beloved Kensington Expert Mouse, conflicts with the Acrobat Connect Add-In (which I need for work). Now Logitech's MouseWare is conflicting with an application that I also need to use for work. In this case it's not causing the application to crash, as MouseWorks caused the Add-In to do, but it's severely...

Julie commented almost instantaneously on my last post, asking that evidence of my long, thick hair be presented. I actually went searching through my mom's old photo albums when I was at her house last weekend looking for evidence of bershon, but I discovered that mom had thrown most of them out. Sadly, she assumed nobody would want to see me with a sour teenage bershon face, so she didn't even check to see if I wanted them....

Have I mentioned that I'm in the process of replacing my entire stock of tops (shirts, sweaters, etc.) with offerings from Gap Tall? I'm doing this because now that I have three shirts whose sleeves reach my wrists, I WANT MORE. Suddenly all the shirts and sweaters that have always been a little short in the torso and the arms look even more ridiculous than they did before, because now I know that there's an alternative....

I spent TWO HOURS today trying to write a short bio for myself. I'm still not finished. Why, oh why can I not adequately describe my current position, experience, and expertise in three or four brief sentences?...

Since I regularly mix a bit of foundation with my moisturizer, smear it on my face, and call it makeup, I was intrigued when I saw Neutrogena Healthy Skin Enhancer Tinted Moisturizer on drugstore.com. I was shopping during the 20%-off-your-entire-order sale, so I bought one. Unfortunately, "Light to Neutral" turned out to be about 40 shades darker than my actual skin tone, and I didn't realize that drugstore.com guaranteed the color of makeup, so I threw out the packing...

I should be clear up front that I am *not* soliciting gifts with this list; rather, I'm just trying to have one spot where my family can go to find out what kinds of things are on my wish list (year-round, not just at Christmas time). The dilemma I've always had at birthdays and Christmas is that pretty much anything I wanted that was under $200 I'd already bought for myself, and anything over $200 was too expensive to...

As I suspected would happen, I'm actually finding it harder to blog on the weekend, when I theoretically have no other obligations, than I do during the work week, when I'm supposed to be, well, working. I can think of plenty of things to write about on the weekends, but finding the time to actually write about them is difficult because I'm on parent duty, and I don't want to be too selfish with my personal time. I already...

I'm still at MAX, dashing around trying to get to sessions and worrying about whether I'll be able to get my suitcase out of check in time to catch a cab to the airport in time for a 4pm flight, so I keep forgetting it's my birthday. I'm 38 today! Happy birthday also to my former colleague Victor Grigorieff, and to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton....

The Good News: My MOO cards came yesterday, and they're SPECTACULAR. For some reason my Flickr buddy icon didn't print as requested, but most of the photos came out great. (See below for the details.) The cards are made of that wonderful plastic-coated pearl-finish paper that's used for trade paperback book covers these days (though these feel even thicker than a book cover), and they're positively divine to rub between your fingers. I can't wait to stick a few...

Whatever could have possessed me to brag to my allergist that I hadn't used my rescue inhaler more than twice since I'd last seen him (3 months before), and that I'd stopped taking the Advair entirely—especially on the eve of the fall allergy season? Not two days after that visit, I started having trouble breathing, even though I followed his suggestion to start up the Advair again. Al thought it might be *because* of the Advair, which seemed a...

Al took this photo of my sister and me with his cameraphone a couple weekends ago. Even though it's not the most flattering snap of either of us, I love it. Maybe it's the way we're interacting, or the fact that we're looking at the photos she took earlier that day, or that you can kinda see the resemblence between us. Whatever it is, I'm so glad he captured it....

Suddenly it's clear to me why grocery-store checkers say, "thank you, sir" when handing me my receipt. I can't blame ratphooey for my haircut or my bone structure, but I *can* blame her for linking to this:...

I was already pretty sure that I didn't want to drive down to North Carolina in what is already turning out to be an overscheduled October for my 20th high school reunion, but the invitation addressed to Lori Cho that arrived today cemented it for me. It just confirms that my classmates don't have any idea who I am....

Because you asked so nicely....

Just made my weekly visit to foggyknit's site and realized I'd been tagged for this:...

As a kid, I was NOT a fan of Star Trek. I WAS a fan of Star Wars, and it used to bug me royally when people would confuse the two or mistake me for a Trekkie. After I married Al, however, Star Trek started to grow on me a little. It's still probably not a show I'd ever watch on my own, but I enjoy watching it with Al, who explains all the relationships between the characters and...

First, let me say: You know it's going to be a scorcher when you're forced to seek the shady side of the street at 7:30am. Phew! Second: This isn't a humorous post, and it'll probably be totally boring to everybody but me, but I wanted to write about this subject, SO I AM. Feel free to move along....

I almost got all freaked out over possibly being the worst-dressed person at BlogHer (you mean my purple Adidas sneakers are too schleppy? a fitted t-shirt from REI is too casual?), but you know what? I'm not going to suddenly get a fabulous wardrobe in the next 5 hours, and I refuse to pack 5 pairs of shoes and every Prada shirt that Al's brother ever handed down to me just in case. (I'm already packing my walking sneakers...

I will not be real-time blogging today, a la amalah, because, although real-time blogging is often hi-fucking-larious, it will in no way calm me down, help me pack, or prepare me for BlogHer. Trust me: Real-time blogging only adds to the stress....

None of the hair products I currently own work quite right with my new haircut, so I decided to try d:fi, a product that a good friend's (ex-)girlfriend and Mrs. Kennedy happened to recommended in the same week back in March. I'm allergic to the vast majority of hair products, but tales of a piña colada scent sounded appealing (one of the few products I can tolerate smells like pineapple Life Savers, and in my mind piña colada =...

So I'm sitting here at my desk on the top floor of our house, quietly fixing bugs, when a bug of the actual insect variety suddenly FLIES RIGHT AT ME, out of nowhere. I shrieked, of course, especially when I realized it was a WASP. I finally got him with a rolled-up stack of source code printouts, but not before several misses that really seemed to piss him off. I'm still kind of freaked out. Where the hell did...

Exhibit A: Scorching sunbeams...

For anyone who's been following along with my tales of BlogHer anxiety, I have an update: I think talking about them here has really helped (hey, maybe that's why therapy works? hmmmm). That, and looking at photos of last year's BlogHer on Flickr. Doesn't look so intimidating....

Eson asked in a comment on the shoes post, "what is this BlogHer that you and others talk so much about, and why not want to go?", and I was in the middle of replying to the comment when I decided that really, this demanded an entire post....

[Yes, I'm drinking decaf again, though I'm back to the 3 or 4 parts milk:1 part coffee ratio I thought I'd evolved from when I went to short decaf lattes*.] I love my cozy little nook of an office in what I call the gallery, a 100" x 75" (yes, ", not ') space with a window at the top of the stairs, but goddamn is it hot up here. There's an air conditioning vent just to the right...

As I was getting dressed for my walk this morning, it occurred to me that BlogHer is only three weekends away... and I totally panicked. My first thought was, "I DON'T WANT TO GO," and then the following internal conversation ensued:...

I mentioned in the post about the migraine that usually caffeine causes headaches (though not usually migraines) for me. It's why I'm a dedicated decaf drinker, though I do worry that lately I've been getting more caffeine than usual given my now daily Starbucks runs. (Even decaf coffee has a little caffeine in it.)...

The vision in my left eye is so kaleidescopic right now that it's difficult to see to type this, so don't be surprised if there are many typos. I'm going mostly by feel and what I can see out of my right eye. I'm having a crazy migraine—one that so far has produced not one but two bouts of blurry vision....

I don't feel old. I'm 37 and a half, but I feel like I'm still in my late twenties, and I'm told I don't look older than 30. Every now and then, however, just how long I've actually been alive and doing things hits me. Like this morning, when I was searching for a t-shirt to wear on my morning walk, and I hit on my bright pink Rugby Ball shirt... from 1989....

Before heading out to Deep Cove (the suggestion of the guy at the front desk) this morning, I took some more photos of the bruise on my butt. I think this one shows the damage pretty well, as well as the migration of the bruise into the previously-swollen area just above my tailbone. I think you can also see the knob pretty clearly, even though this photo was taken head-on (or butt-on, as the case may be...)....

It's difficult to show the injury to my butt without mooning the entire Internet (and even harder to photograph your own butt), but I think I've got something that's cropped enough to show some of the damage without violating any obscenity laws. Because of the cropping, it's hard to tell the relative size and position of the injury, so I'll do my best to describe it. The bruising you see is in a sling-like shape under the knob. In...

The knob on my butt: is getting bigger, not smaller. has turned black at the bottom. is very tender. still looks like I'm trying to grow a third ass cheek....

I fell down the stairs AGAIN this morning. I was tiptoeing out of our bedroom so as not to wake Austen (who'd come down at six and then fallen asleep again), with my sneakers and socks in one hand and some cash and my Starbucks card in the other. I'd noticed on several occasions recently that when my feet are dry, the wood floors—and especially the wood stairs—become very slippery, so I should have been more careful here. Of...

There's been a lot of walking going on here at Casa Hylan-Cho. It started a couple weeks ago, when I finally figured out how to work some exercise into my day: go to bed earlier. (Duh! Although, as you've probably noticed, going to bed earlier means less blogging.) I now get up when Al and Austen do, put on my exercise clothes, and go out for a walk/jog/hop/whatever. Usually I end my route at a Starbucks, where I purchase...

I'm not sure why I have enough time to read through my old blogger archives, buy a new webcam, revive (and redesign) the webcam archives (formerly "the gallery of silly faces," now dubbed "a history of hair", though there are plenty of silly faces still in there), and otherwise procrastinate, but I don't have time to write about all the new words Austen has learned, the fact that my upper back is ABSOLUTELY KILLING ME, the list of things...

It's been a busy week here, both workwise and familywise; I can barely keep up with my personal e-mail, and I obviously haven't had time to write here. If I owe you an e-mail response, please sit tight (or send me a reminder). I'm going to use the time I would have otherwise spent on answering an e-mail or two to give an update here before I forget all the things I wanted to say. Be warned: this is...

I should preface this post by saying that I am more or less following a plan to get control of my mood swings, irritability, occasional bouts of depression, and generally erratic behavior, and that this plan involves eating a potato every night at bedtime. The potato is designed to boost my serotonin levels a bit—emphasis on a bit. Too much potato = too much serotonin = headaches and wild dreams. So this could all just be the potato talking....

We arrived safely home—but sick—from San Francisco on Sunday night. Austen caught a cold on his second day in SF, and he passed it on to me on Friday night. For some reason the version I got was more virlulent, and... well, you probably don't want to know the color or quantity of the goo I'm now hacking up with every coughing fit. Never have I been more glad that I work at home, where I can drag my...

I keep remembering new behaviors that Austen exhibited for the first time during his 15th month of life which I neglected to mention in my 15 month update (or anywhere else—I haven't been writing in my little bedside journal regularly lately, either). I figure I'd better record them somewhere before I forget, and here seems as good a place as any. The main three that have come to mind in the past 24 hours:...

I am feeling so overwhelmed by the backlog of blog posts waiting to be written that every time I get a chance to actually write one, I end up reading other blogs instead of writing in my own. So yes, I am WELL AWARE that I owe y'all (and myself) a Vacation Summary, Part 2 and an Austen @ 15 Months update, not to mention various and sundry other observations that have been piling up on little slips of...

OK, so here's where I admit that I occasionally do wish that I were one of the Cool Kids. Most of the time I'm like, "yeah, I know the cool kids, but I don't hang out with them. Because, you know, I've got my own stuff to do," but lately several of my favorite blogs have all been doing the Four Things Meme, and I confess I was feeling a little left out. Although no one's technically tagged me,...

Avid fans of Sesame Street will recognize the title of this post as the line that the Count sings to the Countess after the number 14, which makes it appropriate for a summary of Austen's 14th month of being. (It's also, incidentally, the title of a Cole Porter song.)...

From about 9pm to 1am last night, I was plagued with what I can only assume was food poisoning. I'm guessing—but cannot prove—that the culprit was a Brazilian Shrimp Burrito from Whole Foods; I got a bad one once before and almost swore off them completely back then. I *will* be swearing off them completely from now on. I was worried that I might never be able to eat another orange as well after last night's drama—an orange being...

As promised, here are the before and after photos from Austen and Lori's Haircut Adventure. The cut I got is very similar to the one I got in May, only with shorter bangs and the part on the opposite side. (I kinda wish she'd left the bangs a bit longer, but I think she did it this way to even them up—they were shorter on the right than the left.) Austen got his cut while sitting on my lap...

We are all sick here at Casa Hylan-Cho. Austen has been sick almost continuously since he caught the cold I had at Christmas, and I have been sick off and on with various chest and sinus afflictions since before that. At the moment, Al's the sickest of us all; he's been home from work for a couple days now. I've been washing my hands like a maniac, but as I've said to Al, that doesn't help so much when...

A bit of memery copied from ratphooey. My favorites are #s 4, 6, and 9. They seem the most plausible, don't you think?...

I had a dream last night that the plan to hire me back full-time at my old company had been delayed, and that in the meantime I was going to contract for them. My boss' boss asked me what I proposed for an hourly rate. After doing some quick math in my head that involved my old salary*, I came up with $6.50 an hour....

This just came through the mail slot:...

Austen and I went to watch Al's hockey game at the University of Pennsylvania's Class of 1923 Ice Rink tonight. Toward the end of the game, Austen started melting down, so I put him in the stroller and walked him around outside for a bit. I'd just come back in and was standing by the glass near the entrance when I noticed a woman in the stands above me... holding a large bar of one of my favorite kinds...

Happy birthday to Hillary Rodham Clinton (58), Victor Grigorieff (35, I believe), and me (37). And anyone else who was born on October 26, too!...

I was so PROUD of myself last night for making exactly the meal I wanted from ingredients I already had in the house. I sliced a medium onion (with a knife), sauteed it until browned in a saucepan with a little butter and olive oil, and then added a can of vegetable broth, a dash of dry sherry, and a few grinds of pepper, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I then topped it with a toasted...

I was thinking that I hadn't spent the time during which the babysitter was here today very wisely—I mostly finished the post I started last night for this blog, vacuumed, worked on improving the layout and navigation over at the ice hockey escapades, started but didn't finish a note to Valerie, and moped about having a cold—but as it turns out, this was probably a pretty good use of my time. It's not even midnight yet, and since the...

Suddenly the somber mood of my previous post makes sense: I've got a migraine coming on....

Our babysitter (whom Austen and I really, really like) was on vacation. Our Mac Mini had a serious hard drive error that prevented it from starting up, that required a three-hour visit to the Apple store just to get most of the data backed up, and that required a complete reformat of the hard drive. Luckily, almost all of the photos I've taken over the past 8 months were salvaged, as was all the iTunes music. We'll be backing...

Last night, when I fell down the stairs for the second time in as many days, Al was there to pick me up off the floor. This time slippery socks were the culprit (it's why I usually wear shoes in the house, to my mother-in-law's horror). Basically, last night's fall was almost entirely different from the day before's; the only thing they had in common were that they were falls down stairs. A quick comparison:   Wednesday Fall Thursday...

Cleaning up the house and changing sheets on the guest bed in preparation for a brief visit from the baby's godmother (my friend Sandra). Buying a video camera (it's required when you have kids). Attending (with godmother in tow) the baby shower my sister threw for Al and me at her house in Maryland. (My sister really outdid herself, I must say. Fabulous gig.) Picking up essential items that we didn't receive as gifts at the shower (we specifically...