to sleep...perchance to sleep

No, I meant it that way.

One Minute Writer for yesterday: If you could hire a full-time assistant, what would her duties be?

I'd have her sleep for me. Wouldn't that be loverly? For the last few days, I've been on the verge of some major panic/anxiety, so my sleep has been screwy. Finally, last night, Insomnia hit me over the head with a frying pan with all of her might. Why? Why did she feel this was necessary? I didn't get to sleep until four. Ugh.

So, I woke up forever late today and dragged myself through the day. I bought school supplies as Target. Buying school supplies has always been one of my most favorite things. I have been this way since we used to get those lists in elementary school (tissue, pencil box, 8-pack crayons, ecc). I don't really approach any other kind of shopping this way.

Then, Pic and I went to Goodwill and Savers, in search of Minnie Mouse's pink dress. Of course. Pic has been enthralled with The Three Musketeers lately and this particular dress is her new fixation (well, that and Belle's yellow wedding dress...they're all wedding dresses to her, so just accept it). We often head over to these thrift stores in search of 'wedding' dresses. Today, we bought several new books, of course, but that's about it.

We had taken Cardo to work today, because the car is no longer fixed or even 'fixed.' Recently, he replaced the working-perfectly spark plugs with some worthless-lumps-of-metal-and-stuff spark plugs. Why he did this, I'm still not sure because I thought that he and Mr M had decided that the spark plugs were the problem before. The car was working just fine. The working plugs have been replaced but now he suspects that the fuel injectors need to be replaced. Ugh. Ughity-ugh.

Anyhow, Pic and I had eaten at about eleven. We dropped Cardo off a bit after one-thirty. By the time all of our errands had been run, it was five. We had oatmeal for dinner and we didn't eat until almost six. And, let me tell you all the secret to getting my very light eater to actually eat: starve her for about six hours. We had beverages, but no food in that time. By the time we got back to the apartment, I was getting a bit loopy (having had peanut butter toast and water for breakfast). We had oatmeal with (homemade) applesauce, granola and a bit of maple syrup for dinner. She never finishes her entire bowl of oatmeal, but she did tonight.

Ah, Supermamma strikes again!

Anyhow, I'm in for another long night, I think. (When can I just give up on this whole sleep thing?) So, here's what's keeping me company:

fussy archives

Pitchfork's 100 best songs of 2008

Signs of Life in the USA

and the lack of proper words

I'm at a loss for the words I need here. What the crap is wrong with Ann Coulter? I have to admit that I'm not a big follower of many public figures, so I've managed, mostly, to avoid Coulter's venom, but I saw this on Storked! What...? I just don't have the words, people. Then, I went to Ann Coulter's website (a huge mistake). I couldn't stay for long. There is an advertisement for a t-shirt that says, "I'D RATHER BE WATERBOARDING." So, now I'm going to be sick. I just don't understand.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Edit: Okay, I'm still watching this. B. Hussein Obama? Really? This is how she's going to refer to him? Yes, we get that that's his middle name, no one was hiding that.

Also, the point I'm at now, near the end, she's grateful that Bush has kept us safe for the last eight years. Um, yeah, except that whole September 11th thing.* Except taking us into war.

Also, maybe the problem isn't single mothers (duh) but the way our society views families as a whole. The way we don't really have the 'it takes a village' attitude about raising kids. We're kind of on our own, needing to force our ways into communities of support. We're so individualistic. I don't know what the answer is, but I don't think that single mothers are to blame, I think that there is a deeper-lying problem.

Argh. My whole body is tense now. It's a good thing I'm almost finished watching this. I have to say that I love that Matt Lauer is also so riled up.

* I use the term 'thing' because I'm upset with Coulter. Please read that sardonically.

ah, words

Okay, so there's this entry in No One Cares What You Had for Lunch (which I finally now actually own), asking which phrases of old we'd like to see back in vogue. So, I'm just choosing whatever phrases/words I choose, no matter the age. Here goes.

I have been reading (very slowly, yet determinedly) Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and at one point, the awkward servants from the North were reported to say 'sparrowgrass' instead of 'asparagus.' So, henceforth, I shall be indulging in makes-my-pee-smell-funny sparrowgrass.

I was watching There's Something about Mary yesterday (don't ask, it was on...we were in a land where cable was to be had), and we must have been watching it on TBS or something because the expletives had been replaced in a sometimes highly amusing way. At one point, Ben Stiller's character accuses another character of being a 'frogging ashpole!' Alrighty, then. I'm pretty certain that wasn't was he originally said, no?

I was just reading one of the blogs I frequent and the blogger ends her most recent post with 'it just doesn't cut the mustard.' This is a phrase from my childhood, and there's a little nostalgia pot inside of me that is stirred up when I hear this phrase (y'know...or something).

So, another one from my childhood. When I very prematurely forced my way out of my mother's womb (sorry Mom), and my parents saw that they had a girl, my dad told my mom that he was 'happier than a pig in shit.' My mom had to confirm that that was a good thing.

Okay, one more example for now. If Cardo or I startle Pic, she'll tell us, 'You scared my life' or 'You scared my heart.' We now all use these phrases.

What about youse guys? Any contenders?

ah, flashbacks

Once, when I was in elementary school, we were doing some kind of 'what if?' game. If I had to choose between losing my sight and losing my hearing which would I choose? I always hated this question. Why would I have to make such a choice? What kind of weird supernatural weapon would be aimed at my temple making such a decision necessary?

Anyhow, a recent One Minute Writer posed the question of which sense I'd choose, among my five, to get rid of if I had to. So, I suppose I'll play along.

I never wanted to get rid of my sight. I think it's because my sight is already so completely screwed up (and, yes, it was already bad in elementary school...I've been wearing corrective lenses since I was seven) that I'm afraid to lose what little I have left. I love food too much to want to give up taste. Smell is so connected with memory -- or so it seems -- that I think I'll keep that one also. It might be weird to not have a sense of touch, so that leaves me with sound. It would be weird to live in a silent world, I think, after I've had so many years of hearing. However, I know a little sign language* and if the music is loud enough, I'll be able to feel the rhythm of the music anyway, right?

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* Granted, I'd have to learn more than just the alphabet and a few random signs in ASL, right? Probably. Or, I could just take sticky-notes with me everywhere I go and use those in conversation (ah, Grey's Anatomy, one thing I might miss with this whole fuzzy tv thing...except for the Izzie and Denny plot, otherwise known as the Grey's-Anatomy-jumps-the-shark plot).

again with the tampon box

Okay, so, yes I read the side of the tampon box. I can't help it. I read just about anything (especially if it's seemingly useless).

Anyhow, there is a chart on the back that describes the absorbency of the tampons and the range of menstrual fluids that are absorbed by each tampon. For example, the ones I have here are 'regular' absorbency and they absorb '6-9 grams.' We're supposed to be concerned about this because of the possible risk of toxic shock syndrome. I'd really like to know, though, who the crap measures her menstrual flow? (You might be thinking that I wouldn't like to know this, but I do. I didn't say that I wanted to watch her perform the measurement, now did I?)

Speaking of this, the first time I ever heard of TSS was when we were having our health education class in fifth grade. I always thought that it would suck if my tombstone (you can buy a little marker for someone who has been cremated, by the way) said 'Here lies v, who died because she didn't change her tampon often enough.' Of course, I didn't start using tampons until I was on the swim team in high school, but I had this thought nonetheless.

Ah, it's a wonderful day for TMI, no? I thought so.

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P.S. This was inspired by Coach J's recent post on curling irons and such. Read it, it's fun.

food

Okay, so I figured that I needed to live up to the whole food part of this here blog, so here's some food that we've recently prepared and eaten. You're welcome.

We have a tendency to buy food out to bring home. It's not like we eat out every night. (Although, honestly, sometimes I think that I'd like to eat out more often. Then, when we do, I inevitably feel like I've eaten a week's worth of meals in one evening. Ugh.) So, yes, this is part of our devious plan to prepare food at home and save a little freaking money. The genius runs in the family (even though 'runs in the family' doesn't really work in this case, of course).

Curses, foiled again. Blogger hates my pictures. I have no idea what I did to Blogger. Blogger, I sincerely apologize.

I'll try to post pictures later.

I have other things to be doing right now and I should also say that it will be blog-lite around here for the next several days. I'll elaborate more on that later. I'm off to play with the freaking picture issue for a few more minutes and then I'm off to pound my head, repeatedly, against a wall.

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Edited to add:



Blogger is still not my best friend (as Pic might say), but she is allowing me to post a single, solitary picture. This was dinner last night. I got the recipe from the abfab Catherine Newman over at Dalai Mama Dishes. This is corn chowder. It just sounded good to me, and it turned out to be good, thank goodness (okay, enough of the good, I get it).

I used extra lean turkey bacon (but then had to add some olive oil because, duh, there wasn't really any fat to cook off in which to saute the celery. I skipped the onion because I'm not a fan. I also used some mysterious green dried herb from the cupboard because I didn't have thyme. At least, I think I didn't. As I said, the herb was mysterious. Oh, and because we survived, it's obvious that, yes, I can still use the half-and-half that I opened for the sweet potatoes I made for Christ-tide dinner.

picture pages

So, I finally figured out how to get the pictures from the camera here onto the computer here. Let me let you in on the secret. Connect the cable to the camera. Connect the other end to the computer. Push OK on the camera. People, I'm telling you, I'm a technological genius.

So...



That's one of the covert cats taking a rest inside my junior prom dress. (Yes, my junior prom dress. I refuse to put it away because any day now, I'll be giving it away. Any day. Sometimes we just like to collect crap around La Casa B so we can cram the car full of no-longer-useful-to-us stuff and haul it all down to the Goodwill Donation Center.)

Okay, so one picture! Actually, the size of the pictures this camera takes is apparently astronomical so I have to save my pictures to a smaller size first and then post them here. This annoys me, so it will be a bit before I post more pictures. Ah, well.