Snot, snot, snot, and oh, some rain, too.

Peanut has a serious cold. Avec cough. She keeps shooting us with booger rockets. EWWWW. Being a mom is so stinking gross sometimes. Since she has such a terrible cold, she is having trouble sleeping in her bed. Last night I got about three hours sleep in 20-30 minute intervals. She slept best on top of me, in the best rocking chair in the world.

I've been reading through some of the blogs that were nominated for Bloggies. I think I have some new blogs to read. Oh, and I think that I need a new header thingy. Mine seems so... generic. So add that to the to-do list.

We made soup tonight. A veggie chicken soup, with loverly carrots, rutabagas, celery, onions, parsnips and even a tiny bit of chicken. I also made white cupcakes, although I didn't get to make frosting, since we didn't have any confectioner's sugar.

....

Woohoo! Friday Night!! Party!

Or not. Perhaps, instead, I am perusing blogs, attempting to find interesting new people to read. Blogs are about all the reading i have time for, lately. Although I did indulge in a newish Dick Francis novel, "Dead Heat". Oh, and a copy of the latest "Parents" magazine, and "Wondertime", another parenting magazine. I don't know why I buy those. I always think it is just something I should read, since I am a mom now, but gosh. I am not going to cut out hearts from Peanut's marshmalllows. It is just not going to happen.

Well, Peanut is huffing in her room with a stuffy nose and her penguin humidifier, so I had better attempt to get a little sleep, too. My hands are killing me and the internet keeps tricking me into staying up late.

Blargh.

Night-night.

Blargh.

Butch is Moonlighting....

Butch, our chubby Siamese cat, appears to be moonlighting as someone else's cat.

Jesus Don't Want Me For a Sunbeam

So I am an atheist. And a liberal. And a mom. And a feminist. And MARRIED. (Cue the maniacal mad scientist laughter).

There's some stuff I just don't get. If you do believe in some sort of god-figure... how can you be a Republican? Aren't you supposed to be kind to poor people so you please ol' masser god?

I figure that you get this one chance. You can choose to be kind and make the world better and nicer and more shiny and wonderful, taking the time to appreciate the people you love. Or you can choose to run Haliburton and shoot people in the face and invade countries and generally be a Dick. Even if you believe there's some kind of post-death reward system, what kind of reward do you get for that kind of life? (Besides, living one's life for a kind of cosmic equivalent of an elementary school magazine fundraising program, where you only have to sell 12,000 subscriptions to get a pencil case? Um, I don't think so).

A little side note- why hasn't there been a band that just since Nirvana that just shook the teeth right out of my head? I haven't heard anything so wild and unconstrained and raw and true since them. Every band I hear seems so polished and shiny.

As I grow older, the world seems so staid and tidy and nice. I mean that in the worst possible way.

John Edwards Needs You!

R and I have been discussing the Democratic cast of possibilities today.

We're annoyed.

I want to first state that I am incredibly proud that we have both a woman and an African American as potential nominees. Super. BUT. John Edwards would be the best president. I almost feel a little guilty wanting the white dude, you know? Before I knew he was going to run again, I was fantasizing about an Oprah/Obama ticket. Women of the United States rise up!

But poor, mistreated, ignored John Edwards. He gets accused of being a rich lawyer. Well, ok. Let's look at that a little bit. When was the last time a middle class person ran for president and won? Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, rich people run our country. Us poor people? We're busy doing things like working our asses off to get some money for, um food? And medical insurance, since we're one of the few industrialized countries without national healthcare? (We are lazy bastards, we poor folk. If only we would work harder and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, huh?)

So John Edwards, rich lawyer. Rich lawyer that got rich helping poor people. Oh, yeah, you read that right. He got rich HELPING OTHER PEOPLE. I just want to make sure that is clear. He made his money HELPING OTHER PEOPLE. You're probably thinking, what a commie, right? But I ask that you wait a second more- he made his money HELPING OTHER PEOPLE fight evil corporations that were taking advantage of poor people. I know that you're thinking, why would we want a president that CARES ABOUT PEOPLE?

So America- pay attention here- shut up and listen to John Edwards for a minute. You too, NPR- I have had just about enough of your snarky little comments after every Edwards' quote.

We are, despite our probable recession, a quite wealthy nation full of incredibly poor people who are purposefully kept poor by our nation's rich elite. Oh yes, America, the "man" is keeping you down. And John Edwards wants to change that.

Sleep Battles....

Today Peanut only took one nap from 11 am to 1 pm. She didn't sleep AT ALL until about 17 minutes ago. Tonight ought to be fun. When she's tired we have the crying, flailing, grunting and pushing wars. The only way we can convince her to actually go to sleep when she's like this is to wear her down with allowing her to cry. It is mentally and physically exhausting. I don't know how this will work when she's five and doesn't want to go to bed. I am so tired.

We went down to Second Street today to have lunch at Angelo's Italian Deli. It was ok. I think my salami experience has officially been ruined for salami that is just "ok". When we were in Seattle last Memorial Day, we found a grocery store ( Metropolitan Market that sold salami from Salumi. It was soooo good. You can buy it online through their website, although it appears that they are sold out until the end of January.

We walked around and window shopped a bit. I got Pinkberry. Wow, that was a pile of suck. The yogurt was good, but it took about 20 minutes to get the one cup. There was about 40 people crammed into a store that was built to hold maybe 20. With no air conditioning. And all of two employees. Way to go Pinkberry! I will so not be back!

I can't believe it is already time to go back to work. It all begins again.

Ok, So I Love Tina Fey...

So I was watching "30 Rock" last night and there was a very funny bit about Tina Fey's character, Liz Lemon being an exchange student.... Check it out. (The video quality blows, but whatever).



Wow, it is so fun to watch someone play a real dork on tv. (This coming from a COMPLETE dork. Make that a clumsy, computer nerd, glasses-wearing dork).

That joke in the clip just kept making me giggle all day long. "30 Rock" was a nice surprise for us this year, since we HATED the first couple of episodes. I mean, I love Tina Fey (we should totally hang out and um, do stuff), but the first two episodes featured bad acting and rather stilted writing. I suspect now, having seen more episodes, that it was just the fact of the series finding its feet- perhaps also finding the characters as they were written, too. So, thanks for keeping it on, NBC. Way to go. Seriously.

And Tina, if you read this? I listen to NPR and I too dress like a small town, liberal arts college lesbian. See, we could totally hang out.

Signs That Give One Pause... Or, On A Lighter Note

"Marge & Gina's Live Hair Shop"

Um, ok. "Live"? I get that it means not wigs, right?

"Scissor Hands"

This one was just confusing until I saw inside and determined it was a salon. Although still sort of creepy.

balance...

I need to remember this: you will not give yourself the chance to write something good if you don't write anything.

I have a story that I'm working on. Extremely slowly. I can write on my lunch and for a few minutes after Peanut goes to bed (like right now). That is, if I'm not completely bushed. Which is usually the case.

I am trying very hard to hear the characters whispering to me as my own self-doubt works overtime trying to shout them down. So I need to remember that all I can do it try to write. To let myself write.

I have been really thinking a lot lately of balance. Remembering long ago when I took gymnastics classes. Specifically, the balance beam. Four inches across. You learn at first just to walk across, Then you progress to walking and bending your knee so the foot not touching the beam dips below the surface of the beam, alternating as you walk, up and down, up and down. You grow slowly familiar. For the girls that got good at the balance beam, that four inches could seem like a lot more. Because really, you don't need more than that four inches to stand or jump or cartwheel or whatever. It's possible. Your mind just tells you that you need more. You just think you do.

The best balance beam couching I ever got was to imagine, as you stand on the beam, that you are being suspended from an invisible string that is attached to the top of your head. You can imagine that invisible string pulling you up so your head is lifted, your chest is held out and you cannot possibly wobble because of that connection, that balance you are maintaining.

I feel like my life is like that now, sometimes, except that on my grownup version of the balance beam I hold a number of fragile eggs in my hands. I hold R and the small universe that is our marriage, I hold Peanut and my responsibilities and commitments to her in my role as her mother and I hold my job and I hold our home and somewhere in this daily struggle, that fight I fight everyday to find that elusive balance? I hold the thing that is simply me.

Wine and a Mild Concussion...

So, I have to check WebMD. Do wine and concussions go well together? Like, say beer and chips?

Um. So I whacked my heat something fierce on the Peanut crib (R calls it Peanut Prison) while reaching down to pull out an errant sock from below it. OWWW! I blacked out a little and started crying. Yeah, Peanut fell down tonight and bonked her head and just kept playing. Mum does and just wails for a few minutes. Hmmm. Hopefully my brain won't leak out my ears when I go to bed.

I am quite pleased that Blogger has the autosave feature now. Safari just quit for about the four hundred thousandth time. I even installed the recent updates. Ack Ack Ack. Oh, Apple, you tease. You promise and seduce me with your gorgeousness and usability and then you stop calling me and stop providing timely patches and updates. I see how it is. You get all popular and suddenly you're out with the iPhone.

Rain, Rain...

Went away on its own. We're still here. We battened down the hatches and we're still here. It howled and blew and poured last night, but we're still here.

I went to breakfast with PA this morning, to the Starling Diner, over on Third St. I had the Broiled San Francisco Stuffed Toast. According to the menu:

"Have you ever tried French toast stuffed with creamy Mascarpone and Crème Fraiche? We love it. It’s French Toast like you’ve never had it before. Not only is it beautiful to view but your stomach will click its heels with glee. We broil instead of frying it-which gives the flavor a deeper dimension. You have your choice of custom tailored toppings:
Fresh Seasonal Berries and Whipped Cream or Caramelized Apples in Brandy Butter" YUMMMM! I was in a sugar induced haze while we walked back to my house and I showed her how to update her blog. So we'll see what happens there.

In the afternoon, we went over to Pioneer and shopped at the Farm Fresh market in Little India. They're at: 18551 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA; 562-865-3191. No website, but a good selection of produce, spices, frozen Indian foods and some British items, like McVities digestives and Tango soda. Yeah. Good stuff.

We continued our world wide trip by visiting the Holland America Import Store in Bellflower located at 10343 Artesia Blvd, Bellflower, CA 90706, 562) 867-7589. I bought some Dutch goodies for my mom's birthday- stroopenwaffles, black licorice and a bag of Radenmaker Hopjes. (I may have purchased a bag for myself, too). I also got a yummy item I last had when I was about 8 years old- De Ruijter toast sprinkles! I can't wait to have toast!

Peanut was up almost all day, with only a couple of very short naps. This is going to be awesome. She's been asleep since 9, so she'll be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Argh. But I will have toast sprinkles! Yay!

R is making Chicken Tikka Masala in the kitchen and begging me to turn off the heater. I guess. I've been parked in front of the wall heater for a couple days now.

Well, my hands are aching, so I'll sign off for now. I will be making a better attempt to update here a little more often than once a month this year, so we'll see.

Happy New Year and Stuff

So that's nice. Oh, is it 2008? Ah. Well, you see... yours truly conked out just before midnight while feeding the baby. R woke me up and midnight and I drug myself off to bed. My normal sleep schedule is bed at 11, wake with the baby at 12:30, sleep, wake with the baby at 3, sleep, wake up for work and feed the baby at 5. So midnight was a little too late for me. Although we slept until 8! AM! on New Year's Day. HOORAY!!!

Peanut is into EVERYTHING now. So I spent New Year's Day trying to make our house just a little more childfriendly. There aren't Elmo posters on the wall, but I swept up most of the broken hypodermics and rat droppings. Our living room has basically devolved into the play room anyhow, but we managed to rearrange so R has somewhere to keep his computer other than the couch. Peanut enjoys smacking expensive electronics, vomitting on stuff, and eating leftover pine needles from the Christmas tree. Oh, and chasing kitties. (They LOVE that, by the way, and have developed these incredibly sad meows that seem to say, "But WHY mom, WHY? What did I do to deserve this!"- to which the reply is "Years of cleaning cat yarck off of EVERYTHING" But anyway....)

So I don't really have any major resolutions. I'm going to take one class online this semester to see how I manage. I'm also going to try to write more. Maybe next year I'll try to send stuff out again. I haven't been feeling super confident about writing lately. I have been thinking about a story recently though.

I want to just, I don't know, try harder this year. So we'll just see, I guess.