Random Smattering...

No, not what I'm covered in, although that would be a good guess. Am was mostly civilized at lunch, & so I have no smatters of anything smushed into my clothing right now. (For a change. Holla if ya hear me.)

(Bellybutton coverup, & inspection.)

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No, it's more about the topics in this post. In no particular order:

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1) Amoryn is sleeping right now! We had tried doping her up on a half dose of Gravol. While she didn't appear much different than usual, she did not have a nap. She went to her room, she was laid down several times, and the man was left in charge of the monitor, & by extension, the kid. Turns out, "She invented a new kind of crisco party." What???? She stayed in bed - which is about the only good point in this story - but did rummage through the basket of her toiletries next to the bed & find a wee jar of Vaseline. When the man walked in, apparently she had one hand stuffed wrist-deep into the jar, was standing up in her bed banging on the head board & the venetian blinds, and had coated herself, her bedding, her stuffed animals, the walls, & the blinds in a liberal yet gobby coating of Vaseline. (I forgot, the other good point was that the man tidied it all up.) So today, with mild trepidation, I tried on a half dose of allergy meds. Again, no real difference - but she went to sleep! This is great!! Full dose trials to follow.

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2) We leave for vacation in a week. This is supremely exciting, except for the flight, which I may have mentioned I'm moderately terrified of. I did think it was 32 hours of travel time, but now the man tells me he miscalculated & it's more like 41. I refuse to beleive in such things; I'd wrapped my mind around co-wrangling a toddler for 32 hours, so that's what I'm sticking with. Honestly, will I even know the difference by then?

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3) Item 2 is why item 1.

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4) I got a new tattoo! Yay! It's actually from the parlour just down from one of my fave LYS's, and I lucked into it; I'd figured that I would have to wait until late March, but the artist had a cancellation. So yippee! It's mostly healed up & not peely or scabby. If you hace tatts, you know what I mean. If you don't, well. There's a reason why people hide their new tattoos.

(It's a girl bluebird - that's the color they are.)
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5) I haven't got to knit nearly enough lately. I'm offsetting this by mentally planning my holiday knitting. Want to see what I've got in mind?

From Fitted Knits, for the yarn from Val, which I've overdyed & am quite pleased with. (She's on Etsy as Wooly Wool of the West, I beleive, I'll look up her link later. See the last point.)

From a link I found on Ysolda, for Zeigeist yarns, the Selbu Modern. Intended for the yarn from Annie - dazzling! (http://spinknitthefiberqueen.blogspot.com/)

For fun, also from Fitted Knits, using the actual yarn called for in the pattern. Crazy.

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Plus I'm mulling armwarmers & legwarmers & stuff & well. You know how it goes. My muse, she's a chatterbox - and I love her dearly.
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(I'm trying to ignore the limitations that my luggage space will impose on this list.)

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6) I'm tucking the loose ends into the bookkeeping - I can't finish the GST until Friday, but I can put the T4s to bed.

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7) I'm sewing like a fiend for the trip - leggings for Am & I, dresses for Am, pants for the man. Apart from Am's fixation on the serger, it's going well. I've caught her trying to pet Ghengis even when I'm not sewing, and I keep explaining that this is a very special, delicate machine that ONLY MUM GETS TO TOUCH. Not even Daddy get to use this. Maybe when she's bigger I will show her, but that is at least a decade in the future. (It's a 5 thread serger! APart from the fact that she could easily screw it up - it's got a blade & is FAST. There's no way I'm showing her how to use that machine for a loooong time. The sewing machine is where we'll start. Only one tension, + bobbin. Way less danger to little fingers & expensive machines.)

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8) We have an appointment we have to leave for in 5 minutes... so I'll be on my way, intarweb!

(Apart from Am, the pics were shamelessly borrowed from Ravelry - kudos to everyone's beautiful knitting, I didn't include

Life's like what?

I'm not sure what I expected my life to be like when I was little. Usually, when I stop & think "I never expected life would be like this", it's a good occasion, with awe & wonderment & joy.

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For example, travel.

Seeing Petra in Jordan.

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Seeing the Brooklyn Bridge. That kind of cool moment.

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Or meeting my little girl for the first time.

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Realizing how much fun she is...

(Accessorizing. That's my girl!)

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And how lucky I am & how great my family is. That sort of thing.

(Reading after a long day.)

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Yesterday, however... On my way home from the office, the traffic announcer said: "And we're backed up in the NE at Street X and Street Y because of another drive-by shooting."

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And I thought - those bloody gangs. At least it's not on my way home. And then I stopped.

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Since when has a gangland drive-by murder become simply a traffic hassle? When did I start living in a place with that kind of gang warfare? And most importantly, how did I get to the point where my brain processes that kind of information as pertinent ONLY to my commute?

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I'm trying to make a point today of doing and thinking good things, and to try to help somebody else. Better yet, help somebody help somebody else! Ha. I've got it figured out.

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Now to carry on with my day's plan, ha-hah. If only I can figure out where I put my scissors... they're the pivotal first step on today's path...

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It's Almost Like Decenber

A couple years ago, I had the funniest winter. My brain was quite convinced that there should be an "n" in December. I rode out that spasm of dyslexia, and have since been fine.
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Until today.
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Today, I thought I would work on the crossword over lunch. I filled in three words before I realized that I'd transposed the horizontal & vertical, & completely disregarded the number cues. (In other words, put the word wherever you want it.) I stopped, erased everything, and put the words into the right places. I'd filled in all the words I could, & was doing the re-read of the missing word's clues, and I found myself wishing that the following existed:

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1) Leomard Cohen - famous Camadian singer & poet, noted for his angst-ridden work and his incredible resemblance to Ross Geller from Friends.

(Tell me I'm wrong.)

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2) Omarthic - a subset of mathematics, which correlates equations to love poetry in an attempt to name the stars.
"Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas." ~Albert Einstein
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3) Abroggle - a messy, complicated situation. No negative connotation attached. Occasionally, a mandatory stage on the way to enlightenment or a finished project.

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That's when I realized that my brain was all abroggle, and decided to put Am down for her nap, start some laundry, & continue the bookkeeping. Almost done - huzzah! Then I shall commence issuing slips & compiling government remittances and such. I know how to rock it, yeah.

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*Please note -the absence of any H's in this post are not related to my brain & its function; tey're due to the new keyboard tat I need to re-box & exchange. But first I need to find the receipt. I like the keyboard, it's just tat the H & te space bar stick. Why is it that the exchange is my responsibility, anyways? Souldn't it be te man's? Oh well.

Again with the silence?

This reminds me of - actually - this is really a lot like - how I met my husband. But that's a story for another day.
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You see internet, I still love you. (Miss you, need you, blah blah.) But the world? It is conspiring against me.
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Christmas was wonderful, and fun, and really just plain great. No big awful drama, no conflict, just lots of trying to keep Am from unwrapping all the presents. She still doesn't quite get that there's things IN the wrapping paper, it's more that she has paper that she can rip. It was sad, missing Hugh, but the low grade chaos created by the kids helped with that.
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We finally got home, and heaved a sigh of relief. As Am was happily diving into her (old familiar)box of books, and the man was manfully shovelling the driveway, I turned the tv on for some background noise/light while unpacking everything.
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However, the cable company was having none of it. "No tv for you! No internet either!" Fine. So it wasn't until the next day that I realized that there's something wrong with my computer.
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It's like it's developed some kind of short term memeory loss. Things saved to my hard disks are still there, from what I can tell, but every time I shut it off, when it turns on again, it's like it's never been on before.
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So? No big deal, just deal with the helpful "Welcome to XP!" bubbles... except, as I gradually, & with mounting horror, discover, Big Deal. My Outlook is completely AWOL. I can reinstall it, sure, but I have to reconfigure my email accounts & stuff. Also, all my emails... all my saved, archived emails, are gone. Gone, gone, where, I don't know...
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And my itunes, similarily, needs a re-install. I did figure out how to remap the library, so that's nice, but the playlists are gone. Well, that's okay, I can manually rebuild them using my ipod as a reference, or something. Except...
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Three days ago my ipod refused to wake up. It was fine, then it was not. There was no dropping, no water, no trauma. I charged the crap out of him, even, and nothing. I'm taking him to the apple store in the hopes that someone there will say "Oh, dummy, just do this" *waves magic wand*" and he'll wake up again. I will gladly have some geek in bright colors call me a dummy, if they can wake up my ipod again.
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I was distraught over the computer thing - especailly my emails - and I'm having a hard time having any faith in it's ability to do anything. Plus, there's the rage+woe bomb - as in - "why did this happen? how can I fix it? what the HELL am I supposed to take time away from to dick with this needless shitebox?" So I've been avoiding the computer, and you, Internet. The man bought me a groovy ergonomic keyboard for Xmas, and I'm afraid I'm hurting his feelings, but I can't get over my revulsion at the computer issue* long enough to install it.
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And I'm genuinely grieved over my Ipod... if he really is dead, I kind of want to bury him in the backyard, in the little tin tea box that kept him safe for so long. Why yes, I did anthropomorphise him. He kept me company all the time, & sang me songs, & was a boon companion. Why shouldn't I feel like he's kind of a person - a little, shiny-bummed person?
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I'm off to go see the Apple store, with hope & a comatose Ipod. Wish us luck!
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*- Okay, fine, a quick story for a footnote: The man & I met through online dating. We'd sent a couple emails back & forth, & my cuomputer died in tax season, as I was moving. I was entirely too exhausted by tax season + moving to worry about some guy I'd sent two emails to, so I just put my head down & got on with things. Come June, when the furor quieted & I fixed my computer, I found an email that said "You seemed nice, but if you're not interested, let me know, don't be all rude & stuff & junk." I shrugged, figured that since that email was well over a month old, I'd just write hime off, he's probably just a weirdo anyways, and hit the delete button. THEN I sent an email to everyone in myaddress book saying "Hi! I've been out of the loop, have moved, etc etc...", without realzing that I'd put him INTO my address book. After receiving a masterfully worded email, something about "Gee, since I know where you love, want to meet for a date?", hyperventilating about being killed in my sleep by an internet weirdo, and a coffee date, here we are. Happy and married and procreated and gardening and stuff and junk.