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Sunday, February 28, 2010
~~ 8:44 PM ~~ This is the last bloggy-type blog post that I'll post here at this old location. When next I wish to post (and that probably won't be tomorrow, unless something REALLY AWESOME happens that I just HAVE to tell you all about RIGHT AWAY), I will post it at the new location, and then put up a "follow me to the new blog" post here. For those reading through the RSS feed, you WILL have to use a new URL for that feed when I move. Sorry. I'll note that in the "follow me" post as well. *sigh* Well, take a good look around -- it's not gonna look like this in the new place, believe me. Heh. I'll miss the old look, but on the other hand this blog has looked pretty much like this since day one, so a change will be nice. The old look will persist forever in the archives, though -- I'm not going to bother importing any of the old stuff into Wordpress, I'm just starting afresh with March 2010, so we can always click back when we get nostalgic for the purple. Comments () | link
Friday, February 26, 2010 ~~ 9:19 AM ~~ FYI, I will be moving my blog (under protest) to Wordpress at the end of this month. I'm using that deadline to make everything nice and clean -- I'll close out February here, generate the archive page, then start posting in March at the new blog at (sorry about this) a new location. The first few days of March will probably be a mess, and then I'll undoubtedly be fiddling with the look of the new blog for quite some time, as I learn more about customizing Wordpress templates. There will be a redirect of some kind here, pointing people to the new address; I haven't decided yet whether the redirect will be seamless (i.e. clicking on the old link will take you automagically to the new location) or not. My only real headache and source of anxiety is my RSS feed -- I know nothing about how my RSS feed is generated now (Blogger just does it for me), and it's how a lot of people read and find me, so it needs to be working right away. Anyone with experience setting something up at Feedburner (or somewhere else, if Feedburner isn't what I should be using), please contact me. Okay, that was a lot of tech talk, so if your eyes glazed over, here's the short version: In the next few weeks, things are going to be bumpy here, so bear with me. All should be more or less as it was, eventually. Comments () | link
Thursday, February 25, 2010 ~~ 10:44 AM ~~ School's closed -- it's snowing! They were saying last night that we might get over a foot from this, but this morning they seem to have downgraded that by close to half (but they're gonna get pounded to the north). I'm anxious, as usual, about losing power tonight when the high winds kick up. I'm also somewhat anxious for my friend Kerri, who was supposed to have all of her friends (including us) over this afternoon and evening for a massive Packing Party -- they're moving on Saturday and this is going to put quite a crimp into that plan. Right now the kids are playing a game where Sammy runs around the loop from living room to kitchen to dining room, etc. and Alice sprays her with water from a spray bottle every time she passes. What fun...? I'm in the midst of a massive mailing project for the kids' school. Every day that I'm home alone, I spend about 2 hours watching a movie and doing mindless tasks like folding newsletters or labelling envelopes. Trying to fit that in with my other work (paid and unpaid) has left me a bit strapped for time, which is why blogging has continued to be light in the past week or two. That, and the fact that I just haven't had anything to say, really. We did go to one of those "family fun complex" type places last weekend, in the hopes of a great deal of family fun. But the go-carts and mini golf were closed for the winter, so Alice and I rollerskated for an hour while Sammy and Anth played video games. As a child of the 70s & 80s, I looooooove roller skating and wish I could do it much more often, but we are at least 40 minutes away from any rinks at all. Alice likes to skate, too, but she's only ever gone a couple times, so it takes her about half an hour to get her balance before she can start having fun. No roller skating today, though, or much of anything else out of the house. The snow is slowly piling up, but the roads (and our driveway) are still clear, so we won't need to shovel until tomorrow, when the storm's all done. The kids are currently making a fort out of the couch cushions and preparing to watch Spy Kids 2 on DVD. This all sounds very cozy, except for the part I left out about what a foul mood Sammy is in today (why?!?) and how much time the two of them have spent bickering so far this morning. Argh, cabin fever already?? Comments () | link
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 ~~ 7:41 PM ~~ Today we went to the Please Don't Touch Me There Museum for the day. Alice had won two free passes in a drawing for our library's summer reading program, and today was our day to use them. We'd never go otherwise -- it's a long drive from our house, it's $15/person, and it's aimed at kids younger than Sammy -- but it was a fun day nonetheless. The biggest hit was definitely the water play area -- Sammy is really drawn to stuff like that; if there's a sandbox or water table or a wading pool full of rice, she will just kind of zone out and spend hours there. On the way home, we stopped for dinner at The Cheesecake Warehouse. Their low-carb, sugar-free cheesecake is phenomenally good. I am very full. Comments () | link
Monday, February 22, 2010 ~~ 9:20 PM ~~ Powerful. Comments () | link
Sunday, February 21, 2010 ~~ 3:12 PM ~~ A batch of pictures from early Summer '09 is now up, starting here. Man, I can't wait for sweater season to end... Comments () | link
Saturday, February 20, 2010 ~~ 9:22 PM ~~ Spring starts in four weeks, people. Believe it. Comments () | link
Friday, February 19, 2010 ~~ 9:40 PM ~~ Guest post from Alice: So V-day happened today at school and I got cards and chocolate and roses (instead of the carnations we usually have) and I gave my friends chocolate bars and it was super fun.Guest post from Anth: Hey y'all. Today I worked. Early to late. S'what I do. Helpin' folks. Developin' software. Buildin' teams. Solvin' problems. Ya know? And I come home to my wife and kids, and they give me strength. And I go back tomorrow, and do it again. S'what I do. (There's a lot more to it, but it's not blog-worthy.) I read this blog every day, and I think it's awesome. A little glimpse of our family life, captured in time forever for posterity. Someday we will all look back on this and laugh. Hahahahahaahahahahahaaa. Hahahahaha. HAHA! Ha. And it will be good. Mr. Out.Guest post from Sammy: bean bean bean bean bean BEAN!(I don't know what it means, either, but she was laughing maniacally the whole time she was typing it...) Comments () | link
Thursday, February 18, 2010 ~~ 7:38 PM ~~ I had my yearly midwife appointment today, and my breasts are clear, which is nice. Her recommendation is that I don't need another mammogram until this time next year, which is very nice. I might have some more atypical cells in my Pap, though, which is less nice but not very unusual for me, so yeah, overall still a very good appointment. Comments () | link
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 ~~ 9:55 AM ~~ Do you think this is how it is for my cat? Comments () | link
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 ~~ 9:44 AM ~~ I have to admit that the snow we're getting today is probably the best possible kind of snow for the current situation: it's going to fall all day and be very pretty, and refresh the dirty snow piles with a clean white cover, but it isn't enough to shovel or delay school or greatly inconvenience anyone. Part of me wants more record-breaking storms, though. Comments () | link
Monday, February 15, 2010 ~~ 7:12 PM ~~ Today is Alice's half day -- she's 12½ today! Her special presents so far have included: A La Leche League meeting, an extra 90-minute ballet class (make-up for the class that was canceled last week), and, oh yeah, it's snowing. Bleh. Comments () | link
Sunday, February 14, 2010 ~~ 6:56 PM ~~ Alice and I went, with her BFF and BFF's mom, to see the Percy Jackson movie today. It had some nice touches and some really good casting choices, and then it also had some really clunky moments and odd casting/cutting decisions. It was decently entertaining, and of course we had to go see it because we both read and enjoyed the books. I'm just glad that it didn't cost me anything (paid for the tickets with a gift card, and got free popcorn and soda from the theatre rewards program). Comments () | link
Saturday, February 13, 2010 ~~ 7:49 PM ~~ I keep sharing nifty links on Facebook (because I have a button to do that right from my browser toolbar), and then I know I should post them here, but I feel bad that the people who read my blog posts through Facebook will see everything twice. Oh well, here are a few neat things I posted to FB recently: Record Tripping - If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you must play this lovely game. What happened in my birth year? - A nifty little widget -- input your birth year and it (slowly) reels out a detailed spiel of what happened that year and what has happened since. Try it!! This Too Shall Pass - New OK Go video! All OK Go videos are coolness!! Comments () | link
Friday, February 12, 2010 ~~ 9:58 PM ~~ Anth says that I should have blogged again yesterday, after we were done shoveling the driveway (which took us three separate sessions, approximately 5 person-hours, and 3½* people to accomplish), to let you all know that I was still alive. I apologize if you've been pacing fretfully by your computer since yesterday morning, wondering if I had perished in the snow. It was touch and go there for a bit, and the four-foot-high drifts give me the willies every time I go out side, but I'm still here. It's supposed to snow again on Monday night. Oy!! Comments () | link
Thursday, February 11, 2010 ~~ 7:59 AM ~~ Okay, I'm going to be outside, shoveling, today. All day. Before I head out, and while my fingers are non-frostbitten, here are some links for you to enjoy: - Kanye weighs in on Snowmageddon II™. - Didn't get enough snow? Make your own. - This Old Spice commercial cracks me up. - I made this yesterday and the kids are devouring it. (Modifications: used white WW flour, cut sugar down to abt 1 ¼ C, no raisins, double cinnamon & pecans.) - I'm going to achieve an altered state of mind today by spending multiple hours exerting myself in a frigid white environment. You can get the same effect by looking through these freaky illusions, or trying to understand this Wikipedia article! P.S. I have no freaking idea how much snow we got yesterday. At least another foot, on top of the foot-and-a-half-plus that we got over the weekend. And this snow's wetter and heavier than the other stuff. It's a good thing I bought that third shovel, because we're gonna need all hands on
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 ~~ 9:06 AM ~~ Well, it's snowing, and there's some sleety stuff mixed in with it now, although it's supposed to turn to all snow soon and snow all day and into the night. The current forecast is for 16-22" today, and maybe another 1" overnight. I hope we didn't get too much of that freezy yuck, because that'll make the shoveling harder tomorrow. The mailman came through at around 8:30 this morning, about 4 hours earlier than he normally does (guess he's trying to get his rounds done before the storm becomes a blizzard). I'd better trek out there and get that mail soon or I won't be able to reach the mailbox again until we dig out way out. I'm feeling very anxious about losing power. We didn't lose it with the weekend storm, but we do experience storm-related outages fairly often. It's not a big deal when it happens with a summer thunderstorm, but losing our heat and light and ability to cook today would be super-sucky. I gave you poetry yesterday (from Little Bear). Here's some for today (cribbed from a Facebook friend): ANNOUNCED by all the trumpets of the sky,Comments () | link
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 ~~ 4:26 PM ~~ Whether the weather be cold, Or whether the weather be hot -- We'll weather the weather, Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not. All-Out Blizzard Wednesday: We are smack in the middle of that "Worst of the Storm" track. They're predicting 18-24" here tomorrow, on top of the 20" we got on Saturday. I have no idea where we are going to pile the snow that we will be shovelling all day Thursday. Please cross your fingers that we do not lose power -- this will all ultimately be a fun family adventure unless we lose power, in which case it will be a big cavalcade of suck. Comments () | link
Monday, February 08, 2010 ~~ 10:08 AM ~~ - The Accuweather forecast for Wednesday says "Blizzard; windy." Fun!! I have to go out today and try to buy a snow shovel (we have two already, but another one would be really handy because then Alice could help) and salt (we used all of ours up this weekend). I give it 50/50 odds that I'll be able to find them at the first store I try. Ugh. I always scoff at people out trying to buy stuff like that right before a storm, and now here I am being one of them. There's a lesson here. - I'm blaming the kids for this coming storm -- they were kvetching about missing no school because it snowed on the weekend, and now they're going to miss Wednesday (i.e. Taco Day, everyone's favorite lunch of the month). There's a lesson here, too. - All of the Super Bowl ads are here, if you didn't watch (like us), or just wanna see something again. Comments () | link
Sunday, February 07, 2010 ~~ 6:23 PM ~~ The schools called a 2-hour delay for tomorrow morning hours ago. I guess they are worried about icy spots on the roads, because the sun came out today and melted a teeny little bit of our massive amounts of snow. Don't worry, though -- we've apparently got close to a foot of new snow coming on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Wheee!! In other news, Anth put in some time today installing Wordpress on my server and setting up a little test blog for me to play with. The plan is to switch this blog over to Wordpress at the end of the month, if I can get myself motivated to learn how to use it. Hopefully the transition will be mostly seamless for you, the reader, although my blog URL apparently will change (boo, but I'll put a pointer here so you can find it), and my layout might change, too, depending on how much work I want to put into replicating the current layout exactly in the new system. More (similarly boring) updates on this process as it progresses, lucky you! Comments () | link
Saturday, February 06, 2010 ~~ 6:46 PM ~~ I think we got about 18", maybe 20" of snow out of this storm. Pretty impressive! We have to bake cookies tomorrow and take them over to our neighbor, who came over with his snow blower and dug through the wet and heavy stuff that the plow piled at the end of our drive. Anth and I shoveled the rest of it -- took about 2 hours. I am so grateful for our neighbor's help, because he took care of the worst part for us. They're saying it's going to snow again on Tuesday. Heh. Comments () | link
Friday, February 05, 2010 ~~ 11:57 AM ~~ The kids have a 2-hour early dismissal today, so I have to hurry up and get my quiet-house stuff done before I go pick them up. After school we're running to the store to buy ingredients for a very big pot of vegetable soup (plus also bananas, and ice cream). Our current Storm of the Century™ forecast is for 10-14 inches overnight tonight and into tomorrow. Stay warm, y'all!! Comments () | link
Wednesday, February 03, 2010 ~~ 8:14 AM ~~ I just got notified that Blogger is shutting down FTP support next month. I am one of the apparently less than 0.5% of bloggers who use FTP to publish a blog, and apparently (from my perusal of the links I was sent) I'm going to have to migrate off of Blogger (to...?) if I want to keep my blog at the same address. This pisses me off to no end, not only because I've been using Blogger here since day one (i.e. July 30, 2001), but also because I hate it when things change. If anyone has any guidance on how I should proceed, please share via comment, email, phone call, or Facebook post. Comments () | link
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 ~~ 6:00 PM ~~ Always wear your seatbelt. Comments () | link
Monday, February 01, 2010 ~~ 10:36 AM ~~ The girls and I went to see Tooth Fairy yesterday. We went for three reasons:
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