Partial to the bean...

~~ 6:35 PM ~~

It's kind of a depressing sort of day around here, all blah and grey and blah, so here are some more things that make me feel happy: these lights, this chair, these nudibranchs, this cat playing the theremin, these photobombers (mild nudity), and this article.

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~~ 1:01 PM ~~

This video made me feel happy.

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~~ 9:15 AM ~~

"Get Smart" was a lot of fun! Alice really enjoyed it (I'm not quite sure what made it "click" for her as much as it did, but she has gone out of her way several times now to tell us how much she liked it), and I had a really good time too, mostly because Steve Carell is just so darn likeable and fun to watch. Sammy sat through almost the whole movie, followed the plot, laughed at the funny parts, and didn't really get antsy until the last 20 minutes or so, which she spent kind of sidling from seat to seat in our row. We weren't the only people in the theatre, but I don't think she bothered anyone. So, a success!

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~~ 9:43 AM ~~

In a fit of madness born of summer malaise and the desire to get out of the house, I'm taking the kids to see Get Smart today. Kids-in-mind rates it only low-medium on sex and violence, so I think it'll be okay for Sammy. I'm more concerned about its length -- at almost 2 hours, it'll be by far the longest movie she's ever seen in the theatres. I'm counting on us having the room pretty much to ourselves, though, so if she needs to move around, she will be able to.

Yes, I know that Wall-E opened this week. We'll go see that next week.

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~~ 8:05 PM ~~

Two things:

I finished William Shatner's autobiography yesterday, and I recommend it to you all. It was fun to read, and left me so well-disposed towards the man that I had to go friend him on MySpace and Facebook.

WHY THE HELL DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT DIABLO III IS FINALLY COMING OUT?!? I thought you people were my friends!!!

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~~ 3:07 PM ~~

Wow, these cupcakes baked in orange halves over the grill look deeeeeeeeelish.

I found that link through one (I forget which one) of my two newest daily clicks: TasteSpotting and Food Gawker.

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~~ 1:59 PM ~~

*sigh* We are dealing with some friend drama right now. Neighbor A, who lives to our left and is one of Sammy's absolute favorite playmates, has recently been preferring to play with Neighbor R, who lives two doors to our right, A & R are both older than Sammy is (but A is younger than R), and I think A is now reaching an age where she would rather play "up" in age than "down". This wouldn't be quite so painful for Sammy if we didn't live in between their houses, because now Neighbor A tells Sammy she can't play and then walks right past our front window on the way down to R's house, and stuff like that. Very heartbreaking for our girl.

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~~ 6:16 PM ~~

Uggggghhh... I have absolutely no motivation today. I think I'm still hungover from the sleep study, plus now I've got PMS dragging me down as well. Of course this feeling is self-perpetuating, because I don't have the energy to exercise, or prepare healthy food, so I'm just making my body feel lower and lower. Oh well, I'll be out of the house all day tomorrow so today we just laid around and did nothing.

By the way, the screen restriction is a very potent thing. It's amazing how, as soon as the screens go off, the kids start playing elaborate cooperative games together, except on days like today when they go straight for each other's throats. Luckily, the neighbor kids are home, and Sammy eventually chose to go play at someone else's house and stayed there for 4 hours, which made it quite peaceful here, thanks.

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~~ 11:35 AM ~~

I don't know what the deal is with my sleep study, actually. I know that they always make appointments for two studies, 2 weeks apart. They say that you may not need the second study, but it's easier to cancel the appointment than to try to fit it in later. So I've got a second night scheduled on July 11th, and then my follow-up appointment with the doctor is 2 weeks after that, on the 25th. As is my wont, it turns out that I was a bit slow on really thinking about this, because I don't really actually understand how this whole process works -- is someone going to call me before the 11th to let me know if I still need to come in for the second night, or is everyone just assuming that I'll need that second night, or what?

I am thinking now that it is not worth it to me to go through that process again, especially because we managed to pay for the first night with our medical saving account, but the second night will have to come straight out of our pocket, to the tune of $700 (and oh yeah, that was another reason I couldn't sleep, thinking about that money and what a waste it would be if I couldn't, you know, sleep). This amount will not break us, but it ain't small change. I'm starting to feel like sleep apnea is not actually the diagnosis I should be pursuing (depression is), and am therefore feeling less than motivated to spend the money and go through the process again. Maybe that's just my fear of massive discomfort talking, though. I dunno.

In other news, this list of Time's 50 best websites for 2008 is pretty cool. I found some neat new sites to bookmark. I'm sharing it here so that I'm not tempted to make a whole separate post listing all of the neat new sites that I bookmarked. Go bookmark 'em yourself and save me the trouble.

Plus, they namechecked Achewood!

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~~ 8:14 PM ~~

In other news, Alice has gone up 2 shoe sizes in the past 6 weeks, and has started ordering off the regular menu when we go out to eat.

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~~ 4:05 PM ~~

I am really tired and in a bad mood, but let me try to write up the sleep study experience anyway.

I showed up for my appointment at 8:30 p.m., changed into my pajamas, and got wired up. This process took over half an hour. There were multiple sensors taped to my face. There were electrodes glued to my scalp (view from the left, view from the right). There were also sensors on both of my arms and both of my legs, but I didn't take pictures of those. Every individual thing had a wire coming from it, and all of these wires gathered together in a "ponytail" behind my neck. There were also three bands around my body. Wires from the bands, the pack attached to the middle band, the nasal cannulae-type thingies that were tied tightly around my head and stuck into my nostrils, an oxygen saturation sensor that slipped tightly over my left thumb, and the ponytail of leads from my head all plugged into box that I had to carry around with me until I went to bed, at which time it was plugged into the wall next to the bed, tethering me within a very small area (at one point one of the pillows fell off of the far side of the bed and I could not reach down to get it because the wires wouldn't reach that far). If I needed anything in the night, or wanted to get up and go pee, I had to knock on the headboard so that the technician would hear me on the monitor and come in to help/unplug me.

The sensors were monitoring my brain waves, pulse rate, breathing, any sounds that I made, tension in my jaw, movements of my eyes, oxygen saturation of my blood, EKG activity, and muscle movement in my calf muscles. Plus maybe they were monitoring other things, too, and I've just forgotten. I was also being videotaped with a night vision camera.

Once all of that was applied to me, I was on my own until I got tired. I tried to just hang out on the bed and read, but it was hard to find a comfortable position, plus I could tell that the technician was just kind of waiting for me to let him plug me in, so I ended up going to bed before I was totally sleepy, which was a big mistake. I'd tried very hard all day yesterday to ready myself for sleep -- I'd exercised in the morning, taken the kids to the pool in the afternoon, abstained from caffeine after mid-morning, and took a small dose of various homeopathic and herbal sleep aids that have helped me in the past before I brushed my teeth. Around 10:45, I got plugged in and the tech turned the light off, and then I laid there and tried and tried and tried to fall asleep.

It was not as difficult as you might think to get comfortable with all of that crap attached to my face -- I got used to most of it fairly quickly, even the stupid things that were sticking into my nose. But the huge bundle and tangle of wires made it incredibly difficult to change position, and a bunch of the wires hooked over my ears on their way back to the ponytail, which made my ears hurt when I tried to lay on my side.

Basically, it was like the worst night I've ever spent in a hotel -- tiny* noises from other rooms that aroused me just as I was drifting off, the insomnia that often comes with sleeping in a strange bed, etc. -- combined with that awful anxious feeling of needing to fall asleep and getting so stressed out about it that you can't fall asleep, combined with the incredible hassle and discomfort of sensors and wires and tubes and tape everywhere everywhere everywhere.

* And some not-so-tiny noises -- the toilets in the (shared) restrooms down the hall from me flushed with the force of a jet taking off. At least once an hour, one of the other patients got up to pee and I heard every single flush.

There was no clock in the room, which also bothered me; even when I am sleeping well, I like to know what time it is when I wake in the night. I must have fallen asleep at some point because I remember some really weird dreams about driving a car while my ears were stuffed with cotton, and other similar subconscious "body discomfort" echoes. I am pretty sure I didn't hit any of that REM sleep until well after 3 a.m. which means that I just laid there and hated my life for at least half of the time I was there.

At 6 a.m. they started waking the patients, which made enough noise that I couldn't sleep, even though they came to get me last (I could've dozed for another half an hour if the walls had been soundproof!). Removing all of the sensors and electrodes only took about 10 minutes, but left large amounts of gross sticky goop in my hair (had to wash that out with an extra-hot shower once I got home), and two large square tape-reaction marks on my face and neck (which are still there, and look really freaking stupid).

I got out of there about 6:45 a.m., and the sun looked like this.

I don't ever want to do this again, but I might have to do it again in two weeks.

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~~ 10:03 AM ~~

My sleep study is tonight, and I am feeling anxious about it. Given all of the issues I have around sleep, and sleeping, and falling asleep, and staying asleep, and sleeping in a strange bed, and sleeping without my normal coterie of pillows + stuffed animals + assorted family members, I am having all kinds of performance anxiety -- if I can't actually nod off, we've wasted a load of money on a sleepless night. Plus, they apparently wake you up at, like, the crack of dawn to send you home from a sleep study, so I'm nervous about having to drive half an hour home while bleary-eyed and exhausted. Also, I am not clear on what all I need to bring, and am having a hard time figuring out what I will wear to bed that will be both comfortable enough to let me rest and yet still fully decent for display to myriad technicians and fellow patients.

In other news, the girls and I went berry picking at a local farm yesterday and brought home over 5 pounds of black raspberries. I am gorging myself on them, as they are one of my all-time favorite fruits and (due to their short season, which I often completely miss) a real luxury item for me. I don't think I'm going to be able to eat all 5 pounds before they start to get sad and moldy, but I'm willing to try.

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~~ 8:09 PM ~~

Goodness, you know what I haven't done in quite some time? Post links. My "Links to Post" folder has gotten almost unmanageably large. Let's do a money and commerce theme today, shall we?

The One Month Coupon Strategy: A Really Clever Way to Make Coupons Worthwhile

Prosper -- a very cool idea for "P2P lending"

Top 5 reasons why "The Customer Is Always Right" is wrong

Family Finance: How to Save Money on Groceries

Gas may be heading to $7-$10 a gallon

Supah-cool "Ghost Goblet" wine glasses

The coolest detergent promo ever

The 50 best punnily-named stores

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~~ 11:39 AM ~~

I know this is no-screens time. I just got on to send the following email to Anth:

Subject: Ant mystery...

...(potentially) solved:

Sammy has been stealing candy from Alice's stash (i.e. the special candy that she got when she graduated from Lower School, and the candy that was in her goodie bag from Lilly's party), eating it in secret, and stuffing the wrappers down behind the cushion of the non-square orange chair. Looks to be about a dozen wrappers there.

We have discussed, in decreasing order of seriousness, the issue of stealing, the issue of eating extra sugar* and being unhealthy, and the issue of attracting ants.

*I've also removed a lot of the sugar from the house, and we are going out today to buy extra fruit to work on retraining her sweet tooth.

Fun!!! :P

Ohhh, good times. Bleh.

New sugar rules: high-quality dark chocolate only. No more of the junky stuff.

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~~ 10:03 AM ~~

In honor of George Carlin's passing yesterday, go recite the seven dirty words to someone you love.

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~~ 9:26 AM ~~

Summer screen restrictions go into effect today. No TV, computers, or video games* between 11 and 5 on weekdays. So if you need to get in touch with me urgently, try morning or evening...

* Exceptions: I can turn on the TV to play my DDR, since that's exercise and not killing brain cells, and we can turn on the TV to watch a DVD together.

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~~ 11:09 AM ~~

By the way, here are the movies I have seen so far this summer:

Iron Man (fun)
Kung Fu Panda (AWESOME!)
Prince Caspian (meh, like the book)

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~~ 10:16 AM ~~

There are a lot of movies I want to see this summer. A lot. And I want to take Alice to as many of them as I can, and we want to take Sammy to as many of those as we can*.

*This is both because it's way easier to get to the movies all together on a Tuesday afternoon when there's like 2 other people in the theater than it is to orchestrate time for me to get out without both kids on a weekend when Anth still needs to find time to mow the lawn and there's 14 loads of laundry that should be done, AND because Sammy's 6 now and she needs to start training to be a movie freak like her sister and mother.

So yes, a lot of movies to see, but I don't want to see everything. I don't want to see the Indy movie, or the Hulk movie, or the new M. Night Shyamalamadingdong movie. But I still want to know what happens in these movies, because I'm a curious bird, and because I like to "get" the cultural references that are swirling around me.

So I appreciate sites like The Movie Spoiler, which allowed me to decide for sure that M. Night Shyamalookslikecrap's new flick was not for me. And I adore The Editing Room, whose abridged script for Indy IV told me everything I need to know about why to wait for a rental on that one. And I proudly salute movie reviewers with the guts to meticulously spoil every stupid bit of The Happening or write a column-long slam of the Hulk movie in Hulk-speak.

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~~ 9:34 AM ~~

Clearly y'all will not let me skip the Melting Pot review, so here 'tis:

There were 6 of us -- me and the girls, plus my friend Sandy and her partner and their daughter. You can see the menu on their site.

First course was cheese; we chose two pots: one spinach artichoke and one cheddar. With that, we had cubed bread (3 kinds -- French, pumpernickel, and rosemary which was my favorite), cubed Granny Smith apples, and raw veggies (carrots, celery and cauliflower). Sammy didn't care for this course (both sauces were too complexly-flavored for her), but everyone else did.

Second course, salad. No tomatoes on the salads due to the Salmonella scare, which was a problem for me because I really really really love tomatoes on my salad. Anyway, the salads were okay. Alice got a house salad, I got the California. Neither of us cleaned our respective plates.

Third course, main. We got a pot of oil and a pot of Coq au vin (broth + red wine) for the table, and then each person ordered what they wanted to dip. Alice got breast of chicken and I got teriyaki marinated sirloin, and the two of us shared with each other and with Sammy. Sandy and her family got 1 chicken and 2 vegetarian. Besides the orders, we also got two pots of batter to dip before cooking, various assorted sauces, and some extra veggies. The girls and I stuck to cooking in the broth and didn't try the hot oil. The meat was tasty, but it was a bit tedious waiting for it to cook. One of the sauces that came was a creamy curry, which I ended up drenching everything I ate in. It was quite tasty.

Fourth course, dessert (i.e. chocolate). I wanted to try The Original (because it's milk chocolate plus crunchy peanut butter, yum) but got outvoted because there was a strong white chocolate faction at the table (fools!) So anyway, we got one pot of dark chocolate and one pot of white, and then with the sauces there were four big plates shared among us that each contained: a slice of cheesecake, two pound cake cubes, two brownie cubes, lots of sliced strawberries and bananas, two marshmallows coated in Oreo crumbs, two marshmallows coated in graham cracker crumbs, and four little cubes of Rice Krispie treats. Sammy declared that this course was heaven. I didn't try the white chocolate (why bother, I ask you), but the dark was very tasty, like hot fudge.

The meal was extremely enjoyable, I ate really well but didn't feel stuffed when I left, and the company was stellar. The bill ended up being about $200 plus tip for five people plus Sammy (she didn't order an entree or a salad, so pretty much contributed only a Shirley Temple to the total). I would not recommend this place to anyone not looking to drop a load of money, nor would I recommend it to anyone with kids much younger than mine, as the tables have two hot burners in the center of them, and they are on (and HOT) pretty much the whole time you're sitting there. Not for those short on impulse control.

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~~ 10:38 AM ~~

For some unfathomable reason, I cannot log in to either of my mail servers -- not only am I unable to get my main mail (which happens sometimes, maybe more often than it should, but hey, whatever), but I am also similarly unable to get my Comcast backup spam account mail (which never happens). Both mail servers are refusing my connection right now. WTF?

So anyway, I was going to just torture Anth with this link, but since I can't access my email, I'll share it with all of you: LOLTogether.

Sammy has this really nice Folkmanis puppet that a friend gave us many years ago; it's an otter. She's carrying it around today and dressing it up and tying ribbons on it and playing out various scenarios with it, but the problem is that she has its species wrong, and if she walks up to me and says, "Mommy, do you want to look at my beaver?!?" one more time, my smirk is going to become permanent. I'm just sayin here, people.

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~~ 11:01 AM ~~

Last night's dinner was great (more about that later). But it's looking like today will not be our pajama day, either, as I'm biting the bullet, sucking it up, grinning and bearing it, and various other cliches which indicate towards MASSIVE MATERNAL MARTYRDOM on my part.

Yes, that's right, I'm taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Good lord I hate that place, but we have a chance to meet up with some good friends who are going to be moving far away in the next month or so, and of course my kids love the big rat, so here I go, putting their needs before mine again. Bleh.

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~~ 9:25 PM ~~

I really need a "pajama day" to stay home and clear my head enough that I can get to all of the niggling little tasks that I've been putting off since June started. I didn't get that today (LLL meeting in morning, potluck for friends who are moving away soon in the afternoon), and I won't get it tomorrow (errands like weekly library visit in the morning, very special dinner with e-friends who are coming through our area in the afternoon/evening). Maybe Wednesday. *fingers crossed*

In the mean time, blogging will be light as I struggle to stay afloat on this wave of Stuff To Do.

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~~ 9:37 AM ~~

How cute is this??

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~~ 4:26 PM ~~

I keep forgetting to talk about Kung Fu Panda and people keep asking me about it, so here is my review:

A W E S O M E

I'm a sucker for any good kung fu movie, and this one was really great, plus funny, plus fun for all ages, so the kids could watch and enjoy it with me (which is one step in my master plan to build them up to watching Bruce Lee movies with me in a couple years, mwah ha hah)!

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~~ 10:30 AM ~~

Yup, we've pushed my sleep study back two weeks.

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~~ 8:07 AM ~~

Wow, we're finally back up. Almost 21 hours of downtime that time, and I'm pretty sure we've been down more than up for the last 3 days. Bleh.

So I have a cold -- runny nose, sneezes, itchy sinuses, and general malaise. I need to call the sleep study people and find out if they would still want me to come in tonight given that I am a germ factory and can't breathe right. How would they check to see if I stop breathing while I'm asleep if I can't breathe when I'm awake?!?

In other news, Sammy lost her first tooth last night!! That "I think it's loose" from a couple weeks ago got steadily looser and looser, and yesterday she had to have a milkshake for dinner because she knocked it so wiggly that she couldn't bite and could barely even swallow. Then right at bedtime I was carefully brushing her other teeth (but not touching the loose one, I swear!!), and when she tried to spit, she somehow knocked it so loose that it was basically just sitting in her mouth, but it took another 20 minutes of fear and loathing for her to let me pluck it out. So yeah, wow, big changes around here, man.

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~~ 7:10 PM ~~

Whatever I said yesterday that we were gonna do today, we didn't do it because I'M SICK and THAT SUCKS. Also, my server has been down ALL DAY and so you're not even SEEING THIS and THAT SUCKS, TOO.

If I'm sick like this tomorrow, I'll probably have to reschedule my sleep study. Whatever. Bleh.

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~~ 8:30 PM ~~

Stuff...

Sorry if you've had trouble getting here over the past day or so; the server that I'm hosted on had some serious hiccups.
Alice had her end-of-year school conference today and of course it went quite well. We all (Alice, the teachers, and I) agreed that this past school year seemed to be the year when Alice really got it all together, especially in the social realm, and we're all feeling really positive about the move from Lower School to Middle School (and Sammy's entrance to Lower School).
The girls and I went to the pool today (first pool visit of the summer)! We tried a different pool today -- one that Alice and I used to go to, before Sammy was around. We'd abandoned that one in favor of one that is further away but was more suited to our needs at the time when we were a mom plus a toddler plus a smallish big kid, but now the old place has been remodeled, and the kids done growed up a whole bunch, and we're thinking that maybe we'll start going to this one again. Tomorrow, though, we'll go to further away one just to compare and contrast.
I did a really good job of remembering to put plenty of sunscreen on my back and the back of my neck this time, and I didn't burn at all while we were at the pool. But then after we were done swimming, we decided to go out to eat, and we sat outside, and I got a sunny seat, and now the backs of my arms are all pink. Dammit!!
Big storms came through last night and broke the heat, but they also knocked our power out. (I am getting a little tired of this.) It was out until around 1 a.m. and I think we got really lucky to have it come back on so soon because apparently a lot of people in our area are still without power and may remain so for another day or more. Anyway, I had a hard time sleeping last night because it was hot (no a/c and no fan to bring the cooler night air in) and I was anxious about how I was going to handle our day if the power hadn't come back on by morning. Alice was restless, too. When the lights came back on at 1, we both ended up getting up for an hour or so and watching late-night TV together, waiting to feel tired. Hopefully we will sleep better tonight.
Speaking of sleep, my sleep study is on Friday. I'm interested to see what it's like, and rather looking forward to sleeping allll by myself (something I haven't done in well over a decade)!

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~~ 8:53 AM ~~

Man, I am glad the heat is going to break tonight, because the kids have got major cabin fever. They're basically unable to play together without squabbling and snarling, yet they seem to be equally unable to leave each other alone (trapped in the house as they are).

I tried to keep us out of the house as much as possible yesterday (doctor appointment, lunch, errands), and today will be more of the same (go see Kung Fu Panda, stop at Snip-Its to cut off the long hair around Sammy's face that she is chewing on all the damn time, weekly library visit, maybe a few other little stops along the way), but unfortunately I can't just get-up-and-go in the mornings. I need a couple hours of drinking my coffee, checking my email (which is currently down, dammit, and I probably won't be able to publish this when I'm done writing it, but I'll save it for later when my server comes back up), catching up with my online activities, etc. While I'm drowsily doing my morning stuff, the girls are at each other's necks. Bleh.

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~~ 2:12 PM ~~

Sammy had her 6-year checkup today. She weighs 37½ lb and is 3' 10" tall. Her blood pressure was 76/40. Heh. He didn't seem to think there was any point in testing her for a shellfish allergy beyond the reaction that she showed, so no more shrimp for the shrimp, which makes her sad.

In other news, Alice is now reading (at my behest) From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a book that both of her parents loved when they were her age.

And speaking of books from my childhood, Alice and I went to see Prince Caspian yesterday. We thought it was better-than-adequate but not quite stellar, kind of like the book. Man, we read that thing together in the past couple of weeks and I had not remembered how much of it is flashback and exposition versus action -- felt like 80/20!! The screenwriter(s?) had a job to do, making it into an engaging film, and it was well-done for the most part. My two biggest quibbles were: (1) thick foreign accents are not a good choice for a movie aimed primarily at the younger set, IMO, and (2) the special effects for the centaurs were really bad -- most of the time they moved like they were on dollies. Very distracting.

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~~ 11:11 AM ~~

I'm very sorry to say that one of the seven Founders of La Leche League, Edwina Froehlich, passed away this morning. Thank you, Edwina, for all you have done in the past 52 years to help mothers and babies. I'm lighting a candle for the light you have brought to the world.

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~~ 10:35 AM ~~

Heat indices of 105°F today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. Ooof.

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~~ 1:04 PM ~~

I just put this up to share on one of my lists, so let me share it here too: Alice at her graduation to the Middle School.

Posts referencing this moment are here and here.

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~~ 1:01 PM ~~

Sammy's party is in 4 hours. The cake is decorated and chilling in the fridge. The box is packed with all of the sundry necessaries (like plates and forks and stuff). I still need to make a cooler full of lemonade, pick Alice up at school, go get ice, and fill up the chest cooler (layers: Ice - drinks - cake on top so it doesn't melt in the heat).

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~~ 7:53 AM ~~

Alice is getting ready for her last day of school. We're all kind of making a fuss about the fact that, the next time Alice is getting ready for school, Sammy will be getting ready for school too!!

In other news, we're turning the air conditioning on today. The forecast for the weekend is for thermometers with stink lines coming off of them:

Ick.

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~~ 11:12 AM ~~

Oh my lord, I am so glad the party is not at my house, because my house looks like a birthday tornado hit it. Blurgh.

Sammy got the Bubble BBQ yesterday, and she is playing with it on the deck (with her sister). At their request, I've put on my famous 7+-hour playlist of assorted versions of the song "Popcorn". (I know I have a problem, but I am being nicely enabled in it by my children.)

Today I have to make the cake, stuff the goodie bags, decide if the goodie bags are sufficient as-is, and then also catch up on all the other stuff that has gone wanting for my attention in the past few days. Whoosh, I am beat!!!

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~~ 8:50 AM ~~

Happ happy birrrthday, happy happy biiirrrrthday, happy happy daaaaaay to Sammyyyy!!!

We've got a big day planned -- meals at her favorite restaurants, shopping at The Big Mall, and presents presents presents!!!

We're... Just having... A little trouble getting started on all of that. We had a rough night last night, and everyone's a little logy this morning. It's okay though, we've got time. It's her birthday alllll day!!

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~~ 10:56 AM ~~

Why is it that the day that my children decide to:

(a) pull out Guitar Hero again and play around with it

and

(b) dress up like rock stars in order to add verisimilitude to their Guitar Hero experience

turns out to be the day that the Jehovah's Witnesses come to my house?

I guess I should be grateful that they left before Alice started playing Shout at the Devil.

*snicker*

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~~ 8:55 AM ~~

Today is Sammy's last day to be 5, so I told her she needs to get all of her "5" things out of the way today. She seemed to know what that meant (even though I don't) and has been very busy ever since.

Today is also Busy Errand Day -- party prep, mostly. Dollar store, party store, Red Circle Boutique, grocery store, library... Gotta get goodie bags, plates and cups for the party, maybe a craft to have on hand in case the animals pall, ingredients for the cake, etc.

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~~ 10:35 AM ~~

Done so far today:

Got the kids up.
Made sure Alice was showered, fed, dressed, packed, and off to school.
Fed Sammy.
Fed Sammy.
Fed Sammy.
Paid and mailed bills.
Ate my breakfast.
Emailed the school to inquire about yearbooks -- when will they be ready, and how much will they cost?
Plugged the weed whacker in to charge.
Tried to catch up on email.
Realized I will never catch up on email.
Made the appointment for Sammy's yearly checkup. Must remember to bring her school physical form, and also ask about the hives she got the last time she ate shrimp.

Still to do:

Mail some cards off to friends.
Clean up the house a bit.
Do some work.
Try to finish watching the two DVDs I have out of the library. They're due tomorrow. Bad timing, that.
Run at least one load of laundry.
Put away at least two loads of laundry.
Play DDR.
Get a shower.
Finish making a bunch of lists like this one so I won't forget any of the things I need to do this week.
Figure out what Anth and I are doing when we go out without the kids tonight. (We were thinking of seeing the Indiana Jones movie, but I think that'd be too long to leave the kids with a new babysitter.)
~~Realize that writing this post is wasting time I should be spending getting things done~~ check!!

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~~ 10:51 AM ~~

Yesterday we went out for a special (just because) meal at a restaurant we'd never tried before. It was a really really great (though pricey) meal, but I am still full today because it was sooo rich. Yum, though, really.

This coming week will see Sammy's birthday, Sammy's birthday party, prep for the party, the last day of Alice's school year, a La Leche League meeting that we might help out with, a date night for Anth and me, plus regular errands like the Tuesday trip to the library, and the horrible emergency that we're almost out of onions (I can't live like that!). I will really really try to keep posting here, anyway, but if my posts just end up being lists of all the stuff I've gotta do on each day, well, please forgive me.

And speaking of birthdays, check this out, and then go send her a card. She's cool; I'll vouch for her.

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