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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Helloooooo Shirtless!

Okay, so this is pretty much for the girls into Twilight and Rob P.

http://www.robsessedpattinson.com/2009/05/shirtless-rob-sand-dots.html

Woohoo!


And now I return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

I Feel Like a New Person

Yes, that nap yesterday did the trick. I conked out for about three hours. No kidding, three hours. I woke up because I was hungry. Aaron was kind enough to take care of dinner. He ordered Thai. :) And we watched Ultimate Fighter. :)

The other very cool thing I found out is that the friend I ran into at the job fair put me in touch with some pretty cool people. Hopefully one of those contacts ends up turning into a job. That would be great.

So till I hear back from someone, I suppose I'll just have to cram down a few more cupcakes. Aaron was in the mood for something cakey earlier. I told him he shouldn't have cake since he wants to lose weight but he kept going in and out of the kitchen opening the fridge door and not finding anything to tempt him. So I caved and busted out the cake stuff I always have one hand. It's a habit I got from my Mom. She always had stuff to make a cake in the pantry. Kind of like a, make someone happy emergency kit. He had no idea about it till I hauled in my mixer. Thank you Michele!
It made him extremely happy but now we have about 20 cupcakes left over. Ah well, perhaps he'll share some with his buddies at the house/precinct.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Job Fair. Oh Joy!

After what had to be the worst night's sleep I have ever (Or at least in recent memory) gotten, I managed to make it out to a job fair today. I wish I could say it went well. It was about as a disappointing as finding out that the Easter Bunny's not real (Teehee... Ah, I made myself laugh).

But yes, I now feel like a zombie because I spent all morning on lines and expending the remaining shred of energy trying to look awake and eager. Meanwhile I was yelling at people to move out of the way and cursing lying coordinators when they listed "public relations" and "communications" under the listing of jobs. They were so not telling the truth. Bastards. Most companies there were looking for sales or IT people. Bleh.

So yes, now I am going to take a nap. I had some other musings running around in my head and a cute story from the American Girl store, but if I were to try to jot them down, it would sound like gibberish.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Wrapup

I've been away from the blog for the past few days because of kiddie birthday parties, cookouts and generally taking a lot of time catching up with the stack of books and magazine issues that have been building. SO if I have been sort of quiet, sorry. But I did do some catching up on reading blogs and first I would like to say thank you to LivingDeadNurse for the lovely award.



If you haven't seen the blog, I highly recommend it, it's educational. You get to peek into the mind of a nurse and get a much better appreciation for what they deal with. She's also got really nifty-ass music.

So here's what I have been up to...

Aaron and I tag-teamed the toy store and figured out what the heck to get munchkin number two. She's the princess. She really is, not only is she Italian and Jewish (we so adhere to certain stereotypes. Like me for example, I am so Asian at times, I swear I could pass for a panda. Don't ask about my Asian moments while driving!), but the grandparents outright call her the little princess. And she's been known to say "I'm a princess" on occasion. Her parents are toast once she becomes a teen.

Aaron and I also upped our runs, which lead to him sitting out from running for about a week. He really hurt himself, likely because he didn't listen to me when I told him he needed to stretch more. But it's all good. He's feeling better and whether he knows it or not, he's in for a good run today. :)

Besides, I have to make him start running again. His buddies are coming in in a few weeks for an all guys pow-wow. They're hitting the new stadiums and will likely be up to all kinds of shenanigans. The problem is, some of them smoke like chimneys and will probably test Aaron's will, whether it's on purpose or not, is yet to be determined, but it will happen. If he cracks, he'll end up throwing away over two months of hard work which will piss me off to no end. I mean seriously, if he thought the initial withdrawal symptoms were hard to deal with, wait till he meets up with me if he breaks.

So lastly last night we spent some time at my brother's in Jersey. It was a very nice night. We got to meet up with the kiddies and cooked out on the grill. We brought over the stuff for dinner since they always make us dinner when we're there. That, and Aaron and I really wanted to get out of the house for a while. We slept in and needed to get some fresh air. It was chill night. We had dinner, threw back a few beers and sat around chatting. Perfect.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Dinner Redemption

Since I have a bit of time on my hands, I like to root out nifty recipes, play around with ingredients and try to fix old ones or try out new ones I find in one of my several magazines. (more on the magazine thing later)

So yes, yesterday I took on a nifty looking pasta salad from Rachel Ray's mag and paired it with lovely grilled chicken rolls with tomato paste and basil (from the window planter!). I thought it was great. I love him to bits but mind you, but whenever I ask what Aaron thinks of something he turns into Mr. Food critic out of Top Chef. He liked the chicken and took no issue with it, but the pasta salad... It was a bow tie pasta with arugula (from my window planter!) red bell pepper, toasted pine nuts, boiled egg, Parmesan, olive oil and in the place of an acid, lemon juice and zest. As Rachel would say, "delish!" It's a great summer dish. He liked it, but thought the lemon was a little too overpowering then tried to figure out how to make it better. I can totally understand how the poor chefs on that show feel when their dishes are being critiqued. BUT, it kind of makes dinner a game. I try to make it so that he can't find a weak point in the dish.

So today I went all out just to shut him up. I spruced up my recipe for country fried steak and gravy (Montreal steak seasoning, It was a gamble but it paid off big), paired it with mashed potatoes and a lovely salad with the remainder of the pine nuts (I had a few left, so I figured why not). He didn't say a word and had seconds of everything! VICTORY!!!!!!!

So yes, the magazine thing. I have no idea how this happened but I get a lot of friggin' magazines and I don't subscribe to all of them.. The ones I subscribe to are the Rachel Ray magazine, Martha Stewart, Women's Health and I still get Time from my former work subscription. But somehow, I also get a ton of mystery magazines. I ended my subscription to Ski Magazine, but started getting it again two years after. Then there are the others like Architecture Digest, Cooks County and a few more I can't even think of. Again, I have no idea how or why. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if I start getting all kinds of sketchy magazines that will make the mailman think I'm some kind of degenerate. That, or the mailman is going to get angry with me for breaking his back with the added weight.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I've Got A Big Ball!

Ah, my husband... how I adore him and his refusal to ask me for things. Apparently he was talking to a friend from work who's a fitness buff. His friend mentioned that a good way to work out at home, other than running is to use a balance/fitness ball. Aaron came out earlier and asked me if I knew what one was and if I knew where we could get one.

I replied, "You mean, like the one I used to have in my old room? Like the one I brought over but have yet to fill because you get freaked about my stuff taking up even more space in the apartment? You mean the one I have in the closet right now?"

Surprised as always, he said yes. I got it out and filled it. After looking at it, speculatively for a few seconds, he asked me to show him how to do crunches on it without falling off. I did. I'm still not sure if he'll actually use it. But I've got it back and he can't bitch about it taking up space. Huzzah!

Need To Trim Toenails? Use a Toenail Clipper...

I'm slowly learning that I have a lot of tools. Well, no. I knew I had a lot of tools but I never realized just how many everyday, useful tools I had at my disposal until I moved in with Aaron.

Case in point, just a few minutes ago, Aaron was looking down at his talons and said, "I should trim my toenails." Then he went searching for the huge-ass clipper, that I am positive could have never actually been made to trim anything on the human body, except perhaps bones? He couldn't find it, which is a good thing, since the last time I saw it the spring mechanism on it broke. Yes, this thing they used to trim their nails actually had a hard-core spring on it to keep it open. I suggested he go through my nail case and get one of the toenail clippers. I have one meant for the wee toenails and edges and a big one for the big toes and the mean looking male toenails. He was pleasantly surprised. I asked, "You guys just aren't used to having actual things, are you?" I got a "nope" and a "watch out" as a piece of toenail came flying in my direction. I fled to the safety of the living room.

This really shouldn't have surprised me. I mean for heaven's sake, about half of the tools I have around the place are completely foreign to them. They had no clue what trivets were or a spice grater and they looked at me like I had three heads when I bought the hanging hooks; the ones you put on doors. Oh yes and my personal favorite, my adjustable measuring spoons. One has American measurements, the other has metric. They didn't know how to work them. I kid you not. So again, should I have been surprised that Aaron wouldn't have thought to ask me about an actual clipper? What can I say? I'm silly sometimes.

Still, I'm usually astonished at the lengths some of the men I know will go through to avoid purchasing a device that actually accomplishes a function or actually using something not immediately within arms reach. They would rather improvise, often unsafely. Perhaps it's something that goes back to the caveman toolmaker instinct, I don't know. All I know is that Aaron is not the only man I've seen exhibiting this kind of behavior. My brother has been know to actually use Xacto knives to trim his cuticles, nose hairs or stray strings on clothing. I've seen it! Then there's my Dad who will use shirts as anything from a sweat-rag to a dust cloth or a even a bandage, as he's wearing them! But then again, he's also used items in his tool box to trim nails. He once split his thumbnail and used a metal file from the toolbox to take care of it and yes, he has also used electrical tape in lieu of a band-aid.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Now It's War...

So, after my Mom laughed at me and my reaction to the mice, Aaron came home and informed me that I was on crack and that we're not getting a cat. He reminded me that my allergies made me completely miserable and that I would have to go back to cleaning every speck of the place again on a daily basis. And that if we were to get a cat, there's no way of telling how it would react to the place and/ or mice. Echoing what Michele mentioned at like 4:00 am. By the way, thank you again 'Chele the heebee-jeebee's finally went away a little bit after we got off the phone.

So yes, Aaron and I debated the point for a while till he decided to take me to Home Depot and pretty much get as many sticky traps and rodenticide as I could carry. I almost got the electric high-frequency sound emitter, but it cost a bit and we're not sure how well it would work. If anyone knows, let me know.

So I ended up wiping every surface of the place down and put my steam mop to work. Then we set traps galore at every possible hidden or dark little corner where the bastards may be roaming. And my vacuum is still plugged in and ready to go at a moment's notice. Bring it on squeaky!

Ooh yes, around late morning Aaron got a call from a coworker who had two Yankees tickets for today's game. This is I think the fourth game we've been to in the last three weeks or so. :) After the game, I checked the traps, still clear, but I have to finish wiping things down.

I'm Getting a F***ing Cat!

F**k the allergies! I'm getting a cat. Tomorrow if at all possible.

Since 1991, this place has been mouse free. Today, I caught two! The problem with living in such a large apartment building is that you can't control how clean your neighbors are and apparently all of these apartments are connected by the convector systems. Great. So clean and immaculate as my apartment is, two managed to find their way in here.

The first one we trapped and had trapped till tomorrow when we could find a way to get rid of it. I had Evan tear my coat closet where all my shoes are to get to mickey number one. After it was safely trapped I saw a buddy and it went toward my shoes! Now it was personal. The bastard came in from the direction of the heater/ air conditioner and it made a dash for the shoes. Out of improvised traps (giant metal bowl), I did the only logical thing I could think of. I grabbed my vacuum. This vacuum has eaten parts of the carpet before, so I figured Mickey wouldn't stand a chance against it. It didn't. This time, I went in. Thoomp! Got Mickey number two. It died on the way in to the container. Impressed by the success of my ingenuity, I went over to Mickey under the bowl. Thoomp! It too met its demise. Sweet!

The funny thing is that Aaron called me right after the first one was captured. He said we'd head out to Home Depot first thing tomorrow morning to get mouse traps. After the vacuum demonstrated another reason why I love it so much, I called Aaron. He said what Evan said earlier in the night, "Maybe we shouldn't have gotten rid of the cat."

So you know what? Feck it! I had plans to help Michele unpack, but instead, I think I am going to be heading to the humane society and getting an young cat. Fecking allergies I can deal with. Vermin, not so much.

So Michele, if you read this before I get to call you, I'm sorry I can't make it.

Hell, I'm not sure if I'm getting to sleep tonight.

Friday, May 15, 2009

THAT'S IT! NOW I'M PISSED!

What the hell is wrong with some people and why do they bother wasting your time with nonsense?

Job hunting is bad enough when you get bad news but to top it all off, I am really sick of getting these annoying as hell e-mails about becoming a sales representative for *fill in the blank* unknown insurance agency or to become a bank/ financial analyst. Or better yet, the nutty people who offer telemarketing sales positions. I have no idea why they do this and normally I ignore it, but today I FINALLY heard from the Manhattan Borough President's office, who after two months of stringing me along, by telling me they were going to make a decision "within the next week," (ONLY AFTER I CALLED FOR AN UPDATE) finally decided to let me know they are hiring someone else. Unprofessional assholes!

Like I said, I would normally not be this angry, it's just that I am frustrated as hell with this whole not working thing. As much as I enjoy being able to play with my cookbooks and have the house to myself and have all this time to work out, now working is driving me batty. And the bullshit e-mail was just the final straw. That really made me see red. I'm just happy I sent out replies to a few more places BEFORE I opened what was in the inbox. Otherwise, I would have been sending out pretty pissy interest e-mails.

Grrr....

At least I still feel somewhat productive. I did actually go running earlier. I did approximately 3 miles in about 30 minutes. Not terrible. Then I used one of the benches along the running path to do a series of push-ups and sit-ups (the ground was too wet).

But honestly, right now I feel pretty charged up enough to go for another hard run.

To Run Now, Or To Run Later?

I know I usually feel tons better when I get to run in the morning but it's kinda yucky out (I know, excuses, excuses) and Aaron said he'd run with me in the afternoon... Although, he hasn't really been doing that lately. He'll run during his meal times at work not to mention that when he gets up in the late afternoon, there's no telling what kind of mood he'll be in. Sometimes he'l be awake and his happy old self, then other times I get a barely functioning grumpy zombie whose conversations are just a hair more complex than, "Brains."

Grr... I'll make up my mind after my cup of coffee.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Another Montauk Monster!




Here's another thing about me; I love reading wacked out stories about mystery creatures such as the Mothman, the Loch Ness Monster, Aliens, Big Foot The Jersey Devil, etc. This is one that I have been following since I first caught wind of it. It's the Montauk Monster. Last year a mystery carcas wahsed up on the shore of Long Island. No one knew what the hell it was and apparently before anyone could really study it, it was stolen but quite a few photos were taken of it for all to wonder about. NOW a new mystery carcas washed up that resembles the one from last year and no one know what the hell this is. Ah the mystery grows. Loves it. :)

So what do you think it is?

OOH Yes, Here's the photo of the original.


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Cute But Evil

I love all my munchkins. They all have their own distinctive qualities. There's a sweet one, a sensitive one, a rambunctious one, a princess and the puppet master, but why does the littlest (also my Goddaughter) have to be the evil one?

I swear she is the cutest thing in the world but she's outright evil at times. On more than one occasion, I have seen this kid act completely sweet, smack the hell out of someone, then go back to being sweet, saying, "it's okay." Today she was playing with her older brother, making his teddybear dance around, she smacked him in the face so the arm went into his eye, making the poor kid cry and acted as if nothing in the world was wrong. Good lord!

Did I mention that this child is also the nudist in the bunch? Yeah she's going to make my brother's hair turn gray or she's going to make him pull his hair out.

Catching Up

I've been away for a bit so this is the quick roundup. :)

Last Friday I took my Mom to the spa as an early Mother's Day Gift. She has been under a lot of stress and she really deserved a nice afternoon away from the house, I got her a hot stone massage. She came out of there feeling like a million dollars and now wants to make it a yearly thing at the very least. I love my Mom. :)

Most of the family went up to my parents. We had a great time and she loved the bowl I painted her. I forgot to take a photo of it. Woops.

When Aaron and I got home on Monday we took my parents out for Thai at Sri Pra Phai. This really is one of THE BEST Thai places in NYC. They're rated extremely highly on Zagats, but sometimes their ratings are off. I've been there several times now and have ALWAYS been happy with everything.

Yesterday was supposed to be a day for doing housework and tidying up. But we ended up seeing Star Trek- AWESOME!!!!! Then our friend called us to tell us that he had two tickets to the Mets game. We went. The seats were superb! I mean it. WE had tickets in a suite! And they were free!

The View



Looky Who's Sittin' With the Rich People



Look At That Smile




By the way if Aaron doesn't look too happy it's because as much as he LOVED being there and loved the seats, his back was killing him. But it's all good, he got to lay down on one of the couches in the suite.

But other than that, it was a kickass day. We got to see a kickass movie, we had kickass seats and the Mets won!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Still Productive

It's a good kind of day. I had a long chat with some of my former work friends. It's always nice to catch up. My friend TJ got back from an extended stay in Mexico just prior to the whole Swine Flu thing broke. He's just fine. Thank goodness. Oh yes, and he is the only other person that I know who has gotten really excited about getting a cleaning apparatus. His new vacuum came in today while we were on the phone. Sadly, my other friend Robyn is still working in one of the kookiest friggin places I have ever seen. I mean really, had I not worked there myself and witnessed it personally, I would never believe the shenanigans going on there. I wish her the best and hope she can manage to gnaw off the tether or her foot and get away before the place goes down in an awesome ball of flame.

The phone interview went well. I should be hearing from them about what's next by Friday. I got another good lead and I will hopefully hear back from this other place by mid next week. Here's hoping. Girlfriend gotta get paid.

Ooh yes, Aaron and I went for a run again. I'm happy but at the same time, I'm not. The bastard can already run longer than me. It's not fair damn it. He's only been smoke free for a month. Grr... Ah well, I suppose it shouldn't really bother me since I was always a short distance runner anyway. At least I know I can take him in a sprint. At the end of our run we did a sprint. I wasn't sure how I was going to do. But I managed to keep a good lead. Yay me.

The other happy thing I got to start on was my Mom's gift. I'm painting a glass bowl for her. Again, I was going to acid etch it, but this apartment is not exactly a good palce for it. This kitchen doesn't have an exhaust fan and you kind a need it. I think it's going to turn out nicely. I'll take a picture of it when I get it done. It's been a great evening. Aaron and I ordered Thai, I painted, watched Lost and The Ultimate Fighter. I love days like these.

I'm Feeling Productive

Happy day, I got a phone interview done earlier his morning and I finally sent in my wedding album picks. Sure it took me about five months since I got them in, but I've heard of some people taking longer.

Ooh I also got my paperwork for updating my passport done and with any luck, I'll be sending that out with the bulk of my thank you cards later today. :)

It's simply amazing what a little bit of extra sleep and a BIG mug of good, strong coffee will do. I expect to be crashing in about, oh, 5,4,3,2,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Monday, May 4, 2009

Happy Kids




Aaron and I got to have Munchkins 3 and 6 over OUR place today. Their first time at our place was yesterday. We finally had my brother my sister-in-law and the kids over for dinner. Today my sister-in-law brought the little guys over while she was at a doctor's appointment. They seem to loooove Aaron's TV. He has one of those huge deals that guys buy to one-up their friends. Yeah, Aaron won when he got this thing. But I digress. I threw on Monster Inc. for them and gave them popcorn. This is the result. I love it!

We played after the movie was over but for a wee bit there, they really didn't want to be bothered. Which is a good thing. Aaron and I had to talk about a few things. Namely, what the heck we're going to do about his house keys. We went for a run earlier today and at some point his keys fell out of his pocket. We spent hours searching the areas where we were running but nothing. Luckily, his sister had a copy of the keys on her so were able to get them from her. The problem is, the keys Aaron lost also had our mail key and unfortunately, that was the only one left.

Sigh... ah well. At least the kids let us have some time to ourselves to talk. About five minutes after the movie, I tried to feed them something and then they were off running around the place. They seem to love it here. Number 3 says he think's out room is "sooooo nice." We just got new bedding and I went all out on getting the big decorative throw pillows so now the thing is super cushy (Aaron discovered it's great for kiddie bodyslams). Aaron thinks they love it here because of the large TV and because playing a video game on it is much more fun when the characters look like they're the size of a child (Number 3 now loves the Lego Star Wars game.) I think it's because when they're here, it's all about them, we let them get away with anything and because we give them fun snacks.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The Wrong Insurance

I swear Aaron has got to have the worst insurance package I have ever seen. Since we weren't married when he picked the package he went with he didn't really care if he had the HMO or the PPO. I told him to go with the PPO but no. The HMO was free so he went with that one. I thought he had actually listened to me. NOPE. I found out after my job ended and he brought home the paperwork to add me to his insurance.

Unfortunately we can't change it till the end of the year. BUT what really sucks ass is that one, you have to see a PHP (primary healthcare physician) before you can see anyone else and two, prescriptions have to go through a separate company. AND those bastards still haven't added me to his policy. I had my GYN call to transfer the existing prescription. All should have been taken care of, right? HA! SO this is the second month I had to pay out of pocket for my BC pills! Assholes!

I miss my old health insurance. Things were so much better with them. I was told that once this is all straightened out, I should be reimbursed for the expense. Sure, but God knows how long that should take. BALLS!

There, I feel a touch better.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Thankful And A Little Sad

Holy cow. I have spent the last solid hour crying my eyes out. I mean really crying my eyes out. I was going from blog to blog and found my way over to a family's blog dedicated to their son Parker who was battling leukemia. I won't go into the details, you'll have to read about him if you want. I don't want to write about what I read because it'll just get me crying again.

But this really got me thinking about how fortunate my munchkins are and how much I love each one of them. God forbid anything were to happen to them, I would be beyond devastated. This also got me thinking about people in the medical profession who can work with children going through this. They really are blessed. It definitely takes an extremely strong person to go into that field to begin with, but to work with these kinds of patients or when the child dies... Good lord... To deal with death is one thing but to deal with such a young death. Sigh...

That blog also got me thinking about the deaths in my family and how I handled them. Most of the time, I do well, but they have never been anyone like a sibling or a very young person, or a parent. I look at death as a part of life. I really do. At my grandmother's funeral I was the one who got my brothers and my cousin laughing while standing at the casket. My aunt was not amused. I told her that while I would miss her terribly, I refuse to be sad for her. She lived to 92, got to know her great grandchildren and had a wonderful life. While standing at the casket I reminded my brothers and my cousin about how she used to like to freak us out with the veins on her the back of her hands. I touched the spot on her hand which was then too smooth and said, 'look now she can make the vein go down without trying.' They looked at me like I was insane for moment, but it got them laughing. Then I started telling the jokes she used to tell us all the time. Then they started chiming in on the funny things they'll remember. For me that was a far better way to honor her life than sitting there bawling my eyes out and asking God, "WHY?!" She would have actually been pretty peeved about seeing that.

Then I got to thinking about one of the strongest people I've ever heard of, who coincidentally, happened to be a nurse, Aaron's Mom.

I unfortunately never got the chance to meet her. She passed away in 1994. Mrs. Krulik went to nursing school during an unfortunate time when AIDS was just beginning to make itself known and unfortunately, people would get stuck with needles all the time. It's believed she most likely contracted the disease around this time. She did not know about it for an extremely long time. By time she realized something was not right and got tested, the disease had progressed to AIDS. She died approximately two years after the diagnosis.

Anyway, she worked full-time until she got her diagnosis, meanwhile, she raised three kids as a single Mom (Aaron's parents divorced when he was really little) and even helped with the the Boy Scout troop and summer camp. She was a tough-as-nails lady who was into horror movies, art and Elvis. From what I hear, she was a fighter and a half who even told death to fuck off. I'm not kidding. During one of the hospital visits she told Aaron and his siblings that a woman in white, who she had never seen before, came into the room with a wheelchair in the middle of the night and told her, 'I'm here to take you, get in. It's time to go.' When she asked her what she was talking about, the lady replied, 'You need to get in the wheelchair, I'm here to take you. You need to come with me." At this point she said she got a bad gut feeling and asked the woman in white, "who the fuck are you?!" The person just repeated herself about having to go with her. Mrs. Krulik told her, "Go fuck yourself. I have kids to take care of. I'm not going anywhere!" The woman left but returned a short time later. Mrs. Krulik told her again to go fuck herself and to take the woman who was worse off next door!

Aaron and his siblings tried to find out who went to get his mother. The staff told them that no one would have scheduled for her to be moved in the middle of the night. Mrs. Krulik never saw the nurse again, but Aaron and his siblings pretty sure their mother did indeed tell death to fuck off, twice.

I still wish I could have met her. Aaron says she probably wouldn't have liked me much at all, at the start since I'm not Jewish. He actually seems to think she probably would have scared the hell out of me, which is probably true, but that she would have tolerated me and perhaps our similarities would have eventually won her over. His uncles, her brothers, seem to think she would have actually liked me a lot. Either way, I still wish I could have met the woman.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Babysitting And Being Had

I love my brother Alvin, but he has a bad habit of asking me for favors without a scrap of warning. Today he called me to see if I would babysit for him tonight. I don't mind doing this but I'm in the Bronx and he lives in Jersey. This is normally about a 40 minute drive but on a day with a home game...

I asked him if he would bring the kids my way since he was going to be in the city. He whined and said it would be too difficult because it would take him across the game traffic and he had to be in the city. I reminded him that I would have to go through the same gnarly traffic as well. He whined and made me feel bad, but I resisted. Then he put munchkin #3 on the phone (I have no resistance against the power of the cuteness). Bastard!

So my Mom and I went out to watch the two Munchkins (#3 and #6). Despite the two hour traffic to get there, most of the evening went really smoothly. I read to the kids. They like when I do that because I do voices when I read :). They ate dinner without giving me much of a problem. We watched Robots and The Incredibles and had some popcorn. They even let me pull them away from the TV for bath time and that's as far as the good behavior went. As soon as they were in their jammies and tucked in, the eldest began to cry. He was doing the big heaving crying which made the little one start bawling too. Oh lord! I called in the reinforcements. I separated them and brought the eldest downstairs to get him some water and have him calm down. My Mom rocks so she had babygirl out cold in about ten minutes. Number 3 was not going down without a fight. I told him he would get five more minutes downstairs then he had to go back up quietly. Five minutes later, he hadn't stopped crying and was now saying he wasn't feeling well. He said his eye hurt and kept rubbing his head. He and I have seasonal allergies, so I figured he was getting a sinus headache. I got him a warm towel to put on his head and put in his eye drops and had him lie down on the couch with me and watch the movie till he fell asleep. I would have given him a decongestant but I wasn't sure when his last dose was.

He was still wide awake when his parents came home. Stella (his mom) told me that she gave him his allergy meds before they left and that I had been had. He just wanted more TV time and was playing the sympathy card. Sigh... the damn power of the cuteness got me once again.

Why I Do It

A wee bit ago a fellow blogger, LivingDeadNurse posed a question and since I am trying to clear the noggin for a bit, I decided to chime in on this. (By the way, her blog has nifty music on it :) )

Why Blog:

I'm the type of person that will occasionally hold back on saying things in the moment. It's frustrating as hell sometimes. I'm getting better at getting things out but when I don't, this is the vehicle I like to use.

Plus, I'm just better at expressing myself in writing. FYI: English is actually my second language... go figure.

You can't go into enough detail on what's going on in your life on Facebook's Status box. Not to mention, sometimes you just need further explanation.

It's just easier to get the funny story out in one shot to a group of readers than to go down the line of friends to tell and retell it.

It's good practice. I've always kept a journal of some sort to work things out or just to get idea out on "paper." I have quite a few entries that I haven't published but held on to because they contain stuff I may work into that growing short story I've been writing.

Sometimes I just need to share stuff I come across and this is just easier.


I think that covers the basic reasons. :)