Friday, August 21, 2009

It hasn't been since 2001.

My best friend, April, took me out to a dinner and a movie for my birthday. (Upcoming. It isn't yet.) The last movie that I saw in the theater was America's Sweethearts (not a really good movie, by the way.) She said that she looked it up. Folks, that was in 2001.

So where did we go and what did we do? We went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. We opted to go with sides because there would be way too much food otherwise. (K- was wondering what Mexican food was, I told her it was kind of Taco Bell and she asked, "Oh! Did you have twist ties?! I love the twist ties!" No, no cinnamon twisties!) Of course, it decided to rain cats, dogs and a variety of other mammals when we were due to leave. We made the mad dash to the car and off to the theater in a somewhat blinding rain that subsided soon enough. But what does a blogger and a blogger attempter (April is having some blog issues) go to see? Julie & Julia.

There were points that I laughed so hard that I literally cried. First we laughed at the older people who seemed to huff and stare at me when I whispered to April BEFORE the movie. We laughed that there were only 18 people total in the entire theater. We laughed at Julia chopping onions. We laughed at the lobster flipping the lid from the pot. We laughed at the aspic clogging the sink.

We ate. We laughed. We had a good time. Thanks, April! I haven't had a girls night out in a long time!

Things in my day:
- My hovering panic attack about work. Because Monday mornings have been bringing me a "talking to," I found myself working myself up about it today. Monday is days away. I need not worry about it. What will be is what will be. I love my job.
- K-'s trip to the dentist was less than fantastic. In the throes of last week's viral funk, she kept crying that her tooth was hurting her. I got her in today and the fear is that she will have to have the remaining portion of the root canal done. (She had a baby root canal AKA a pulpotomy, which stops at about the roots, whereas the pulpectomy takes all of the pulp out. This is if memory serves from my dentistry research from Google.) Folks, she bit the dentist. She also wouldn't cooperate at all, but he understood. The big issue was that she checked out the tool tray as she walked in. She saw the shot sitting on the tray and refused to sit in the chair. Skipping the assorted details, we have an antibiotic for her to take, we'll go back on Thursday evening to have another check and an x-ray done. What Dr. Rick is treating her for is a possibility that the infection that she had last week pocketed under her tooth. There is no sign of infection, as everything is healthy looking. If the x-ray shows nerve stuff, we'll either have Dr. Rick do the 10 minutes of work at his office, or be passed on to a pediatric dentist who will either strap K- to a papoose board or want to put her to sleep for the work. She's good for cleaning, just not so good for work. Dr. Rick said that he understands, as she has had a fair amount of dental work done for her age. (A filling that popped out 4 times in one tooth (twice in the office as it was being filled) before changing filler composite, a nerve died and required a root canal and now this.) He said that he was thrilled to know that it wasn't another tooth, but one we were dealing with. He said that at least that way, her other teeth were holding. We reviewed what we do and we are doing exactly as Dr. Rick wants. Isn't it amazing how K-'s prenatal stuff is biting us in the teeth now?

Smiles in my day:
- I'm getting my hair cut. I don't quite know how. I'm not good at the female priority of hair cuts, changing purses, nail polish and the like (I do my hair and I do wear make-up). When I get tired of my hair, I want it cut then. Kelly was going to cut it today (Thursday), but she was ill. We had to reschedule for Friday. It was a better time for me anyhow.
- I got the baking done that I needed to do for a friend's guitar review. The baked goods will be in Milwaukee on Saturday.
- Hubs cleaned up my mess from all the baking when I was out with April. Thanks, Hubs!
- We made it to K-'s park program today. It was on seeds.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Works for Me Wednesday: Sunprint Kits


I'll start off this week's Works for Me Wednesday by saying that I was a printmaking major in college, so anything that is a print-type thing really makes my heart sing. As K- was in recovery from her nasty funk (the beginning funk post is here), I was doing anything I could to get her motivated to get out and moving. I forgot that I had purchased a Sunprint Kit that has been sitting on our microwave for longer than I care to admit. We decided to pull it out and give it a go. The kit we had was the refill, since I also have a leaded glass studio in the house and obviously it was unnecessary for me to pay the extra for a piece of acrylic when I have more sheets of glass in the studio than I can tell you. (Eventually, I'll unearth the studio again and show you some pretty pictures.) Here is what we created:We have Lemon Bee Balm, Lavender, Coreopsis, Crown Vetch and Impatiens with a Petunia. A perfect, easy craft for any age on a sweltering summer day. In fact, as K- took a nap, I did a print from things outside for each letter in her name. We plan on framing them.

Sunprints work for me!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Not in lights, but in print.

The Cleveland Magazine fact checker called today to confirm the information in the article, the spelling of my last name, the place that I work and my title. My friends, I will be in print in the October issue. Hooray!

Thunks to the forehead:
Was it really necessary for someone to abandon a $50.00 package of steaks on the shelf next to the apple juice? The package seemed recently abandoned, so I walked it back and there was someone from the meat department re-stocking the cases. She thanked me profusely for bringing it to her. We all complain about high prices, yet abandoning an expensive package of meat on a store shelf is just adding to the problem.

Smiles in my day:
- K- and Hubs went to the African Animal Safari where K- got to "ride in the front seat because it was a special occasion, Mom" and were able to cheer a pig named AJ on in the pig race. I asked Hubs about the relationship of the pig race to the African Safari and he said that it is just incredibly cheesy, but she just loves it.
- We had ANOTHER meeting today involving the floor manager, gallery director, one of the owners, Julia, me and another co-worker. We discussed what was expected of each of us. The owner told the floor manager that if a display gets changed, whoever is getting upset over it just needs to get over it as I'm display and that is my job. Hooray! The owner backed me. (I can hear the angels singing Hallelujah!) Hopefully now the floor manager will get out of her funk with me and leave me to do my job.
- Hubs' mom and dad are back in town, their flight was much more smooth on the way home than on the way to Milwaukee and the toilet that was broken was just a seal that needed replaced. (It broke on K- and I had to shut the supply valve off to get it to stop running.)
- My dad dropped off 2 yards of gravel. It will be the base for our new shed. The gravel? He got it with his discount which saved us $60.00! Thanks, Dad!

Monday, August 17, 2009

K- on the mend

Flowers for Mr. Don and Mr. Glenn. (Lime green nicotiana.)

I'm going to scab out on giving full details of the weekend, as it continued to be puke clean-up, begging a kid to eat, or even drink and finally the sun came out and K- started feeling a bit better Saturday evening. She played with sidewalk chalk (hence the blue handies), the hose and washed her wagon for HOURS! Bless her babyson heart. It makes a mama happy.

So with that, I'll be a little scarce for the next week and a half. Oh, I'll post here and there, but not big long extensive things. It's not that I have nothing to say. Good Lord, mom said from the time I started to talk, I've never shut up. Nah. I have Miss Thing going to school next week and I'm a traumatized mama. I know, there are folks who can't wait until the yellow school bus rolls up. I'm not one of those mamas. I've never told K-, as I don't want her to be distressed about starting school because mommy will miss her. No, I lump it. Next Wednesday morning, when I walk her to school, I'll probably cry all the way home. As long as I remember Kleenex, it's all good.

So, I love you guys and all, but I'll be in. I'll be out. Don't worry! I'll still read, but my baby is growing up. We need to do that last bit of summer cramming while we can.

Smiles in my day:
- K- is feeling better!
- Hanging out at the fire tonight with Hubs until 11 PM. We were able to hang out, listen to the critters and just talk.

Things I've learned:
- Whoever gave me the advice of having a child sleep on a bath towel and put a trash can next to the bed on another bath towel needs to be kissed. It saved many bed changes last week.
- A bucket of soapy water, a sponge, a hose, a bucket of sidewalk chalk and a plastic Step 2 wagon will keep a child occupied for HOURS.
- Apparently, I suffer from squirrel mentality. I regularly clean out the refrigerator, but the freezer gets purged only a few times a year. I found where all of my freezer containers got off to. I found some chicken corn chowder from last fall, turkey from Thanksgiving, pizza sauce from last Halloween, chicken pot pie from this past winter, homemade pizza from the winter, orange slices, lemon wedges and a variety of frozen vegetables that needed to hit the ditch. Really, I need to do a better job of scheduling in leftover consumption.
- 75% off red dot items in the dollar aisle at Target make both me and K- happy. We left with happy things to decorate her backpack with, nifty school pencils, nail polish, a pencil pack o' gifties for her friend next door, a paintable ceramic seal, a flower hole punch, an ice pack, and a bucket for pencils for K-'s desk at home (13 items total) for all of $3.75. That's good stuff.