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Skull Crusher One Eye

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Happy place, happy thoughts...

Don't want to leave up that last post, but don't want to delete it either. And I don't want to think about it right now, when I have a few precious moments to myself because C wore herself out in the pool today and is now napping upstairs.

Pictures from vacation!



This is C and D on the Cliff Walk in Newport...C really really didn't want to go, but I think she had a good time anyway.



C running in the water at Narragansett Town Beach. This is a pretty beach, with lots of rolling surf. I think it's one of the few places in New England where you can surf (other than maybe on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard, which are out in the ocean).



This is the house that C's bestest friend in the whole world, L, had use of (her dad's relatives actually own it. Why couldn't D have drunken Irish relatives with waterfront property?). We went to visit them on Wed afternoon so C and L could play for a little bit. They were thrilled to see each other.

Random

I bought an exercise ball - I'm currently balancing on it. Of course, I don't believe I inflated it enough (that was a workout in and of itself!) so I'm not seeing the benefits - it's actually quite comfortable! Although, perhaps you should check back once I've fully inflated it....Or if you hear a loud explosion, that was probably the ball exploding.

Was it a weird blog day? I couldn't seem to get into any blogs I read at work to even read, let alone comment on the few I do comment on. Or maybe Corporate IT is finally on to me and I'll just have to be content to surf the net. I do need some new sites to visit. The ones I have bookmarked are getting kind of boring (not the blogs, but the regular sites)....

I got a pedicure before we went on vacation (the 1st of July actually). Since we spent most of last week at the beach, the polish is all chipped and dull looking. I don't have another pedicure scheduled for a couple weeks. I wonder if I should try to squeeze an appointment in before that one in August? Are too many pedicures a bad thing? I do have a gift certificate to a day spa (from Christmas almost 2 years ago!) so it wouldn't be an added expense....and I have next Friday off....have to mull that one over. Should I get a massage too? (Should fat people get massages? Discuss.) (I'm always afraid the therapist would be talking about me after. Plus the robes aren't exactly modest with these child bearing hips).

HOT! It is hot and humid. I'm not complaining. It's July. It's as it should be. Plus, with our trip to FL scheduled for next month, I get to tell people the heat/humidity is not that different from what FL is experiencing (seriously, the forecast highs for the next couple days are only 3-4 degrees different).

Vacation!

So hard to come back to work after vacation. I have 2007 budget (like I’m supposed to know what will happen next year? If I knew that, I’d be playing the stock market from my beach front estate, not sitting in a warm office, blogging instead of working!), executive reviews (high level summaries of the things I work on, plus a few others because that boss has been out sick all month), and trying to prepare for a business trip next month. I need another vacation already!

Vacation was awesome. We spent most of Sunday and Monday at the beach as it was very hot in RI. D took a surfing lesson on Monday, C boogie boarded and body surfed and played in the sand, and I watched the surfing lesson, and helped C do the boogie boarding and body surfing. Except Monday I ended up with some sort of sinus/ear infection (and no, that wasn’t the trip to the walk in clinic) so slept all afternoon while C played with her cousins. Tuesday was a repeat of Monday (beach in the morning, sleep all afternoon).

By Wed I started to feel better, and with the weather turning cooler and cloudy, we went shopping in the morning. Wed afternoon found us meeting up with C’s best friend L and her parents at their beach place about 15 minutes south of where we were staying. The vacations were planned independently, so it was a happy coincidence that we were on vacation at the same time. Little Miss Independent (C.) kept wandering off on the sand dunes and trying to get L to follow her.

Thursday we had planned to take the ferry to Block Island (which is a small island off the shore of RI, very cute – shops and restaurants and beaches) but with the tropical storm heading to the Cape (Cape Cod) the ferry company couldn’t guarantee we’d get back that afternoon. If there weren’t three kids involved we probably would have gone anyway (we’re crazy like that), but faced with the prospect of potentially being stuck with no hotel room and a whiny 8 year old, decided to go to Newport instead. No mansions this time, just some shopping, lunch at an awesome restaurant (if you get a chance, go here!) and a short walk along the Cliff Walk. Then more beach with the rough surf in the afternoon. C was scared, but D and my brother stayed out boogie boarding for a couple hours.

Friday was Block Island day. Except on the ferry ride over, I notice C scratching the back of her neck. Looking more closely, there’s a bullseye pattern to a bug bite (which, being from CT, it gets drilled into your head that that is a symptom of a tick bite). Seeing as a couple hours wouldn’t make much difference, we spend some time shopping and lunching, get caught in a torrential downpour, and take the ferry back to go to the walk in clinic. Who were very nice, but couldn’t find anything to say definitively it was a tick bite. I have a slip for bloodwork in two weeks (apparently it takes that long for anything to show up in the blood). They didn’t want to start antibiotics because it would be a three week course and if they could avoid that, they would. So, now we wait. I’m not good with waiting. The slight consolation is that the redness went away overnight and she’s not showing any other symptoms. But I am still taking her for the blood work.

Saturday night was Larry the Cable Guy at Mohegan Sun. I won a few dollars playing slots, so that was good. And now we're back, trying to get back into the swing of things.

We're back!

We arrived back home shortly before noon today. D is back at work (sigh) already.

I am incapable of coherent thought, tomorrow at work should be pretty. I've checked a couple of the blogs I read, and can't even form a complete sentence to leave a comment.

We had great weather for the most part. Even the "tropical storm" didn't really affect us (some rough surf, which wasn't too bad).

I promise I will post all about the vacation, including the Larry the Cable Guy concert and trips to Newport, Block Island and the walk-in medical clinic.

So about that last post

Yes, I totally copied CMHL on that last post (I love Jimmy Buffett and as we're on vacation too, I thought, what the heck?). And, I thought if I put a date in the future on the post it would post in the future, but no. Stupid blogger.

Anyway, we're on the first of our two vacations currently. Rhode Island. The forecast is for hot hot hot and sunny - WOO HOO! Lots of beach time. Good thing I got the SPF 50.

Will be back in about a week with some pictures and probably lots of good stories.

Chilling in RI

License To Chill
By Jimmy Buffett/Mac McAnally/Al Anderson
(with Kenny Chesney)

Work, work, work
Big pile of it and the boss is a jerk
Just want to disappear
Wishin’ I was somewhere other than here
Livin’ for the weekend
Jump right off the deep end
With just enough money to buy

CHORUS

A license to chill
And I believe I will
Let the rat race run roll around
In the sun until
Trouble turns funny and songs get sung
With a little bit of money the night’s still young
Leave me alone I ’ve got a license
License to chill

Girls, girls, girls
Ain’t nothin’ like them in the whole wide world
So damn smart and cute
And it’s amazing what they pass off as a bathing suit
Winners and losers
Sailors and cruisers
We’re all qualified

CHORUS

For a license to chill
And I believe I will
Let the rat race run roll around
In the sun until
Trouble turns funny and songs get sung
With a little bit of money the night’s still young
Leave me alone I ’ve got a license
License to chill

A license to chill
And I believe I will
Let the rat race run roll around
In the sun until
Trouble turns funny and songs get sung
A one note samba lasts all night long
Leave me alone I ’ve got a license
License to chill

Part II

11. When it’s the week before vacation, I’m halfway through the work week and in good shape to leave and everything hits the fan at that point. Deadlines that are generous (a week) are not so generous for me because I’m on vacation for the original deadline. So everything gets pushed up and rushed and a not so great job is done. But it’s done (almost).

12. I hate leaving the beach for the last time at the end of summer. This is different from the I hate winter comment, because this is sadder. It feels like each summer is shorter and shorter, and the winters are getting longer. Before this current summer, we’ve been able to extend summer a bit by going to the beach after everyone’s back at school – warm water, sunny day, no crowds, but won’t be able to this year (C starts kindergarten!).

13. I hate that we don’t get to sit down and have dinner as a family enough. Growing up my family always had dinner together when we were younger (prior to sports and clubs and friends). C knows how to eat in a restaurant, but at home? Different story.

14. I hate that D’s worked every night for the last two weeks practically and I’m so sad and mad I don’t even want to talk to him. Then add in the fact he locked us out of the house last night when he went back to work (C and I were outside playing with the water in the backyard and he just put the garage door down – not maliciously, just a habit, so I had to take a screen off the window and talk C through unlocking the front door) and I just don’t know what to do. And why should I have to do it? Shouldn’t he have some responsibility to make things right?

15. That my mom won’t get to see C or my nieces graduate high school, college, get married or any other accomplishment. How crazy is it that I still have my grandmother (my mom’s mom, actually) and C doesn’t have a grandma? Sure, she has a nana, but trust me, so not the same thing.

16. I hate that I feel guilty all the time for working outside the home. That between work and commuting I should spend all the rest of the time with C, and in order to get any “me” time I have to take a day off?

17. I hate that my MIL wants to sit around and feel sorry for herself rather than spend her time productively. She’s still able to drive and is in relatively good health – she could do some volunteer work, or meet her friends for lunch, but no. She’d rather complain about the heat and how she wishes she could just “go” (as in die).

18. I hate that my dad is sick and truly has a reason to complain but hardly ever does. Helping him move furniture this last weekend was so sad – my big strong dad could barely move a shelf (ok wrought iron but still) without my help and had to take a break after the slightest exertion.

19. I hate the designated hitter rule. Play baseball like it was intended – everyone gets a turn at bat.

20. I hate that it took me so long to do this, and I’ll probably think of twenty additional things I hate after I post this!

I guess I’m supposed to “tag” someone, so I’ll tag Clare’s Dad and CMHL, when she gets home from vacation.

20 Things Meme, Part I

Les tagged me, and I've been remiss.

These are in no particular order:

1. The way our country seems so divided – blue state/red state,liberal/conservative, religious/non-religious. Can’t we all just get along? I realize that life isn’t fair, and everyone can’t always have the same playing field, but does it have to be this divided? Granted, I don’t have time to study the issues in depth (shame on me) and am relying mostly on sound bites for this feeling, but isn’t there some middle ground we could all find and work with that?

2. Getting up in the morning. Once I’m up, I’m ok. I actually kind of like being up before everyone else, hitting the road with the contractors in their pick-up trucks. It’s quieter, and the radio plays more music than talk (don’t ask me to think too early). The alarm going off? Hate that, especially when I’m nice and cozy in bed and everyone else is asleep too.

3. People who can’t make decisions. My in-laws are perfect examples. Drives me crazy. Two people in the family graduated this year (one high school, one college). The high school graduate got a party, but not until much discussion about who was available when, etc. The college graduate? Pizza at his parent’s house after the ceremony – no formal party. Pick a date, send the invitations, and whomever can be there, will. If they can’t, they won’t. You can’t please all the people all the time.

4. Slow drivers in the left hand lane. If you’re not going to keep up with the traffic, get out of that lane. Don’t these people ever look in the rear view mirror and see they’re leading a parade??

5. Wiping someone else’s butt. Usually my 4 ½ year old’s behind. Somehow she is under the impression that there’s a 2 wipe limit. I thought once she was done with diapers I’d be done wiping butts. I was wrong.

6. Playing “pretend”. I’m not good at it, and there seems to be all these rules that live in C’s head that I’m not aware of, and so I end up making my Polly do something “wrong”.

7. The weight I am currently at. I’ve never been this large before, and it bothers me. There’s no time to work out like I want to, so I give up before even starting. Then add in the worry about heart disease (my mom died of a heart attack – she was a smoker) and every little twinge becomes something fatal.

8. That C is and will probably be, an only child. I’d love for her to have a sibling or two, but between the crazy work schedule of D and the fact she’d be over 5 by the time someone else came along, I just can’t see it. And I don’t have that baby lust that some people have – when her best friend’s mom was pregnant I didn’t even have a twinge of “I wish I were, too”. And 8a would probably be I hated the whole newborn to 2 year old phase.

9. The mart Wal. For some reason the one by us seems to attract people you would likely see in the hills of some remote part of this country. They make a day out of it. You can practically hear the banjoes. Tarjay is much much better.

10. Winter. I hate being cold. I would much rather be hot (with access to shade, pool or beach) than be cold. I hate the snow, and the driving in the snow, and the way it gets dark early.

Part II soon, I promise.

Bloggy Thoughts

I read a lot of blogs - parenting blogs, mommy blogs, heck, even some infertility blogs (I'm not infertile, but I like the sarcastic, snarky tone some manage to achieve). But I'm not a good commenter. I have a couple blogs I comment regularly on (looking at you, Les and CMHL) but that's about it. I feel weird commenting somewhere I've been lurking for awhile - like I've been eveasdropping and it'll be noticed if I all of a sudden make a comment. "Oh, so she finally decides to comment and this is it?" Or the blogger has a regular group of commenters and I'm not part of that group, so I shouldn't comment.

Or am I just bringing all my emotional baggage from high school with me (that I can't be part of any popular group because I'm not cool enough, or in the case of blogs, a good enough writer?). I'm also sometimes afraid to share personal experiences because I don't want the author of the blog to think I'm trying to out do them. (I'm not neurotic, I just play one on the internet).

Or am I thinking too much?

Brought to you by the letter "P"

As in "Pool" - we spent all afternoon Sunday at grandpa's pool. Swimming, floating, jumping in over and over (cannonball, "pencil" (straight down) and ballerina spins). Grandpa made everyone hot dogs and hamburgers, and we brought the potato and pasta salads. C had to have a time out at one point because she was jumping in on her cousins right after they had jumped in...but it didn't put too much of a damper on the fun.

P is also for "pee every bed"....Since she was so worn out from all the pool activity, about 2:30 am she shows up in our bed. I just let her in and went back to sleep. Around 5 am D discovered she had wet our bed too, so laundry at 5:00 AM. Fun! I made her bed up with spare sheets and put her back in it, and she slept until about 7 am. yay!

Today was beach day - no pee yet. But I'm expecting it. She passed out on the way home and is still sleeping. The joy of being 4 1/2 and completely worn out from fun. Tomorrow might be more pool and a picnic.

Happy 4th o July!!