Saturday, November 30, 2013

No. Carolina

The family and I got back from North Carolina this evening, where we were visiting Jeannie's brother and meeting his fiancee.  Jeannie's other brother came up from Florida and her dad drove out from St. Louis as well.  So we hung out there for a couple of days, and had a fairly relaxing Thanksgiving, and Sam did surprisingly well in the car, especially today.  Today he slept for the first 2.5 hours of the drive and then just kinda hung out and listened to the music and looked at books and played quietly with toys in his car seat.  Very little fussing.  It was awesome.  Very thankful for that. 

What else?  Jeanners is gettin' her wisdom teeth out on Tuesday, which I am anticipating to be sucky for her, but I will try to keep her entertained as best I can. 

Had a nice little visit with the Beej on Tuesday night before we left.  Always good to see the Beej, and things seem to be rolling along pleasantly for him.  Wonder where he will end up? 

The time between now and Christmas should be very busy, work-wise.  Good busy, though, hopefully.  And the first holiday season of no-retail.  Huzzah!

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Loofah / China

Earlier in November I decided to buy Jeannie a loofah, because the loofah that she's been using has been falling apart.  So I went to target and couldn't find what I was looking for, and I looked at Bed Bath and Beyond but I couldn't find it there, either, so I said screw it and came home and ordered it on Amazon.  It was like 5 bucks and I thought it was weird that it said shipping would take 3-4 weeks, but whatever.  I figured it was just Amazon over-estimating how long it would take.  Well, 3 weeks later I thought it was weird that the loofah had not arrived yet, so I tracked the order and it said that the thing was somewhere in China.  And then it arrived yesterday, and sure enough, it was packaged up and shipped by some guy (or gal) somewhere in somewheresville, China.  My five dollar loofah.  I have a picture of a little Chinese boy hurriedly riding a bicycle miles and miles across some Chinese province and handing it off to some Mongolian horsemen, who take it north and sneak it to some Russian border guards, etc., etc., etc. 

Thanks for the loofah, everybody!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Retreat

My back/neck's been hurting for the last week or so, due either to poor leaf-raking technique or a monster-sized toddler who wants to be lugged around all the time by his pappy. 

I have come to the conclusion that I sometimes over-hyphenate, but that I don't mind and that I want it to be part of my personal style.  If it bothers you, I apologize. 

Yesterday we had a staff retreat at work, and we got a friend of ours to let us use a conference room at her large, international company's office building.  A building which was large and happened to be right on the harbor and had a great view of Baltimore.  And I was not expecting much from the retreat, because it was sorta last-minute and it seemed like only one person in the office really wanted to do it.  But I enjoyed it, because my boss did what I think was a really good job leading it, and it was productive and not a complete waste of time.  Plus, free lunch and stuff. 

















You know, if there's one thing I hate, it's having work done on the car. 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Contra

Last night Jerns and I went contra dancing for our anniversary.  Contra dancing is like square dancing, but instead of being performed by the Amish and hillbillies wearing overalls and straw hats, it is performed by aging hippies wearing skirts and sweaty headbands.  It was kinda fun, but I prefer my dancing to be monogamous, intimate, and sexy rather than communal and happy.  It was sort of like having to make small talk with a lot of different people, set to string band music.  But anyway, it's been on our list of things to do, and now it's done, and I don't know that we'll be going back anytime soon.  It left me dizzy and with a headache.  And I don't think it's something that's worth getting a babysitter for.  But it was good to get out and do something different. 

What else?  Work is keeping us busy, Sam is talking a lot and trying to say whatever Jeans and I say, and also starting to imitate us while we sweep the floor or rake leaves. 

We will be heading down to Jeannie's brother's house in one of the Carolinas -- I forget which one [Carolina, not brother] -- for Thanksgiving.  Also trying to see if we can get Jeannie's dad to fly down there, too.  Might be a bit of a weird holiday season this year....

Saturday, November 02, 2013

Wazoo!

Dracoola has ended, which is good.  Ready to be done with it.  Ready to have evenings mostly free, ready to not worry about the weather forecast, ready to not be screwing around with fishing line and fake bats made out of wood and felt.  The show, though, was a success, and mostly a lot of fun to work on, and a great way to start my job at ChesShakes. 

Jeanners and I had a good day of being outside today, she working on getting the garden cleaned up and me mowing the lawn and being on Sam duty.  It was a pretty day and a good day to watch afternoon light spill through the autumn leaves on the trees.  Sam got his first haircut yesterday, so he looks like a tidy, cute little boy instead of a cute, wild-haired, androgynous hippie child.  Mixed feelings about that, but he's pretty danged cute even without the curls.











Next week should be a busy week at work.  Lots of meetings about building-related things that I've been putting off.

It's been a little over 3 weeks since I've had any booze.  Hasn't been too bad.  I don't think I was ever really physically addicted to alcohol, but I was definitely in the habit of having a drink or 2 every night.  It's been fairly easy to substitute lemonade for my nightly drink and Sprite for when I'm out at social events.  Definitely nowhere near as bad as quitting smoking. 

The other day the writer of the Wazoo Farm blog left a comment on my last post.  It's weird, because I've never met her (she could probably best be described as a friend of a friend of a friend), but we apparently read each others' blogs with at least semi-regularity.  So I feel like I know her.  But I also feel like I don't know her.  Sort of in the way that you feel like you both know and don't know celebrities.  So when she left a comment on my blog it was kind of like having a celebrity leave a comment on my blog and made me feel special and a little famous.  Thanks, Kimberly!