Because it's been a while

I have been SO busy, what with work, family, life, and everything in between! But tonight I was able to get home before 7:00 and Sophie looked so cute with her hair all messy. I'm NOT good with hair and sometimes when we pick her up from daycare, her teachers have done something lovely the I can never replicate. When I take it out, it's all over the place and oh so darling. I've taken to calling her my pixie, as that is what she looks like to me.

So here are some pictures of our adorable, growing little girl.

And if anyone is curious, this is what I'm so busy with!

Is there rehab for Clinton supporters?

Yesterday, I was at work, filling my coffee cup with what passes for coffee, when one of my coworkers - and only really vocal Republican at the Library - asked me, "So, how do you feel about the Clinton's these days?" Without considering the vulnerable position I was putting myself in against my political nemesis, I said, "THEY LIE!! They're outright LYING about what Barack Obama is saying and then look at the camera and say, 'I'm not making this up', except the are!" My rant continued and the proud, smug look on this Republican's face continued to spread.

I am specifically talking about this:

OBAMA: "The Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years."

BILL CLINTON: "Her principal opponent (Obama) said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good ideas. It goes along with their plan to ask Republicans to become Democrats for a day and caucus with you tomorrow, and then go back and become Republicans so they can participate in the Republican primary. I'm not making this up, folks."

Uh, yes Bill. You are.

I thought about it all day, and throughout the night as well, and frankly, I'm even more pissed off than I was yesterday! I loved Bill Clinton and I am not too proud to admit it. Maybe I was taken by his charm, but he was a great president and I was so pleased to see the work he was doing after his term. But now? Seeing him on the campaign trail? I really believe that he and Hillary will stop at nothing to win this election. And that includes outright, blatant lying.

I have lived through nearly 8 years of lies. As a result, thousands of people have died. Hundreds - maybe thousands - of people have been tortured. Phone calls have been tapped. Civil liberties have dissolved. I'm sick of it. I am a citizen of the United States of America and I demand greater accountability from my elected officials.

One of the most frustrating thing about this whole damn situation is that I live in Kentucky, where the primary is held second to last in the country. My vote doesn't count. I have absolutely NO SAY in whether we will elect hope or lies. All I can do is pray that hope wins because if we have another term of lies, I'm not sure our country and its democracy will survive.

a weekend is too short, no matter how long

Today is Monday and tomorrow I return to work after 3 days off. This weekend has been great. The house was ALREADY CLEAN when it started. Now, how often does THAT happen? I saw some friends Saturday night, which was lovely lovely lovely, and finally changed out of my pajama's this afternoon after wearing them for... 36 hours? Wow, did I just publish that on a public blog? Anywaaaaay, I spent yesterday and today laying on the couch, playing with Sophie and reading her book after book. Today (after putting on real clothes) Sophie and I went to the park where she thoroughly enjoyed the slide and we both enjoyed it being warmer than 7.

Can I just talk about this child real quick? She is so cool. I can't believe how her personality is really starting to shine. She decorated herself in my (clean) underwear today and carried my alarm clock to the dinner table Saturday night. I've really seen an increase in her attention span, as she's less likely to rush through the pages of a book. Her words are increasing too, but she's in the stage that only her daddy and I know what she's saying. She has a couple of annoying habits, most prominent being that she gets FRUSTRATED very easily, and resorts to screaming. We don't intervene unless the situation is dire (like when she got stuck between the love seat and the chair, legs flailing) or if her safety is at issue, but still... we try to get her to calm down and work it through, but I think this is a work in progress, and one she has inherited honestly from her mama.

I've been playing a lot of online scrabble and have subsequently been noticing words. Here are some of my favorites (not necessarily because of their play in scrabble but because they're nice to say, or they make me feel happy)

Circuitry
Bliss
Epiplectic
Untieing (this one used all of my letters and gave me 80 points - Critical in my win against Roy!)
Mirthful

We watched a couple of movies this weekend, too. Eddie Murphy's 1983 Stand Up routine, Delirious, which is freaking hilarious if you can get through the first 15 minutes or so. We watched Gross Pointe Blank which is a love story, but not a chick flick. I asked Roy what made it so and he said it's because they didn't take their sappiness seriously. I think that's true. I also watched The Royal Tennenbaums which would have to be in my top 10, perhaps even top 5, favorite movies. I love the writing, the music, the humor, the inappropriateness...

So 3 days off and I was lazy. I did some productive things: Laundry. I made meatballs for supper. Finished a beautiful mohair neck warmer and started a pair of socks. And I guess, best of all, I rebooted. Shut down and turned back on. The last two weeks have honestly been pretty bad. There are a number of reasons why we've struggled, but one was that our cat, Tigerlily, went missing about a week ago. Wendy's been a mess. Roy and I couldn't open the back door without expecting to see her jump off the car port and run in FAMISHED because she hasn't eaten in at least 45 minutes. Well, today Tigerlily re-appeared on our front porch. She wasn't her usual spunky self, but she was back with a story we'll never hear. She brought back with her the glimmer of good things, good things that were made recognizable by a relaxing, wonderful, 3-day weekend.

I don't smoke crack, I play Super Mario Galaxy

I have nearly 1,000 Star Bits, and that's after feeding 400 to a hungry Lumas! She needed to eat so she could transform into a new galaxy. I have 8 Stars and the spaceship the Toads are building has been completed. Where are they going to fly!? Are the going to save Princess Peach?? And why am I not allowed in the other observatory?

We bought Riley Super Mario Galaxy for Christmas and he wasted many hours playing this game last weekend. Normally we limit his video game playing, however it was our Christmas with him and I saw at as the equivalent of gorging himself on candy Halloween night. It's just something kids gotta do!

Sunday, while Roy was taking Riley home, I started my own game. Holy Shamolie. People, this game ROCKS. I am not a connisouer of video games, but I've played my share. I think the best thing about this game so far is that it's just pure fun. The graphics are great, no doubt, but so far I haven't gotten to anything that has frustrated me as much as Zelda, Twilight Princess, and it's so quick, it's easy to get hooked; like when you're reading a great book and keep telling yourself , "one more chapter... one more chapter."

Am I an addict? I don't think so. I mean, Sophie doesn't seem to mind climbing the kitchen shelves to get her own goldfish and Wendy's been great about sharing the water in her dish.

Last night I went to a dinner party smelling like puke

Around 3pm Friday I got a call from Sophie's daycare - fever of 103. "I'll be right there." With a quick g'bye to my office mates, I was out the door with my cell phone tight against my ear, talking to a nurse. Sophie's never fully recovered from being sick in SD, is currently on antibiotics for what is proving to be a very persistent ear infection, and I didn't want to take any chances. When I got to the day care, Sharon, the owner, was cooing over her in a crib, and Sophie looked just pitiful. But by the time we got her to the car, she was smiling and jabbering like she had not a care in the world. Did our child hold the thermometer up to a lightbulb? Roy and I asked ourselves.

We kept the appointment with our wonderfully wise and patient pediatrician and insisted to him that we made it in good faith. Indeed, after 7 days of antibiotics, her right ear was still painfully inflamed. She'll be fine, he said, but we had a decision to make: 10 more days of antibiotics or a shot. He said he thinks this is an infection she got in late November and just hasn't totally gone away, so any time she gets a runny nose, it inflames. So, we went with the shot and Sophie got MAD. I held her and rocked her and she thanked me by crying so hard she puked all over the back of my coat.

Every year, our dear, dear friend Bret has a holiday dinner party. He sends out an incredible menu of appetizers, entree's, sides, and dessert and we have the agonizing decision of choosing between Filet Mignon, Pork loin in a cherry reduction, Chilean sea bass, and on and on. Tonight was this dinner party and we were headed straight there from the doctor, puked on or not.

Roy cleaned me up and I continued to console our angry little girl and we finally got out of there, with the aide of a banana flavored dum dum. To the liquor store, and on the granny's where she spent the evening feeling perfectly fine, albeit a little snotty.

The dinner party was magnificent. Laid back and delicious. Roy and I were the first ones to arrive and were able to spend some good time with Bret before the rest of the heathens - er - guests arrived. Because of the presence of Roy and Bret's brother, Chad, discussion of politics was banned from the dinner table, so they had to get out prior to. While they went at it, I had a great conversation with Roy (and so much my) cousin, Mallory, about babies and arranging a regular playdate between Sophie and her little one, Aiden. Our talk continued at the dinner table and it was great to catch up with her. The food was spectacular, as we all knew it would be, and by the end of the night, Michael Moore had been banned from the table and we were dreadfully close to not being able to talk about music anymore as a HEATED debate broke out about Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles.

There was much laughter, and much enjoyment, at this dinner table and Bret was a gracious host. He even quietly tolerated the whipped cream fight that always seems to follow his dinners.

Home, my head buzzing slightly from the red wine, we put Sophie to bed and snuggled in to our own.

At 6:30, I awoke to cries. "She'll go back to sleep" I told myself. "It's too early for her to be up". Alas, I tried to bring her to bed with us and she refused. Up we got, a pot of coffee set to brew, and we sat on the couch with raisin bread, milk, and books. I turned on the Fine Arts Channel and we listened to Ravel and Strauss, watched the ballet and Sophie sang along with the opera. I read my book ("Water for Elephants") and she read hers ("Tails") and we each marveled at what was on the pages.

I watch her now, pouring herself tea, laying on a stuffed animal that's almost as big as her, and holding what is a very important conversation with her Mushabelly.

These are my bookends.

What a lucky girl am I.

bloggers block

I've fallen behind on my blogging. I think this is for a number of reasons.

1. Work has been ridiculously busy. And while I don't blog at work, I come home exhausted. I don't even have the energy to pick up my silk/merino blend and work on my cabled fingerless mittens! THAT is tired!

2. Like 99% of the rest of the people in Kentucky, my sinus's ache. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. Directly behind my eyebrows is a dull pain that just won't go away without the aide of ibuprofin and there's only so much of that I can do.

3. I've been trying to remember 2007, to wax poetic on the year that was. I've read old blogs for inspiration, I've wracked my brain thinking about what happened... it was a great year. I remember that much, but I'm lost on the specifics. As my first full year as a parent, is this what I have to look forward to?

So I guess I'm just going to write what I've been thinking lately.

I am so PUMPED about election season. For those who don't know, I am all about Barack Obama. Roy and I were watching the NH primary like it was a football game. As we watched the vote difference go from 3029 to 2064 to 4012, it was like watching our beloved Cats try to make a first down.

I'm not big on New Years resolutions, but I made one this year. And it's more of a life resolution. I have resolved to GET OVER IT. I have a tendency to dwell on things I have no control over, and things about people that bother me. I need to just learn to move on and get over it! It's so so so hard, but it's detrimental to my psyche. We are all works in progress and this is something I really need to work on. It's been really hard. If any of you have been there, I could use a little direction.

Sophie is getting SO big. She turned 16 months this week and it's amazing to me how much she is learning, how much she knows. She finished breakfast this morning and put her cup on her plate, and moved them to the table so her tray was clean. She has really latched on to certain books and we have to read them over and over and over again. She loves to be chased around the house and has started to throw glorious temper tantrums - usually over not getting her blessed goldfish. (I swear, they put crack in those things.) She's practicing words and it's so cute to see the progression. Shoe is currently Shee, Milk is mmmm, that kind of thing. She loves animals so much and is trying desperately to say hee haw, but just can't get it. It's so adorable. I found her last week sitting in the hallway in front of a basket of folded laundry, decorating herself with wash cloths. (Katie, I had visions of Greta in that moment.)

I am officially ready for spring. I think I would've been fine if the temperatures this week had staying in the 30's, but I was walking around with no coat on Tuesday! NO COAT! That glimmer of spring ruined me for winter.

So that's my life in a few paragraph summary! I have other thoughts rattling around in this mucus-filled head of mine, but they'll have to wait for another day. I have a filthy bathroom, dog hair covered floor, and dirty sheets to contend with. Onward ho!