December 9, 2006
Today is Grand Lighting Party Day, and I’m pleased to report that, at least up to now, I’m relatively stress-free. Got the house cleaned last night and spent the morning doing some last-minute, loose-ends tying. For the last hour I’ve actually sat on my butt and watched a DVD. How cool is that?
December 8, 2006
Today is Grandma Frank’s birthday. She’s 81. I remember her age because last year we had a big blow-out surprise bash for her 80th that was awesome. Grandma Frank isn’t really named Frank, by the way. She’s named Mary, which is a lovely name, but she got the name Grandma Frank because she is the wife of Grandpa Frank and someone way back in the day started calling them “Grandma and Grandpa Frank.” When Grandpa Frank passed away, well, then it just got shortened. Grandma Frank is really M’s grandma, but since I married into the family I figure I can now claim her as my own. Which I do. Proudly.
December 8, 2006
I read something recently about people who let their need to be right overshadow their happiness. Instead of just letting something go, they feel the need to be right all the time.
December 7, 2006
Zozo is drinking from a straw!!! Yaaaaay! She’s still on the CapriSun, but I want to get her firmly rooted in drinking from the straw before trying something new, which will be chocolate milk. Figure we’ll have to wean her from the sweets. Thanks to Grandma Z for working with her yesterday. You have no idea how much we appreciate you and everything you do for Zoe.
December 6, 2006
Well, we went to Sippy Cup School last night and Zozo’s therapist determined that we should just bypass the entire sippy cup stage and move on to straws. I said, “I tried that, she doesn’t know to suck yet from a straw so it didn’t work.” Enter CapriSun. (Freakin’ huge kudos to Amy G. for calling that one weeks ago.) With the CapriSun pouches, you can squeeze the liquid up through the straw into her mouth. She latched on like there was no tomorrow and started drinking the juice like mad, even coming back for more.
December 5, 2006
Good news for Cardinal Nation: we’ve signed Carpenter for another five years! Yippeeeee!
December 4, 2006
I made some images of the ice-covered foliage around our house on Friday, but haven’t looked at them other than chimping on the tiny screen on the back of the D100. Thinking back, though, I’m pretty sure I boofed my aperture setting and didn’t get the depth of field I wanted. Grrrr. Hate it when I do that. I blame the extreme cold, which apparently froze my brain and made me forget a fundamental rule of photography.
December 3, 2006
We’re back home! I received a call this afternoon from my FIL informing me that we had power. Unfortunately, the situation is reversed from this past summer. If you recall, everyone around us had power restored and our loose neutral kept our house in the dark. For eight days. Well, this time we got our power back with everyone else, but my in-laws are still in the dark. A wire snapped between the poles in our back yard. Our power line comes in before the snap, hence we have power. Theirs doesn’t. It’s always sumthin’, ain’t it?
December 1, 2006
Howdy folks. Bad news….we have to indefinitely postpone The 2006 Grand Lighting Party. We’d love to still have it tomorrow, but it would be a huge bummer since, well, we have no power. Nada. Zip. Big goose egg. Kinda hard to light a zillion lights with no electricity. We briefly discussed having M rig up some sort of crank feature, where he’d run like a big hamster in a wheel to power it, but that wouldn’t work well because he’d probably just end up spilling his beer, which, as we all know, is a major party foul.
December 1, 2006
Usually, for the most part, I can look back at my past and be thankful and grateful for all of it, good times and bad, for it has made me who I am today, and generally I’m pleased with who I am today. I recognize my faults, though, and constantly work to improve myself through education, new experiences and surrounding myself with the best people possible.