Ahem...

Mrs. Languageperson (apologies to Dave Barry) is annoyed.

Just what the hell is a 'babydaddy'? What ever happened to 'father'? Maybe it's because the mother doesn't expect that the male parental unit will actually be in the child's life unless he's forced to pay child support? Or maybe it just sounds nicer than 'sperm donor'...?

You may now go back to your lives...
- posted by Stephanie @ 9:03 PM

 

Lep Trick, Albuquerque 11.02.05
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What a lovely vacation I'm having!

Can you feel the sarcasm? I knew that you could.

Sunday, the water pump in my ancient washing machine broke. The dryer's on its last cycle (literally, it only works on one heat setting now) and it won't stop tumbling unless I shut it off manually. Tosses lots of socks out onto the floor when I want to see what's dry. So we spent Sunday appliance shopping. *shudder*

Monday, I had an appointment with the dentist to get my one remaining wisdom tooth pulled, and to see if we could save two cracked molars by building them up for crowns. They'd cracked too far, dammit. Right below the gumline. So, long story short, I've got two healing spots on the right side, one on the left, and I'm saving up for the bridges I get to have done once the gums are fully filled back in. I'd like to go back in time and just smack the crud out of those protesters who kept the flouride out of the water when I was a kid. Flouridated water wasn't a communist plot! It was so Steph'd keep her teeth! They just wanted all of us gumming our food like they knew they'd have to when they got older.

Sipping smoothies and eating scrambled eggs and dreaming of meat, that's me. Positively craving a green chile cheeseburger. Mmmmm...

I'm glad there were no small children at the laundromat on Monday when I lugged in all my baskets... I looked kinda scary with all that bloody gauze in my mouth, and unable to keep my totally-numb lips shut. But I had no choice. I have to wait for Best Buy to bring me laundry bliss on Friday.

I'm off to suck on a cookie...



- posted by Stephanie @ 8:27 PM

 
Still Hoarse


Joe Elliott, Albuquerque, Nov. 2nd
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I mean me, not Mr. Elliott there. I'm sure he didn't shred a vocal chord like it sounds like I did. Maybe if I didn't talk for a living, or had been able to take a vacation day yesterday... ah, well, I'm on vacation for a week starting tomorrow, so maybe if I just don't talk much (hah! like that'll happen!) the voice that makes customers tell me I'm too young to know much about banking will come back. Meantime, I sound kinda like Kirsty Alley after a screaming match.

I was blown away, as usual, by this band that's stolen my musical heart. And for once, the Albuquerque crowd's response didn't disappoint me. They're usually soooo damn laid back. But on Wednesday, even I was feeding off the energy in that arena. I just wish I coulda snuck in my Nikon. As it was, security wasn't too thrilled with my little digital Canon, but they let me keep it. And let me up to the barricade a couple of times to shoot a bit. Not my best, but I'm not too disappointed. At least most of the pics don't have the backs of a crowd of heads in 'em.

I'll tinker with a couple of them that were paled by the smoke machine and the spots and have a couple more up here soon. 'Til then, I'll just be wishin' I could afford to take a Lep Trek. One night every two years is seriously NOT nearly enough.
- posted by Stephanie @ 10:13 PM

 
Yeah, I'm Still Breathin'

What's life without having too much to do and no time to do it? I swear, my to-do list has outgrown the post-it it used to reside on. And the index card, the 6x9 legal pad page and just a single sheet of notebook paper. I refuse to write it all down. I know damn well what needs doing around here and I sure as hellfire don't need a list to make me feel guilty about not doing it.

I've hardly turned the computer on lately. Once, maybe twice a week... of course, having to reformat the hard drive (again!) and reload everything did have something to do with that. See, I hate (detest, abhor, find repugnant) Windows XP. That's the main reason I won't buy a newer, faster computer with buckets of memory I'll never need. I'll go as far as WinMe, and that's it. But I digress. Sort of. In early September, Mason (who has his own computer) chose to peruse his system CD on my computer and leave it in the drive. I checked emails and turned it off, never knowing what was lurking in the bay.

Ed turned on the computer the next morning. He got a message on the screen that had the word 'Image' on it. Thinking I'd bought a new photo program, he let it do its thing. Which was reformatting my hard drive in 32-bit NT-style compression. He woke me up shortly before five, wanting to know what he should do next, because the computer was 51% done reformatting and wanted the next disk. I was not a pleasant person when I got out of bed that morning. Picture Medusa with bed-head.

I tried letting it finish, resigned to XP if I didn't want to lose what I hadn't bothered to save in a backup copy. It didn't work. And the only way to get XP/NT-style compression off the drive is to... you guessed it! Wipe the drive with a repartition and reformat, then start the reload. Then download the patches for the drivers and download the service packs (I swear I saved these, but the damn system refuses to acknowledge that what's on the CDs is actually usable material). I took it slow, as I wasn't missing out on much, and it was a nifty way to punish both of them for daring to use this computer as anything more than their internet appliance. Three weeks worth of slow.

Meantime, my ancient car was dying and I was hoping to receive the info about my retirement account from Walgreens, of a mind to spend it instead of reinvesting. I called corporate, wondering where said documentation was. They told me I was still employed. So... I also had to stop in at my former employer and terminate myself in late August. The boss was on vacation and nobody else knew how to do it.

Long story short, papers came, then check came, then Steph car shopped on the nights and weekends she wasn't reloading the computer, and now Steph has a very paid-for and very lovely black 1999 Firebird. Which is not the car we're driving to the Def Leppard concert next week. Don't want any dings, ya know. I only managed to score 16th row, but I'll survive. After all, it's Def Leppard. Time to break out the Joe Elliott coffee mug again (Ed thinks he hid it from me, but I know it's in the very back of the cupboard... heh heh).
- posted by Stephanie @ 7:05 PM

 
Pointless Rambling

Ever have one of those stretches of time that feels like your skin just doesn't fit? Restless, edgy, cranky at anyone and nothing in particular, happy one minute and ready to pound something the next, triggered by nothing you can put your finger on and say, "AHA! That's it! That's the culprit!" I'm having one of those fortnights. Maybe it's the paper cut I got on my lip from sealing an envelope that keeps cracking back open. Or maybe, if you believe in astrology, you could point out that Mars is retrograde until the seventeenth, and has been for a couple of weeks. If that's the reason, I can't wait 'til the bitch is back and moving in concert with the other astral bodies. I may not last until Wednesday without taking a hammer to something and just pounding the living crap out of it.

I can't sleep, but Ed's monstrous snoring may have something to do with that. He doesn't usually snore, but lately... sheesh. The man could keep me awake when I'm trying to sleep on the living room couch. With the bedroom door closed.

I could swear we bought a Golden Retriever in February. He's now tall enough to rest his chin on the kitchen table. Without stretching out his neck. And he's not a year old until December 3rd. I guess I finally got that pony I wanted when I was five.

Where did the summer go? Mason's back in school tomorrow. Way earlier than when we were kids, I know. But they take time off for no discernible reason now. I'm waiting for them to declare National Fart Day and have the kids take that Friday off, with a Monday off on the other end for 'Teacher Inservice Day.' In service doing what? And where, exactly, are they doing it? If you go by any given school on one of those inservice days, the parking lot's as empty as McDonald's on Christmas. (insert crickety noises here...)

Maybe it's just me, feeling time-compressed like a movie on TBS and doing a split screen complete with voiceover when the not-part-of-the-entertainment parts are zooming past. I wanna be a full-length feature on HBO instead, in my full glory, left to laze around and wallow through two closing theme songs 'til my credits are done rolling slowly by. Once or twice a month is all I need to recharge, just a full day of doing nothing and not even bothering to change out of my loungy pajama pants.

Too bad my next days off are really aren't... laundry and errands and stuff on Saturday (I'm behind on both, so I gotta), Mason's dental appointment way the heck across town on Thursday (thanks, more local dentists, for not signing up to join Aetna's DMO), and next Saturday taking Mason to the eye doc for an exam, during which he'll get his pupils dilated and spend hours griping about how he can't see anything. I'm so looking forward to the weekend two weeks from now when I'll be off for two days running and there's nothing planned and no way to make any appointments for a Sunday...

TTFN. I'm off to endeavor to fall asleep to the lullaby of a growling bear with asthma.
- posted by Stephanie @ 10:15 PM

 
Fun Food Network Fact

I just discovered that my birthday, December 8, is National Brownie Day.

Ed thinks that I somehow had a hand in this declaration.
- posted by Stephanie @ 7:28 PM

 
I Just Had To Go And Say It

Wow, posting twice in one seven-day span. I'm going for a personal record. Recently, at any rate.

I just had to go and mention cracking the coffee pot into the side of the sink and smashing it, didn't I? And guess what I did on Sunday?

Go ahead. Laugh. And call me Grace while you're at it. (Why not? That's what I called myself yesterday when my heel slipped off the back of my high-heeled sandal and I landed face-first on the floor as I exited the ladies room. After all that time in flat tennies, I guess I need training wheels...)

Anyhoo, I got a brand-spankin' new Stephanie-proof coffee pot. Shiny, chromey insulated metal carafe and a timer to make it start the brewing without me.

And I polished off the latest Harry Potter last night. I don't just read books, I devour them when they're tasty. (Yeah, yeah, some of you finished it sooner, but I didn't get my hands on it 'til late on Saturday, after which we took in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and went out for dinner. Sunday was Sam's Club, other errands, swimming, laundry, and some clothes shopping... leaving little time to really delve into the book until Sunday night.)

Life is good.

Now, let's see if Blogger freaks on this post and gives me bucketloads of header space again...
- posted by Stephanie @ 8:40 PM