How bizarre

I thought you all loved me. *Sniffle* and now no one except Val (who clearly DOES love me...kisses to Val!) is playing my game? *sigh*

OK, got that out of my system :) Sorry I forgot to post another entry yesterday! It was a day full of small business. First off it was our turn in Zion's classroom, as I bitched about on Thursday. It was really fun being in his classroom (it always is) but it eats up the entire morning, yk? Then I had to run to Target for my meds, which I narrowly managed to get since it turns out that the entire pharmacy shuts down for lunch. Who knew?? By then it was 2pm and my fundamental laziness kicked in. So we decided to go to the new burger joint in town (the Nyack Burger Hop! Such a nostalgic name! LOL) for dinner. It was good...but slow. But, it's new, so I imagine and hope it will speed up. Also annoying: no pickles. Who gives me burgers with no pickles (and, I was told there would be pickles! Feeling a little like Milton now... :P)?? Of course, they would've paled compared to Erica's so I probably shouldn't complain.

All of this reminds me: I need to order meat from Alan! Oh Alan, how we love you and your tasty, tasty cows....

Bow down before the one you serve

Late tonight! My boy is sick- ear infection, I think. He was really sick mostly while Robert was at work. At bedtime he was feeling a little better so we'll see if school is in the cards tomorrow or not. Annoyingly someone (me) will have to go to school tomorrow whether or not Zion does cause it's our participation day. I gotta tell you, as much as I love the fact that our nursery school HAS mandatory parent participation, it's kinda wearing on me a bit this year with 2 kids at the school. Seems like I'm in there ever other week. And it's going to be that often if we go to Japan cause I'll have to swap our May and June days for days in April and March. Meh. At least when we homeschool I won't have to actually GO anywhere to participate.

Also, to clarify: you don't have to be the first person to post the correct answer. If you know, post! You'll get credit :)

PS I really really want one of these bags from Bayan Hippo. I'm just sayin'. Really. A lot.

It might not be that bad, you were the best I ever had

Did I say I'd post in the mornings? Cause I must have meant afternoons :P

Robin asked about lifelines yesterday and I did allow them last year. So I'll allow them again this year! Only rule is that you must TALK to your lifeline- no emailing/iming/texting, k?

This morning while the kids were at school I did a little work on my newest lace project- the Juno Regina Stole from knitty. Ganked pic:



I'm knitting mine in a gorgeous green yarn (Wollmeise in Farn for you yarnies out there), and loving it, tho I have QUITE a long way to go yet. Speaking of lace, here's a pic of the shawl I asked for yarn opinions on last month! Sorry the pics are kinda crappy- I don't have one of me wearing it yet. I'm enjoying lace knitting more than I have in the past- in part because I'm knitting in fingering weight yarn (as opposed to laceweight) and in part because I've figured out which patterns are most likely to drive me batshit crazy, and I avoid them.



Wow that picture really leaves a lot to be desired. I'll try to get an action shot this weekend!

Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes Benz

There's your clue for the day, kids :)

Actually, I don't really care about Mercedes. What I *would* like are some tickets to Japan! After 24 hours it's become clear that going without the kids isn't going to happen. I just don't want to leave them, and it's not clear we could actually get anyone to stay with them for a week anyway. So it's either Robert going to Japan alone, or all of us. If we all go we'll probably try to roll it into our already-planned trip to CA in June. I hope y'all like reading my angst filled musings on this subject cause I can assure that you will see them a lot until this whole thing is resolved ;)

In other news Liel has recently dubbed herself "Fluffy's mommy". In addition to being adorable she's also carrying on a family tradition; her Aunt Giselle titled herself, "Dolly mama" when she was a wee lass. Only this apparently came out "Dodgey mama" in her baby voice, and she insisted upon being addressed that way. That's one of those things that makes you feel all warm and cozy, isn't it? On the way to Trader Joe's today Liel informed me that, "there are TWO mommies in our family", because she is Fluffy's mommy. Then she rattled off an extended narrative about Fluffy's mommy and her exploits, but I didn't catch much of it over the noise of the car. I'm sure it was terribly cute.

I'm big in Japan

The title of this post is entry #2, which catches us up contest-wise (good thing I didn't forget the month for longer!).

I forgot to note that aside from today answers will need to be in before I post a new entry. I'll generally do this in the morning.

The Japan thing is really on my mind right now. Robert just had a paper accepted for a conference in Kobe in May. He's going to try to get funding from the college for his trip, and he asked me today if the kids and I wanted to come along and spend a week in Japan. The college will NOT pay for this (they probably won't even pay for R's entire trip; going to Japan is expensive).

The options, as I see them, are: 1. stay home with the kids 2. go to Japan with the kids 3. go to Japan without the kids. I'm not entirely satisfied with any of them, though for very different reasons. 1. isn't great because I love love love to travel and haven't been anywhere in ages. I'd be a little envious if Robert got to go to Japan without me. 2. isn't great because holy crap, it's expensive to fly 4 people to Japan! Plus I wonder how much the kids will really get out of such a trip. Is the money worth it? 3. isn't great because I don't want to be away from my kids for that long! And they only even have a babysitter maybe once a year, and have never spent a night away from both of us (actually, they've never spent a night away from me). I'm pretty sure Robert will veto this idea anyway, on the grounds that he isn't comfortable being so far away from our kids when they are so little.

What to do, what to do...

First

Here it is! The first in the contest. Please don't look at other people's comments until after you've posted yours, OK?

Wait, what?! aka, the Rulebook

As I was sitting here just now a little voice in my head (oh come on, I know you have them too!) said, "Oh crap, it's February!". So then I said, "Oh crap!" too. I missed a whole contest day! So, to make up for it, I'm going to post two entries or whatever they are today. OK?

So, here's the deal for this year's February contest. We all need a little something in February, right? Up here in cold land its....cold. And will be cold for this month, and next month, too. But we are tired of the cold! I know those of you in warmer climates don't suffer this particular horror, but I love you anyway. Enter: The February Dodge a Wrench Contest! Each day I will post something for you to guess at. It could be song lyrics, a movie quote, a work of art...you get the idea. If you know what the thing in question is, post the answer (or as much information as you can) in a comment. Please, for the love of whatever it is that you love, do not Google to find the answer. I might not be able to tell (or CAN I??), but it's bad karma, yo. Play honest.

Ideally I'd like to see song title/movie title/artwork title and artist/actor in the answer. If you only know part of the answer, go ahead and post that...I do give partial credit. At the end of the month I go through and tally up who got the most right answers and that person gets...a prize! Her choice of the hat or fingerless mitts I posted last month. If a boy happens to win (and I'm downing on boys, it's just that 95% of my loyal readers are girls), I will do something else for him- knit him a manly hat, most likely. The second place winner will get whatever the first place winner doesn't choose.

Good? Good. First entry coming up!