life of zombie

Well, we survived yesterday. It wasn't the best day ever, but we got through it with minimal drama, which I think is the best that could be hoped for considering how it got started.

I'm not sure what happened last night. I "lost" a few hours somewhere. We were doing the whole "no nursie when it's dark outside" thing, which makes Ruthie furious so she alternately screams and sobs, and then falls asleep for brief periods, etc. -- and at some point I woke up and looked at the clock and it was about 2:45am, and then some time went by and I looked again, expecting to see something in the neighborhood of 3:30, but instead it was 6:30. So I'm not sure what happened there; possibly I actually got a few hours of sleep? Hard to say. ;P

(I certainly slept at least a little bit, because I remember bits and pieces of a very odd dream involving dchenes and also something about my kids being trained as witches. buh?)

I did manage yesterday to make two new recipes! ( cooking update )

I also finished reading The Sunday Philosophy Club which was okay, and now am reading the next installment of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

Then this morning ( there was some car-related drama )

Oh, and I don't think I mentioned that on Saturday while we were riding the bus all over creation just because Isaac wanted to ride the bus (insert massive rolling of eyes here), a guy tried to give Ruthie this ridiculous bright-pink stuffed animal. I think it was supposed to be a puppy. The guy was saying something about how he bought it for his daughter but now he and his ex-wife were having a spat. I said he should save it to give to his daughter. He said he isn't allowed to see her any more. So then I just said that we already have way too many stuffed animals (which is true) and thanked him, but no thanks.

Anyway, that was weird and uncomfortable. And I'd like to say I feel for the guy, but really, offering a stuffed animal to some random toddler on the bus? Is it just me or is that kind of creepy?

On the same bus ride, there was a little girl about Isaac's age who asked me if she could "see" (i.e., hold) Ruthie's teddy bear. I told her I didn't think that was a good idea. Ruthie can get kind of freaky if someone else tries to play with her bear.

Ruthie's way of saying "noodles" sounds to me exactly like "nursie," which is confusing. Isaac swears that they sound like two totally different words to him. (Have I mentioned that often lately I have to ask Isaac to translate what Ruthie is saying? I generally am pretty good at understanding Ruthie's words but sometimes when I can't, Isaac can.) Isaac has also started asking me how he said various things when he was a baby. I guess I started this recently by telling him that when he was a baby he called noodles "noo-noos." Now he'll randomly ask, "mama, how did I say marker when I was a baby? How did I say cheerios when I was a baby? How did I say box that the crackers came in when I was a baby?" LOL.

the minutiae just keeps on coming

I called the school that we visited last week, and they did not have Ruthie's lunchbox in their lost-and-found. Drat! It may be gone forever. Alas.

There is a weird bump on the palm of my right hand. It's just the tiniest raised spot, not red, so it's very hard to see, but easy to feel and is really annoying. Could this be a wart? I have no idea what it is. It doesn't hurt or itch or anything. It's just there. Hmf.

Also I seem to have pulled/strained a muscle in my back. It hurts whenever I inhale too deeply, such as for example, if I yawn. Which I am doing a lot of today, of course. grumble.

While I'm already being grumpy, I might as well mention that I did watch some of That Big Sporting Event yesterday and was quite surprised to learn that one of my absolute all-time favorite scifi novels, Jumper by Steven Gould, has been made into a movie. Starring *gag* Hayden Christiansen. And judging from the IMDB summary of the movie's plot, it bears extremely little resemblance to the book, which is too bad. As I already told jenwrites, I'm sure I'll see it anyway, because I'm a devoted fan of Mr. Gould's. But I intend to grumble and gripe about it at length. ;) Meanwhile I highly recommend that you acquire and read the book, if you haven't already, because it is teh awesome. (I noticed recently that they seem to be shelving it with "Young Adult" rather than scifi, which I think is kind of unfortunate. It's true that the protagonist is a Young Adult, but still. Come to think of it, where do they shelve Ender's Game? hmm.)

Another thing about which I am grumpy is John Edwards dropping out of the presidential race. :( I think ww1614 and plaidder have both written about how the media basically killed his campaign by not covering it. I know that the pretty white boy wasn't as interesting as the ex-First-Lady or the black guy, but still. :P Anyway, I have not 100% decided whom to vote for in our primary (which is tomorrow) but I am leaning heavily toward Obama. Please feel free to provide your opinion. (That's not sarcasm. I really want to hear your opinion. Unless it's that I should vote Republican or something crazy like that. Although if you're reading this after Tuesday Feb 5th, or even on that day but after about 4pm Eastern time, don't bother.)

Speaking of That Big Sporting Event, condolences to all on my flist who were displeased with its outcome. I have to admit I found this kind of funny, but also am pleased by it, because that's one of my favorite lunch destinations. So I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow. And if you're in the Boston area, you should check it out too. It's good stuff.

That subject line just doesn't look right. Isn't minutiae plural? Should it be "keep on coming"? *scratch head*

powerless?!

Mind you, I love the fact that my town has an automated phone system that they use to notify you of things like snow emergencies, upcoming road closures, and so forth.

But tonight I got a robo-call informing me that as part of the big road-work project that has been ongoing for months now, N-Star (electric company) will be shutting off power "in [my] area" starting at 1am tonight/tomorrow and expected to end around 6am. And by the way, the robo-call adds, this will mean that all electricity to my home will be off -- including heating.

Yikes. Well, I would really have preferred a bit more than a few hours' notice!! It's not supposed to be all that cold tonight (did they wait for a night that was supposed to be less cold? what would they have done if it was scheduled and then the forecast was below freezing?) but still. I'm thinking I'll crank the heat up nice and high for the next couple hours until we go to bed, and cross my fingers. I hate being cold.

The other issue is the loss of all our clocks (okay, except the one in the kitchen that runs on a battery) and potential not knowing when it's time to get up, especially if the "expected" end of this outage ends up being a little later than "expected." You know that these things happen, after all. They say six, and then next thing you know you're waking up, it's past eight and you still have no power. Urgh.

Anyway, I set the alarm on my cell phone, as a backup plan. And I'm sure we'll survive. I'm just disgruntled from the lack of advance notice. :P (Oh and by the way, the robo-lady adds, they'll be doing this all over again on Feb 19th! Lovely.)

grump.

meanwhile...

Here's what Isaac and I did yesterday while I was half-dead from exhaustion. I rule! Go me. And Isaac rules too, 'cause he did most of it himself. Go us!