I’m part of a football pool at work, and everyone has a cool name for their team. I’m overtired, over worked, and really lame, so all I could come up with is “Mama Bear”.
Anyone got any better ideas for a cool name for my football team? I don’t want anything with “Yano” in it - remember, these are work people, they don’t know about my secret internet life (well, at least I pretend that they don’t know.)
Suggestions are welcome!
Today is my mother’s birthday. She would have been…um…really old. 
I miss her, every day….
When You’re Gone
Avril Lavigne
When you’re gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
When you’re gone
The face I came to know is missing too
When you’re gone
The words I need to hear to always get me through the day and make it ok
I miss you
So I’m on vacation for a couple days, for my annual outing to the Wizard World Comic Book convention. It starts today, but I actually had yesterday as a day off just to rest and hang out.
It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve had a vacation (last “official” one was in February). Life has been going so fast and work has been keeping me so busy that I haven’t had time to stop and take in the world around me.
So yesterday, I ran a couple errands, went crazy shopping at Hobby Lobby, and took Benjamin to the mall. I let him play in the play area for about an hour (there’s all sorts of things for kids to tinker with and climb there) and to tell the truth, it had been the best hour I’ve had in months. No computer, no phone calls, no running around and multi-tasking…just me, sitting on a bench, watching Ben climb up a fake bridge and slide down, always running around to start over again and giving me a smile of pure joy.
It was his 16 month birthday (yes, I still keep track) and although he’s still tiny for his age, he makes up for it in his want to be like the big kids. Other mothers commented on how amazed they were that he could climb the objects like the older kids for being such a little guy (he was the smallest kid who was able to walk around).
Who knew that doing something so simple could be so wonderful?
Things might be looking up in terms of workload and stress, though I’m hesitant to feel optimistic, just because we’re not completely out of the dark yet. We’ve found some alternatives to fix some big issues, but time will tell if those solutions will bring any baggage of their own.
Ever watch the movie “The Descent”? Without giving too much away, it’s a story about cave explorers who find monsters deep in the earth. It’s a struggle to stay alive and find a way out. At the end, the light at the end of the tunnel is found. After all the terror and suffering of the dark passages below, an opening is found, salvation lies in a beam of sunlight shining overhead, all that is needed is to climb a small pile of rocks, a tiny obstacle compared to the monsters below, to get to safety and a normal life.
But is it really the end? Will the monsters come back and drag us back into the depths of the earth? Is this all a dream? Can we escape and become “normal” again?
That’s a bit how I feel. And depending on which version of the movie you watch, the outcome can go either way…the happy ending, or the really sucky ending. I see that light at the end of the tunnel, and I want to run to it, embrace it, and breathe a sigh of relief. But I’m hesitant to, since I’m not really sure that my trial has ended, and that the road to the end is as near as it appears to be.
Oh, and I guess I spoiled the movie for you…just a little bit, I swear. It’s entertaining…you should watch it. In a very dark room. By yourself. Then you won’t be upset with me for my spoilers because you’ll be peeing in your pants with fear.
Ugh, I shouldn’t write posts at 3 in the morning!
You can tell when I’m swamped with work by the amount of posts on the main page of this site. Sadly, that’s how the main page has been for the last several months!
So yeah, I’m busy. I’m in what I call “critical mode” trying to figure out issues and put out fires. Luckily I’ve got a great team of people to work with, so I don’t feel alone in my sea of stress.
But yeah, I’ve got a knot in my stomach, my shoulders are a bit hunched from the tenseness and I’ve had about an hour and a half of sleep. CRITICAL MODE!
*insert barfing emoticon here*
This site needs some emoticons! I need graphic representations of my feelings!
Yesterday after putting Ben to bed in his pull out bed, I sat on my couch to check my email for work (I had the “day off” yesterday, yet didn’t). It was about 10:30pm. I stayed on that couch until 1:30am, working.
Today, I woke up, brought Ben downstairs to hang out and wait for his grandpa to pick him up, and logged into my computer. That was 7:30am.
It’s now 1:30pm. I’ve gotten off the couch (non-Ben related) about 3 times. Twice to go to the bathroom and once to grab a drink and eat a couple of chips. Dave’s on his way home from work and he’s getting fried chicken for lunch, so it looks like I can just eat my lunch on the couch and not have to get up for anything.
Usually, I’d go upstairs in the office to work, but I’m too lazy and too busy to get my ass and all my computer gear up there.
Work, work, work…I shouldn’t even be taking the time to type this!
Just a nice little story for today…
Wisconsin community aids lemonade stand robbery victim with cards and cash
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — An 11-year-old boy who was robbed at his lemonade stand is seeing another side of humankind in the outpouring of support he has received since his story was reported.
Austin Cundy says some people have asked if he would like to set up a lemonade stand at their businesses, while others have sent cards with money or offered to replace the $20 that was in his plastic container when it was taken Tuesday.
“I think it’s very nice that people care,” he said Thursday.
Austin was using the stand to raise money to go camping with his grandparents and to buy his mother a birthday present.
He told police he saw two teens eyeballing him as they bicycled past, then one of them punched him, shoved him off his chair and took the container along with his wallet.
A tip from the public led officers to the home of a 17-year-old boy on Wednesday where officers found a container but no money, police Sgt. Steve Sagmeister said. The teen was being held on suspicion of robbery and physical abuse of a child, pending formal charges, he said.
Austin’s mother, Nicole Cundy, said the community’s response has been impressive.
“All of these people are showing how much they care about a little boy they don’t even know,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”
Dave and I were driving around a neighborhood once, trying to find our friends house. We saw some little kids on the side of the road, selling lemonade. Feeling charitable, I told Dave to stop and pulled out a couple dollars. The girls had a little table set up and were sitting on a cooler. Their parents were sitting in the garage enjoying the day.
I stuck my head out the window and said, “We’ll have two glasses.” The little girls were elated to have customers. One girl carefully poured the lemonade into a little plastic cup while the other said, “Fifty cents, please!”
Fifty cents?!?!? I was expecting it to cost more for some reason. I handed her a dollar and she proceeded to reach into her little money box to get change. “Nah, keep the change” I said. Her eyes opened wide as she said, “Thanks!”
Her partner in crime brought over our glasses of lemonade and Dave and I were back on our way.
I took a sip of the lemonade and wanted to spit it out. It was pretty watery and just had a hint of lemon and sugar in it. Probably the worst lemonade I’ve ever had. Dave felt the same. We joked around about driving back to the girls and throwing the lemonade at them as we drove by.
But of course, we didn’t.
It was pretty fun to imagine, though!
Hello everyone!
I woke up last night, on the couch, at around 3am. I was on the couch because Ben and I had fallen asleep, and Dave had come to take Ben upstairs and asked me to wash the dishes. I said, “yeah, yeah” and promptly fell back asleep.
I woke up at around 3am, and thought, “OK, I’ll wash the dishes now”, and lay there for a couple seconds. Then I heard a big “pop!” outside and then all lights went off in the house. I went into panic mode (because I REALLY afraid of the dark) but luckily my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and the lights from outside gave me a little light to see with. I ran upstairs, fumbled around in the closet to change out of my jeans and jumped into bed, waiting for the power to go back on so I could wash the dishes.
Turns out it was a long wait, since the power STILL isn’t back on. This morning I had to help Dave manually open the garage door so he could leave for work. Then I had a 7:30am conference call which my uncharged phone battery only lasted for 45 minutes on, and that was plugged into my laptop for power. I realized that all the phones in the house are cordless and don’t work if there’s no power. I couldn’t find just a regular phone to plug in.
So here I am, sitting at the White Hen (like a 7-11) across the street, keeping vigil on what’s going on with the power guys working on the streets in front of the house. The “free internet” sign on the store always intrigued me, and here I am, using it. However, there aren’t any power outlets handy, so I’m going to head over to the in-laws to work today.
Argh!
Today is NOT a good day.
Just wanted to show off my new toy. My previous phone had been falling apart, even though I had only had it for a couple years. I also had some phone envy after seeing some of my coworker’s phones at our conference in April. Often I’m at a client site where I don’t have access to company email or the internet, and having a web-enabled phone was a good idea.
So after a little bit of shopping around and research, I finally went for the Sprint MotoQ. In terms of performance and price, it was definitely the best option for me. I still haven’t set it up for my company email, but so far, so good, it’s working well for me. I’ve also become quite the texter, thanks to the easy to navigate keyboard.
The main con I had for the phone was that the charge didn’t even last 12 hours. It was really annoying because I would have to turn off my phone for part of the day if I was traveling just to make sure that I had enough power in case something happened with my flight. Of course, I hadn’t taken time to read the manual, so it was only a couple weeks later that I realized that if I turned off the “Constantly recieve data” option (or something like that) then my battery life moved up to 3 days.
So I’m lovin’ my little MotoQ, it’s slim, light, and has all the functions I need!
It’s been a while since Ben had seen him cousin Kenzo, so his mom and I decided to have a play date. It was agreed that the location would be the Chicago Children’s Museum over at Navy Pier. I hadn’t been there yet, and was curious to see what the place was like.
It was horribly busy at Navy Pier, which was no surprise, since it was a Saturday. Trully had both boys in tow, little Leonardo and “too cool for a stroller” Kenzo. Let me tell ya - if I ever have another kid, I don’t think I’ll be going out of the house again - EVER. Just watching her trying to handle both boys gave me a headache! How do people do it?
There was one point where she left to go to the bathroom and I was left with all the boys. Leo was no problem - he’s still a wee one so he was going to stay in place in his baby seat. However, whenever I would spy Benjamin, I would lose Kenzo. Whenever I would find Kenzo, then Benjamin would magically disappear. I also had to make sure that both boys didn’t grab toys away from the other kids, or, in Ben’s case, get too close to unruly bigger kids.
It was still a fun day, the boys really had a great time. Especially in the water room, where they got to play around with water and boats. Ben was very serious as he was experiementing with the mini water fountains and what his hands would do to them. Kenzo, on the other hand, was a little more adventurous and got pretty soaked.
Here’s some pics of the boys - I had been planning to bring my nice camera, but I had forgotten it at home so I used my phone camera.
In His Raincoat
Kenzo the Rock Star
