What a Day

Today seemed to be starting normally; woke up, got out of bed, (ran a comb across my head, too, but that was after a shower), made my way into work. The kids had been with their Dad the night before, so I was a little later than normal, but nothing major. Then, about 9:30, when I was in the midst of helping another group test something with the potential to crash servers (in production, no less) I got a call from Peter.

P: "Mom, I can't really see."
M: "What do you mean I can't really see?"
P: "I can see shapes and colors, but nothing else"
M: "How long has this been going on?!?!" (mild panic setting in at this point)
P: "Since I woke up. It's not getting better"

So, I get off the phone, and call the pediatrician, and get an appointment for 11:30. I hang around the office long enough to tell my boss where I'm going, pick up Peter (dropping off the banana bread I made earlier), and get to the doctor's office. Amazingly, we were about 10 or 15 minutes early, so we checked in, sat down, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Now, patience is something I have to really work on; I can be patient, but not in a vacuum. And I was getting NO info from the front desk.

Finally, more than 30 minutes after my scheduled appt, we were called back, by a nurse who also had no information (and less personality). I get the feeling she's new and VERY untrained, because she had NO people skills (bad thing in a pediatric nurse) and didn't seem to be triaging the patients for the doctor.

Anyway, eventually we saw the doctor zooming around. She stuck her head in, was very nice, let us know where we were in line, made sure we didn't need to be seen sooner, and basically made me happy. Then left again for another hour or so....

...but eventually came back and could look at Peter's eyes. She didn't see anything, he just couldn't see. But everything was normal. She tried calling an ophthalmologist, but they were all at lunch, so she sent us home to keep an eye on him.

So, we ran home. He ate his lunch in the car, and I scarfed down some soup once we got home. Then about 2:30 the pediatrician called; she was able to get us into the ophthalmologist that afternoon. So, off we scooted, and spent another hour and a half or so there. Poor Peter was getting poked, proded, dilated, numbed and anything else they could think of to do to him. Plus, because he could do things like walk without running into things, everyone kept asking him if there was anything wrong at school, and didn't seem inclined to believe him when he said "No".

Finally, after way too much time in examining rooms, they decided this was probably a migraine without the pain, in which case it would go away in a day or two, or some weird thing that happens to kids sometimes, in which case it would go away within a week or two.

So, we headed home. By now Peter was tired, frustrated, and bored out of his mind. Couldn't read. Couldn't play DS or computer games. Couldn't play outside. Mom yelled at him after he asked to play outside for the millionth time. Then, to top it all off, Grace ate the last Chocolate Fudge Pop Tart!

Poor boy. Luckily Granddaddy was there to take G to basketball practice, and agreed to buy new Pop Tarts (which, of course, turned into Pop Tarts, Swiss Cake Rolls, and Donuts....)!

Grace and her notes

As I've mentioned before, Grace sometimes uses notes to express her feelings, and then flies them downstairs to me. Frequently she writes notes when she's angry, but it looks like she's starting to use them for less emotionally charged communications, too.

On Monday Grace was upstairs showering, and I was exercising, so I couldn't hear her. Peter was watching the Duke women lose to Tennessee, but I periodically had him check on G. Finally he came down and said she wasn't planning on coming down for kisses, and I could wait till I was done exercising to go up and tuck her in. So, about 10 or 15 minutes later I went up to tuck her, and she was fast asleep. Not too unusual, but usually if she knows I'm coming up she'll stay awake so she can tell me good night.

Today has been a rough day so far, and is probably going to get rougher (more on that later), but suffice it to say that I found myself at home with Peter around 2:00 pm. As I was walking through the entry way, I noticed a piece of paper on the floor, with Grace's handwriting on it, so I picked it up.

"Goodnight" and a smiley face!

I Am (I am)....

I Am SuperMom and I know what's happenin'
I Am (I am) I am SuperMom, and I can do anything....

(with many apologies to Tommy James, the Shondells, and REM)

Anyway.

I had tons of stuff to do tonight, beginning with drive home from Raleigh (training session), go to the store, bake banana bread, try to exercise, and meet up with friends for drinks. Amazingly, I got pretty much all of it accomplished, but didn't get home till 10:30 as a result.

And then I remembered the little voice, coming through the phone line earlier this evening, "Mom, can you try to work on my car some?" Yep, it's Pinewood Derby time, and while Peter needs to do his car himself, Grace races in the Open division, and therefore is allowed parental help.

Now, a caveat. I usually still have Grace do most of her car herself; that's within the spirit of Cub Scouts and Pinewood Derby, even if she isn't a Scout.

But we're having a tough PWD year, this year. First of all, I only have the kids two weekends between the time we got the kits and the Derby. Second of all, Peter has a broken arm (yeah, YOU cut and sand a block of wood into a car shape one handed!) Third, I managed to slice my index finger with the saw last weekend, which has limited my work. Oh, and then there are all the normal things; school, basketball, dinner, homework.

So, yeah, Grace needs a little extra help this year.

I was tired. I wanted to go to sleep. I have to get up tomorrow.

But I sanded her car, and put another batch of wood putty on the saw marks. More sanding tomorrow, and I think she'll be ready to paint!

"I Am (I am) I am zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thoughts on Training

I was in a training session today. I've been in good training sessions, and bad. Let's just say this one doesn't fall into the former category.

Random thoughts that came to me today:

• Cohen's first law of training: The knowledge gained in a training session is inversely proportional to the number of times the word "leverage" is used by the trainer
  


• I've been known to create meeting haiku when bored. I started a training sonnet today


• If you've been on the same Powerpoint slide for 20 minutes, you might be talking too much

More tomorrow!

Oh, my.....

My kids have, for years now, wanted to go to a Monster Truck Rally, so last night we finally went to Monster Jam!!!

I was a smidge frightened....never in a million years would I have gone to a Monster Jam if left to my own devices. But, you know, the kids look at you with those big eyes, and before you know it you're buying earplugs, jacking up the Rav 4 and heading out.

It was, actually, surprisingly fun, if a little outside of my normal range. I noticed driving in to the parking lot that my poor little vehicle was very, very small compared to all the F-150's, Tundras and Hummers in the lot. Plus, though I wouldn't swear to it, I THINK I was the only Mom there who came alone with her kids. It was definitely a testosterone laden evening. And, I have to admit, when we left I had the oddest urge to rev up my engine and run over something.

The kids now have their favorite Monster Trucks (just what every Mom wants to hear...). Peter's is Monster Mutt, while Grace goes for either Black Stallion or Grave Digger. Peter came home with a Monster Mutt T-Shirt, and Grace picked a stuffed Grave Digger truck, which she slept with last night.

Ah, yes, just the thing to lull her to sleep......

An Evening with Grace

Peter was invited to go to a basketball game, then spend the night with a friend last night, so it was just me and Grace. We had a lovely dinner at Japan Express, with entertainment by a one-man reggae band! It was, incidentally, significantly better than you might think!

After dinner we went home, where we'd planned on watching Star Wars, but then Grace remember that THE NEW DISNEY MOVIE MINUTEMEN was premierring that night, so of course we had to watch that. Not bad ... a typical boys create time travel machine, boys affect history, boys must fix their mistakes. And, of course, in the process they learn about friendship and the geeky kid winds up expressing his undying love for the popular girl, and lo, she likes him back. Yay!

We also watched a couple of episodes of House Hunters, my new favorite show on HGTV. I've managed to get both of my children addicted to it, which may or may not be a good thing.

We finally went to bed about 11, after Grace dug out Prince Caspian for me. Her teacher is reading the Narnia series to the class, and Grace keeps asking me about the books, but it's been two years or more since I read them, so I don't know any of the answers! So I told her I'd re-read so I wouldn't be such a waste. She's reading The Horse and His Boy, and she is, I believe, the only person in the world who actually LIKES that one. She refuses to skip it.

Grace fell asleep fairly quickly, but it was still a late night, so we slept late. And now, after a yummy oatmeal breakfast, we're off to shower than meet up with Peter again!

I Love Google

Who needs technical manuals???

Someone just stopped in my cube; they're getting an odd message on one of our test servers when they try to connect to another server, and were wondering how hard it was to flush the DNS cache. Easy as pie, I replied, and though I was 99% sure of the exact wording of the command, I've learned with Windows machines it never hurts to doublecheck.

So, I googled "flushdns", and within milliseconds, confirmed that I was right!

And so it begins....

OK, all you women out there. Remember back when you were in 3rd or 4th grade, how just the biggest thrill of your life was to walk by the cute guy you had a crush on and wave to him? And if you had a friend who lived in his neighborhood you'd try to wrangle a play date so you could ride the same bus as him? Or maybe even (if you were truly brave) walk by his house or (gasp) CALL him? And then you'd all giggle!

Well, I have a sneaking suspicion that my son is "cute".

Saturday was supposed to be a lazy day for me. I was developing a cold, and decided that I would do what the experts advise and stay home and rest. I had to go out for a bit for basketball games, but by 2pm was camped out on my couch, watching the rain turn into snow...when there came a ring at the door.

Standing on my stoop were three teeny-bopper girls; one I know from the 'hood, one I know from after-school, and one I'm not sure about. I expected they were selling girls scout cookies or something (it is that time), and was prepared to tell them I'd already ordered at my office, when, in unison no less, they said, "Is Peter here????" With chipper little teeny-bopper smiles, no less.

I was taken aback, but recovered, and luckily could tell them honestly that Peter was at his Dad's. I did NOT, however, offer to give them his Dad's number.

The funny thing is that years ago I had a boss who had two sons. When his older boy was about 10 years old, he started getting phone calls from girls, and it apparently really annoyed his mother; I believe sentences like "just didn't do that when I was a girl", "tramp", "hussy" began coming out of her mouth. I, in all my non-parent wisdom, thought at the time that she was just being silly and over-protective. After all, why shouldn't little girls be allowed to call/visit little boys?

Now, of course, I see the truth. Teeny-bopper females shamelessly chase poor little goofy pre-teen boys, and should be banned. Immediately. Or at least confined to house arrest.

Grace is getting an ankle bracelet when she turns 9....

Basketball, baby!!!

Yeah, baby. ACC basketball is in full swing, as is Carrboro Rec and Parks! Today I get to go see Grace play at noon (assuming the weather doesn't cancel things), then a triple header this afternoon/evening: UNC v. Maryland, Clemson v. Duke and Miami v. State. Of course, those last two put me in a positiong of possibly, kinda-sorta, if-I-must, cheering for teams I don't really like. But, hey, anything's better than cheering for State or Duke!

Sadly, Peter is benched for this game (and in fact for the rest of the season, pretty much) because of his arm. He's bummed.

Happy Birthday, Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe!!!!

I've been in many lines on Franklin Street in the past 23 years. Lines waiting for the U bus on a cold and rainy day. Lines of inebriated 19 and 20 year olds, waiting to get into Trolls, the night the drinking age went up. Lines of "alternatives" waiting outside of the Record Bar (now Coldstone Creamery) all night to buy REM tickets (the cops made us keep our feet behind one of the cracks in the sidewalk, and the guys from Peppers gave us the leftover pizza when they closed!) Lines of Carolina fanatics after national championships. Lots and lots of lines.

But, until today, I've never line up on the street waiting for breakfast.

Today the Waffle Shoppe, a true Chapel Hill institution, turns 35, and to celebrate they reverted to their 1972 menu for the day. I eat there every Sunday, so I've been hearing about this for a couple of months, and had told the kids we'd get up early and go before school. We did, and got there about 5 of 7, and discovered about 20 or 30 people lined up outside the restaurant!

I was a little worried that all the tables would fill up, but I told the kids if that happened, we'd just order take out. Luckily, we were able to score seats at the counter, though, so we were all good.

I have to say, it was an absolute blast. In addition to the 1972 menu, they were dressed in '70s style clothes, and were playing songs from the 70's! Peter was a little disappointed that they didn't serve M&M pancakes in 1972, and I was bummed that there were no Big Jim's hash browns, but it was a fun trip. Oh, and the food was great, too, but it always is.

In addition to the 1972 menu, they also had 1972 prices. A sampling? A hotcake sandwich (now known as a hotcake combo) for $1.35. A short stack for $1.10. Coffee for $.35. Our entire meal was $4.69, including tax! That's only a little less than the tip (I tipped in 2008 dollars)!

What a blast. The place was packed, the employees were having a blast, the customers were loving it. And it was better than cold cereal!

Peter is Cast-alicious!!!!

Peter had his follow-up appointment at the orthopedist today. After more x-rays and an exam, the verdict was in: He's broken.

He got a choice of cast colors: pink, purple, yellow, dark blue or light blue. He gave the nurse a look as if to say, "Are you insane" and said, "Carolina Blue!"

The cast will have to stay on for three weeks, which in the grand scheme of things is not that bad; unfortunately, though, it means his basketball season is essentially done.

Breakfast on a snow day

There was a "wintry mix" this morning (North Carolina speak for cold and rainy with slick bridges), so the kids school is opening two hours late, which means even with sleeping in a bit, we could have a more fun breakfast than normal for a school day.

I made cinnamon rolls, but the kids also wanted oatmeal, so I made that, too (I guess they're carbo loading). Peter just has standard cinnamon and sugar in his oatmeal, Grace has sugar, but she likes the colored sugar that's used to decorate cookies in cool designs on the top of her oatmeal. Today was red and blue striped.

And me? I sauteed some apples and walnuts in butter and apple juice till the apples were soft and the walnuts just starting to get tender. Then I added peanut butter (a favorite oatmeal additive), honey, and dumped the whole thing into my oatmeal. YUM!

And now I get to read the paper (in the MORNING!!!) and drink my coffee! I LOVE snow days!

Again?

Back in November, Grace got shoved down at afterschool, and wound up breaking her arm. We think. It at least hurt in the places an arm hurts when it's broken!

Today, it was Peter's turn. In this case, he pretty much only has himself to blame. He was swinging on the playground at afterschool (AGAIN!), but was neglecting to hold onto the swing chains....and fell off backwards. At first it didn't hurt, but after dinner it started hurting more, so his Dad took him to our favorite orthopedic urgent care.

Aren't kids fun!

Aren't Statistics Cool?

Occasionally at work we "distribute" application users to one of two or three regions, based on the last digit of an employee id number. Theoretically, this should ensure an even, random distribution, since each digit should have roughly the same representation across the user population.

Since users come and go, sometimes our distributions get a little off, and we have to re-distribute the users; that's on my to-do list so today I was getting counts of the various "last digits". Out of 14,773 users, that means in a perfect world, each digit should have 1477.3 users associated with it.

The mean? 1475.2. The median value? 1479.5 The lowest count? 1434. The highest? 1514. That means that the counts fell within about 30 or 40 points of the average. How cool is that?!?!?!

Yeah, I'm a geek. This is the woman who picked her daughter's birthdate because of the cubes involved (9/27). Sigh.

Wouldn't That be Funny?

Cast your mind back to 2004. The top pick of the NFL draft was projected to be a quarterback out of Ol' Miss by the name of Eli Manning. The top pick, though, belonged to the San Diego Chargers, and Manning made headlines not for his football abilities but rather for his pre-draft declaration that he wouldn't sign with the Chargers, thereby being labelled (by me at least) as one of the biggest professional whiners since Danny Ferry.

Anyway, after much angst, the Chargers DID pick Eli first, but traded him to the Giants for their 4th pick (and a bunch of other stuff), who was another quarterback by the name of Philip Rivers. Lot's of folks thought that San Diego should've gone for the other QB that year, Ben Roethesberger (who, granted, won a superbowl before either of the other two, but I'd hold that had as much to do with Hines Ward, Polomalu, Randel El, and Jerome Bettis. Oh, and Bill Cowher).

So, now we're down to two games in the NFL season, and there's at least the possibility of a Manning/Rivers showdown! Wouldn't that be cool?

Things That Make Me Laugh

Because we're women, and therefore like pretty, fru-fru sorts of things, the ladies room in my office has a couple of fake plant on the counter.

I just noticed today that one of them, which is in a clear pot, also has fake dirt and fake roots.

Is this really necessary? Do we really need to perpetuate the fantasy to that level? Has the fake plant industry done market studies to determine that the average fake-plant buyer actually DOES want to see fake roots and dirt? And even if they have, wouldn't it just be easier to put the fake plant in an opaque pot?

These are the things that distract me at work....

How is This Fair?

I'm online at a local coffee shop (Cup A Joe) with Grace while Peter is at basketball practice. I brought my computer because we needed to go check the school lunch tomorrow to know if Grace needs to pack or not (gotta love life in the brave new century).

Once we got that figured out (Grace is buying, if anyone cares), I was playing around surfing the web. I thought I remembered that my local grocery store had online shopping, and figured that this was as good a time as any to investigate. I went to the web site, and sure enough, they do, at selected stores.

So, which store in my area has online shopping? Not the one I shop at, which I expected. But surely the "new" one, on a direct route either for people working in Research Triangle Park coming home to Chapel Hill, or for people working or studying at UNC and heading back to Durham, Raleigh or other Triangle communities.....Nope.

No, instead they put it at the Harris Teeter NEAR THE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY! Yeah, the folks who....have no jobs. Have nothing to do all day (except of course drive slowly during rush and lunch hours).

What?!?!?!? Am I the only one who thinks this is a dumb idea?

What the....

OK, when did stripper poles become exercise equipment?

It's not really a New Year's resolution, but I would like to exercise more. Sadly, though, I have a serious lack of time. So I'm looking for something like a step machine, or a pedal exerciser that would fit under my desk at work. That way I could do SOMETHING while sitting on my butt 8 hours a day!

I found a couple of things online, but being essentially a cheapskate, I went to eBay to see if I could find something similar cheaper. I searched in Sporting Goods --> Fitness Equipement --> Portable, and here's what I got!

What the HECK?!?!?!

1. First of all, dancing with a strip pole (from the little that I've seen) is NOT aerobic exercise. Though it might lead to some.....
2. What the HECK!!!!

I am obviously WAY too old.

Truth in Labelling?

Right up front let me say I'm generally a big proponent of truth in labelling for foodstuffs. I think it's just unfair for marketing types to try to hide the crap that's in food behind "1/3 less sugar!!!" (yeah, than rock candy) "Half the sodium!!!" (of a salt mine) claims.

But sometimes they may go too far.

Our breakroom at work, like many others, is a place where people leave treats. Sometimes these are leftovers from meetings, sometimes it's leftovers from parties, sometimes it's just a nice gesture on a co-workers part. And sometimes, it's to get rid of the weird things you get at the holidays.

Today when I went to get a cup of coffee, there was a packet of what I would call cookies on one of the tables.

The name on the label? Glucose Biscuits.

Yummy.....

Why do I always hear these conversations?

And why do they always make me feel so old?

Many years ago on a trip to New York I was waiting in the half-price Broadway ticket line in Herald square, behind a group of college kids. We had a long wait (but I ended up with tickets to Cats!), and I had no one to talk to, so I spent a lot of time eavesdroping on their conversation. At one point one of the girls told the others about this really funny song she had just heard; a guy was tired of his relationship, so he put an ad in the personals, got a response, met the woman at a bar...and it was his girlfriend, they laughed, and their relationship was magically renewed.

It was, of course, Escape (the Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes.

What was so amusing/distressing/mind-boggling to me was the fact that these kids, who were no more than 10 years younger than me, had never EVER heard that song until their friend shared it with them! NEVER!!!! Totally freaky, and it made me feel ancient (and keep in mind I had not yet hit 30 when this story took place).

Well, this morning it happened again. I had no coffee in the house, and for some reason it seemed easier to go out for breakfast than to go buy coffee, so I wound up at Elmo's. As luck would have it, soon after I was seated a group of kids. Again, I was alone, so it was easy to eavesdrop! Pretty soon, their conversation turned to Hannah Montana/Myley Cyrus (who one of them called Milo Cypress!). Again, one or two of them knew the HM/MC phenomena, and was trying to explain it to the rest.

And once again, it made me feel everlastingly, immeasurably OLD. I do know who Myley Cyrus is. I also remember her Dad's songs, which these kids probably don't. And, God help me, I know the ins and outs of the whole Hannah/Mylie thing. Not because I'm the right age demographic, but because my CHILDREN are. I am less than irrelevant; I am the parent of a marketing demographic.

Hmph. I knew I should've just bought coffee and come home!

Wow!! He does listen to me!!!

The other night UNC was playing Kent State in basketball. Being a good child of the '60's, I spent most of the game singing the few lyrics I remember of CSNY's song, "Ohio".

Eventually my kids got tired of me singing the same three lines over and over, and aske what the heck I was on about. I gave them a highly abridged version of the shootings, and the song, but did mention the name of the band.

So today, I saw that Stephen Stills had prostate surgery (during which he was probably prostrate), and returned home today. I told Peter that, and asked him to name at least one song that Stills did. After a hint or two (I had to give him a time frame), he came up with, "That Ohio song?"

Yay!!!

Guitar Hero

There's nothing that warms a mother's heart like hearing her daughter rock out to Black Sabbath!

2008?? How the heck did that happen?

2008: the year my daughter will turn 8, and the year my son will turn 10. Yep, 10. Double digits and everything. Puberty is just around the corner, and won't THAT be fun?!?!?

How is it 2008???? Does that not sound like a really futuristic year? How did this happen? Wasn't anyone paying attention????

Dang.

Bad bad boys

This can NOT be good