What an odd lunch

Here's what I'm having for lunch today:

• A small mixed greens salad with broccoli, cauliflour, celery, radishes and carrots
• a small scoop of pasta salad
• a small scoop of chicken salad
• a small scoop of egg salad

Not sure WHY those were the things on Harris Teeter's salad bar that appealed to me, but they were!

Dang, I'm old.

So, I'm less than two weeks out from my 42nd birthday (milestone birthday for me, of sorts), which is making me feel...well, odd, I guess is the best way to sum it up.

My daughter, my BABY, is officially eight and a half today. Wow.

And I just bought my first pair of reading glasses.

I'm still not entirely sure I need them, and perhaps more importantly I'm not entirely sure I like them. But, I noticed I was squinting a lot as I tried to work at my computer, and I've gotten to the point where I can't read in bed with my glasses on, so I figured I'd give 'em a shot.

Not sure if they're helping or not -- I think they are, but I need to get used to them. And I HATE that I can't just turn and look out my window. Well, I suppose I can, but I can't see anything unless I take the wretched reading glasses off!!!!

Sigh. This is NOT going to be a fun year.

Dusty the Water Cat

Jack and Dusty love water, but only, apparently, running water.

They always have a bowl of water, and typically ignore it. But let me make a move towards a bathroom, and they're right there, on the sink, mewing for me to turn on the faucet.

Apparently Dusty loves this so much, he now associates the sink with all things good, because he's taken to curling up in it:

Dusty's new happy place

Where's Buddy

On the stairs

Crazy Afternoon

Today my group at work had our annual Christmas Lunch. Yeah, Christmas -- we've discovered that having a group lunch during December is nearly impossible; in early December everyone is busy trying to get work finished, and then people are frequently gone for the holidays.

Anyway, I got out of lunch, and discoverd many missed calls, voice mails, etc. from Jeff (PF Changs is apparently loud). Turns out Grace had fallen off a piece of playground equipment at school, and fell about 5 feet, hitting her neck and back on the way down. She was complaining of a pain in her neck (and it WASN'T her brother), so the school tried to call me, couldn't (stinkin' Christmas lunch), called her Dad, and called the paramedics.

Jeff got there a little before the paramedics, which was good. They (paramedics) decided to put a brace on her neck and put her on a back board, then take her to the ER.

At the ER they examined her, then took her back for x-rays (at which point I showed up).

Luckily, all was well; nothing broken, and with an afternoon of rest (cause, yeah, nothing moves fast in the ER, so we were there for over three hours), the pain subsided as well.

She's now on th chaise, plaing NBA 09 with her brother, is alert, not in pain, and her normal, exuberant Grace self.

But I'd really rather not go through that again!

You know what hurts?

When you brush your teeth, then forget (or don't realize) that you've still got a bit of toothpaste foam on your finger, and go to scratch your eyes. Toothpaste in the eye is NOT a thing I'd reccommend.

But, on the positive side: my contacts are now minty fresh!

Easter Research

One of my favorite sites, ever, just for the sheer silliness of it, is the Peeps research site. If you've ever wanted to know how these tasty little globs of sugar react to extreme heat, cold, etc. this is the site for you.

And, I can now conclusively state, that, when experiencing a stressful afternoon, two Dove Milk Chocolate Almond eggs provide significantly more mellow-feeling-ness than two Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs.

For a nasty, grey, rainy weekend, that was GREAT!

You know you really needed a getaway when you get away to a place that's cold (highs in the 30's and 40's) and rainy, but come home saying, "Man, that was a GREAT weekend!"

But, yeah, it was a great weekend.

David and I went up to the Boone area; we really didn't do much, other than cook, eat, drink good wine, sit in the hot tub, watch basketball (which, honestly wasn't that great). Nothing major. We drove around some and looked at art/antiques, but didn't buy anything. Wasn't warm or dry enough to hike.

So, yeah, mainly just hung out, rested, played Scrabble.

But now I want to go back!

Pretty Cake

I was out of town this weekend; a GREAT weekend in the mountains. As with all vacations, there was a little bit of sadness when I got home; I never want vacations to end!

But there, on my kitchen table (under a bowl so The Boys wouldn't eat it) was this:

What a pretty cake!

It's a flower cake that Grace made me at the birthday party she went to on Saturday!

Tourney Time

Actual conversation today:

Me: What is up with Georgia Tech beating Clemson? They've done NOTHING all year!?!?!?!

Peter: It's the tournament!

I love my boy!

I feel so .... FUNKY!

So, I broke down and spent some more Microsoft points on new Rockband songs today. One of the songpacks I got was a Lenny Kravitz songpack. I LOVE Lenny Kravitz!

So, I was goofing around, playing my new songs, and played "Are you Gonna Go My Way?'

And I felt FUNKY, baby!

Gotta love it -- a 41-year-old, mother-of-two white girl channelling Lenny Kravitz in all his funkyness.

THAT'S a video game!

That took longer than it should've

My darling son is a big fat sleepy-head. And a night owl, to boot.

So, regardless of what time I insist he be in his jammies and in his room, he will frequently stay up till all hours of the night. I learned when he was about 2 that it's really hard to make someone sleep, at least without lots of tears and threats, so I figure there's not much to do other than insist on bedtime, even if he doesn't sleep, and insist on getting-up-time.

But it's a challenge.

He has an alarm clock, and it goes off every morning. On a buzzer, even.

He sleeps through it.

He slept through it for an hour one morning when I was feeling particularly passive aggressive!

He will wake up when I call him, but to be honest, he needs to learn to get himself up.

So, last night we tried something different. His clock actually has two alarm settings; he put one on for 6:00 (he also has his mother's tendency to like to get up gradually), and set it to 99.9 The Fan, the local all-sports, all-talk station. Then he set the other one to go off at 6:30, with a buzzer.

Worked a charm, as my English grand-boss would say! He was out of bed and in the shower at 6:33!

But you'd think that the sports angle would've ocurred to us before now!

Even when they're not bothering me, they wake me up!

The Boys, that is.

There were tons of people in my house last night; David and his kids came over, plus my Dad and Kathy came to watch the Duke game (WOOT!) and have dinner. Plus me and mine, for a grand total of, like, 9 people in my house. Minor chaos.

But, eventually they all left. The kids and I were up for a little bit longer, but not much, then we headed upstairs to bed. I'd done tons of yard work this weekend, so I was very tired, and went to sleep quickly.

And woke up at midnight to the BBC blaring; apparently in all the DST clock changing I managed to set the clock in my bathroom to go off at midnight! So, I got up, peed, got some water, and went back to sleep, but I noticed that neither cat was in my room (a rarity). Dusty was out on the landing, but Jack was nowhere in sight.

I woke up again a little before 3; not sure why, but this time Dusty was on my bed. No Jack, though, which was odd.

And then it ocurred to me that I hadn't really seen him at all since everyone left!

Now, I knew he hadn't gotten out when David left, and he was the last to head out. But, I'd had various doors and windows open during the day (BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend), and The Boys have been known to push screens out in order to escape.

So I got worried, and started looking around for Jack. No screens missing in my room or bathroom. No cat (or missing screens) in the playroom. I was heading for the kids rooms, turning on lights as I went, when I saw him, inside, sitting by the front door. Nothing wrong, happy as a little clam. Not pouncing, grooming, crying, or any of the other things he ordinarily does to wake me. Just sitting.

Yes, I know this one was my own fault. But, DANG, it's bad when your pets disrupt your sleep by BEHAVING!

Peter the Carnivore

Last night was Prime Rib night at The Carolina Club, so Kathy invited the kids and I to go after their choir rehearsal. It's a yummy dinner: a HUGE slice of prime rib, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable medley, plus either soup or salad and a glass of wine.

My kids LOVE prime rib, so rather than ordering off the kids menu, they ordered that (sans wine, of course).

So, our dinners came, and I will repeat, these were HUGE slices. Easily 3/4 of a pound, maybe more, an inch thick and bigger than half the dinner plate. Huge.

Grace ate a fair amount for an 8 year old; probably about 1/4 of the entire hunk. Kathy and I each ate about half ours, give or take.

Peter ate the entire thing.

THE. ENTIRE. THING.

Now, granted, he did not eat his veggies or potatoes (did eat his salad, though). Ang, he apparently did not eat much of his lunch -- he's been fighting a cold, so his taste buds are off, and what appealed to him in the morning while he was making his lunch just didn't do it at lunchtime.

But still.

He ate THE ENTIRE THING!

Oh, and he took a primerib sandwich for lunch today, made from my leftovers! Cause, yeah, a POUND of prime rib just isn't enough...

That's my boy -- carnivore extrordinaire!

Where's Lassie when you need her?

There are so many nice, sweet, normal animals out there in the world.

And then there are the ones in my life.

So, I've got Jack, who's a needy boy, and who also likes to groom me. Including nibbling on me. At 4 in the morning, typically. Very odd, but it makes him SO happy.

There's Dusty, who likes to walk across my curtain rods!!!!

And then there's Tucker. Tucker, like Jack, is a needy boy, so he gets clingy when he comes to visit me. He also periodically gets TERRIFIED of hardwood floors, so sits at the edge of the carpet and whimpers.

And, apparently, sleeps in odd places:

Tucker's new "bed"

Now, Tucker has a perfectly good bed. Soft, fluffy, and even has raised edges so he will feel all snuggly.

He also has a pad in his crate -- again, nice and soft, and he's been known to crash there when he wants a nap.

But apparently, they were NOT what he wanted this morning!

Your beer, Mr. President

I was in Cary tonight, and went to Tyler's Taproom, one of the Triangle's best places for beer. They have an excellent beer list; tons of interesting microbrews, frequently on draft.

My first choice was a Big Boss (local brewery) beer, but they were out. So, I went with the Ale 2009 from Ommegang Brewery in NY -- one of my favorite breweries, in general, and this beer sounded tasty.

Plus, it was brewed in celebration of Barak Obama's innauguration, and It's working name was Obamagang!

And, yes, for the record, it WAS tasty!

So, Mr. President, your beer:

Oooh Pretty...

Well, the weather guys were right again; the Triangle got about 3 inches of snow last night (they were predicting 2-4 inches). Schools are closed, and it's very pretty, but luckily the roads are actually getting pretty clear. Wet, but clear.

Here's a picture:

The snow out Grace's window