Scripps National Spelling Bee

Scripps National Spelling Bee

I love the Spelling Bee. I can't wait to watch it tonight. Gonna make popcorn and everything.

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I swear she's not human.

I really do.
God gave her to me. She's an angel.

She has the best heart of anyone I've ever met. She is kind, sweet, sensitive. She had a warped and funny sense of humor and is always thinking of other people. She's not perfect - her room is a sty, she's always losing things 5 minutes before we have to leave the house, she has to be prodded and poked to do her chores - I guess that means, in that respect she's a normal kid on the outside.

Her greatest passion is the environment.

She wears a polar bear charm on her neck. She'll read or bathe in the dark so she doesn't "kill the polar bears". I've seen her rummage through the trash and separate the recycle, compost and trash.

Last Saturday we asked her what she wanted to do that day. She said she wanted to go to the beach and pick up trash. So, Saturday afternoon, after we had finished a bunch of errands, Hubby walked her down to the beach. They each were armed with trash bags and a pair of gloves and had extra gloves in their pockets. I gave her the speech about not picking up any needles or looking for trash in the dunes (people live there, some are homeless and harmless, some are homeless and not harmless).

They came home covered in sand, cold and wet, but with smiles. I'm so proud of her.

I'm a little freaked out.

I'm a little freaked out right now.
They know me, they know my order. It started about a year ago. I got in the habit of going down to the S-Bux on the ground floor of my building. I order the same thing every day. A double espresso macchiato. 15 calories of jumpin juice to get me going every day. It took about 6 months for the barristas and cashiers to stop asking me "what size" or ordering me a carmel macchiato which is 240 calories of a sweet mess. It took quite a while to school them. An espresso macchiato is espresso with a dollop of foam on it. Then I had a good 5 months of ordering my drink without a problem, knowing which barrista was going to make it the way I liked it. I knew if I saw a certain person at the coffee machines I would be sure to order a grande soy hot chocolate which is most certainly not good for one's waistline at 350 calories. During this time the order-taker kept calling me Stacy. This morning I walked in and before I could even reach the lovely order taker I heard her say "double macchiato for andrea, double macchiato for andrea". I looked at her and smiled and told her my name was stacy.

Bazooka zooka bubble gum.

Last night as we were finishing up a particularly yummy dinner (linguine with Bolognse sauce, ciabatta bread, sweet corn with lots of butter and black pepper on it) Little Miss wanted some dessert. She left the table and came back with her Easter Basket from a few months ago. We were amazed that she still had candy left. I was lucky if I had any left after 3 days when I was a kid. Then I remembered she still had some halloween candy left. I ran and got her plastic pumpin and we all had a laugh about how long Little Miss keeps her candy, that she portions and rations it out.
While digging through the plastic pumpkin I found a bunch of Bazooka Bubble Gum. We opened all of them and read the comics to each other, laughing at the fortunes and the corny jokes.

Little Miss wanted to see how many pieces of gum she could chew. I decided to challenge her. Sadly I lost. I chewed 3 pieces and she chewed 11. Then we ran out of gum.

Here some pics of the results.

This picture shows my piece of gum next to Little Miss's piece. We used a quarter for scale. The novelty bloody finger shows the clear winner.

Then for fun, we paired the gum with a novelty tater tot.

Such a copy-cat

I read a post once on The Meanest Mom that said when one's kids are getting out of hand and wearing on your good will and patience, once should document the incident. Once the incident is firmly in the past, say an hour, look at the captured image and have yourself a giggle.

This morning Hubby sent me a video of Little Mister. It made me miss him, want to cuddle him and glad I wasn't there all at the same time.

List Update for 05.20.09

A few days late in posting my progress on my list.

Someone asked me about it today. I thought that was pretty cool.
OK, here's what I'm doing --
#17 - still reading The Other Boleyn Girl. I can't get into it. Maybe if I just sat down and started reading I could, but it's hard.

#26 Make a Cherry Pie
I was going to do this over last weekend but Lucky didn't have any frozen cherries and I didn't feel like pitting a bunch of cherries. Maybe next Tuesday if the Farmers' Market at the Ferry Plaza has some good Queen Anne or Ranier cherries I'll buy some of those and pit those cherries. I'm not going to go through the trouble of pitting Bing Cherries. That's just dumb.

#6 Clean out the cabinet above the kitchen sink
I looked at the cabinet and thought "I have to clean that, it's on my list". That's as far as I've gotten with that item.

Pretty boring otherwise.

The List - Update

This was a pretty good week.
I started #17
Read "the Other Bolyn Girl". I'm a few pages into it. Pretty good bus reading.

I completed #15
Give Hubby control of the remote for 1 week without complaint. I read the book "Angels and Demons" while he watched TV. I didn't complain but I did make one request of him; no futuristic shows on the history or science channels. They really freak me out. He watched a lot of "Generation Kill". I couldn't keep any of the characters straight except for Godfather, but I have to admit, I didn't hate it.

I looked into #23
Take the kiddies to Monterey Aquarium. I think we'll go the weekend of June 6. It's the first weekend of Little Miss's summer vacation. I think it will be a nice way to kick off her summer especially since she's mad at us because she won't be going to camp at the YMCA this summer. She loves YCamp. I like it too. I think it's a good camp but we don't have the time or resouces this summer to get her there. We're too busy and too poor. Oh, she's also pissed at us that she has to go to summer school.

I have to say I'm not looking forward to #22
Try dolmas again. I really don't like them. I don't want to skip any part of my list. I did write it down and stand on my soapbox and tell the world I was going to accomplish certan things. It's just . . . ew, dolmas.

If we don't go to The River for Memorial Weekend, I might try to get Hubby to agree to # 33
Walking the Barbary Coast Trail or #51
Go to Angel Island. Hubby thinks we need to take Little Mister on a practice run for camping since we'll be camping on our way up to Idaho in July. Maybe memorial weekend on angel island will be a good idea. The island will be filled with inexperienced camping dorks and tools. We'll just contribute to the mess by bringing a 15 month old camping. Oh gosh, I hope he's not walking by then. If we don't do that we can maybe to to San Jose for #36
Visit the Rosecrucian Museum.

So I was just reviewing my list to see what else I could do and I realized we did something on Mother's Day that I'd always wanted to to AND IT WAS ON THE LIST. We rode one of those bike-things. We rode the surrey. Yay.

Wish me luck.

Mother's Day 2009

I had a great Mother's Day.
We ate Bacon. We had French Toast. We did something we had never done before . . . . .

Come into the Circle for your Friendship Squeeze

The Kiddies and I happened upon a Girls Scout Gathering. We didn't know what it was at first. All we heard from the loud speaker was "Come into the Circle for your Friendship Squeeze". Little Miss and I looked at each other and walked the other way, quickly.
We found shelter in the Marine Sanctuary, almost.
While we were in there sifting through a big bowl of rocks looking for sharks teeth, entered Mr. Red Bandana. Who is Mr. Red Bandana? Mr. Red Bandana is my ex boyfriend and a naturalist at the Marine Sanctuary. One time when we were dating we were supposed to go to hawaii together for a week. Then one day he came over and told me he had bought a ticket to Hawaii and was going by himself. I was super pissed but was certain he'd bring me back a present. Do you know what he brought back for me? A STINKIN' RED BANDANA. What a stupid gift. Sorry Mr. Red Bandana if you're reading this, but you got negative boyfriend points for that one. If you were going to buy me a present at he gift shop you could have at least brought me back a puka shell necklace or a pretty little tin of mele macs. The night he came back was the night my kitty Jack came home from the hospital from getting his eye removed. I had his catbox and bed set up in my room so he could have some peace and the other kitty Garth wouldn't try to play or cuddle with him and tear out his stitches. I was so mad at the red bandana that I threw every thing Mr. Red Bandana had ever given me into the catbox (except for a few things that I liked. those things I hid - yes, mr. red bandana, I still have your sea sheppard's t-shirt and Jack Kerouac CDs, and the stinkin' red bandana). About a year later, after almost 2 years of dating, he broke up with me at some tea house on Valencia street in the Mission. Although I was sad at the time, I have no complaints today. Things turned out great for me. I have two great kids and a rockin' husband. Mr. Red Bandana was really nice to my kids. He gave Little Miss some information about the sanctuary to give to her teacher and told her he'd give her class a tour. It was nice to catch up. He also said that the "friendship squeeze" people were 7,000 girl scouts from across the country. On the way back to the car I told Little Miss that he was an old boyfriend. She was surprised that I talked to him and that Hubby wouldn't mind that I spoke with him. I explained to her that running in to him is no big deal, that we were going to tell Daddy about it, and that he wouldn't have a problem with it. She thought it was weird, but accepted it.

The List Update

I get to cross a few things off my list.

#10 First - hooray, I finished my mom's blanket. I didn't finish it in time for her birthday but I did finish it in time for mother's day. I'm am going to get totally great daughter-karma for this, and extra daughter points as well. I don't have a picture of it but see if you can picture it in your head. Its main color is maroon with pieces of different complementary colors winding through it. I crocheted in back loops only using a hdc. The border is standard two hdc in each row, two rows. It's not super big, but my mom puts a blankie on her lap when her youngest baby (her schnauzer Frida) sits on her lap.

#11I finally found a pattern I like for Hubby's cousin's baby. I don't think I'll have it done by the time her shower rolls around in two weeks, but jeez, she's not due until August. I'll finish the blankie by then.

#32 I sold a case of Mele Macs. Yummy candies. I'm almost done with selling the second case. Mele Macs are toffee covered macademia nuts dipped in milk chocolate and rolled in what Little Miss's BFF calls "donut dust". (Side note: Little Miss had a slumber party a few weeks ago. I broke open a jar of melemacs and let the kids have at it. Two days later there was a trail of ants going from the window to under the couch in the living room. At the end of the trail I found two melemacs, chocolate sucked off. The ants were after the nuts and toffee.)
Melemacs are $20 a jar and if you buy one or three you will help a group of adults to Hawaii for the week in 2011.

#46 I'm having a hard time letting my hair grow until October. Some of it broke off where the gray hair meets the dyed hair. The new hair coming in is stronger and a different texture than the old dyed hair. I'm trying to stick this one out. Only a few months to go.

The headaches have lessened. Partly because I got some cool-ass new glasses and partly because now I don't have to worry about getting laid off any time soon. See, the boss got a promotion and I was left without a boss. I got a new boss and a new job description. Seems like it'll be a pretty good gig, not the same, but an OK gig. With the headache at bay, that means I can tackle ...
#15 Hubby gets control of the remote this week. I started reading Angels and Demons. I usually don't read books that are also current blockbuster movies because I really hate it when people on the muni try to turn the L-Taraval into their own personal book club, then weeks later they try to ask you what you are reading this time and talk to you again. I have to admit, I am enjoying the book. I'm only about 150 pages into it, but I'm digging it. I still have to take on #17 and read "The other bolelyn girl" but hey, I have some time.

When are cherries in season?

Dream #2

I walked into a Taco Bell

and ordered "The Gavin McCloud Special".

The Gavin McCloud Special

comprised a Taco Lite (something that was in the menu in 1986, but I don't know if it is still on the menu. It is a taco that is twice the size of a regular taco but instead of the shell being a corn tortilla deep fried in coconut oil, it was a flour tortilla deep fried in coconut oil. It also contained sour cream and tomatoes. I guess it was only "lite" in color, not calories), a regular taco and a Michelob.

I loved the combination but tried to convince them, unsuccessfully of course, to rename the combo "The Grant Goodeve Special".

Dream #1 from last night

I had a Twilight Dream.

I asked one of the Cullens if they produced waste. He said they don't eat. I said they did. They drank blood. Certainly there was something in the blood the body didn't need, and need to get rid of.
Then the Cullens and I read the Twilight series together.

My first food allergy.

Baby Kiwis, cousins of the Kiwi Fruit, are luscious berries with smooth skin, delicate seeds and are similar in size to the grape. They are high in nutritional value and make excellent snacks. Baby Kiwis’ beautiful green skin lacks the undesirable fuzz found on the larger, well-known variety. They are just as delicious and refreshing as well. Baby Kiwis are handpicked and immediately hand-packed with care. They have a shelf life of 7 to 14 days. Eat Baby Kiwis whole right out of the hand or create delightful snacks and hors d’oervres for any occasion.

I have a food allergy, I think. I've never had a food allergy before so I'm only guessing but I think I'm right.

I have seasonal allergies, but I've never been allergic to food. Last night I took a bite of Baby Kiwis, a fruit at Trader Joes, which isn't a kiwi, but is a cousin of the kiwi. Less than 5 minutes later my throat swelled up and I had to cough instead of breathe (not that bad, but almost). I took a benydryl and was all better. Neither Little Miss nor Little Mister were bothered by them.

I have to say that I'm bummed to be allergic to food. I didn't really like the baby kiwi but I didn't hate it, and now, if it is in a fruit salad, do I have to skip the whole salad or just pick out the offenders?

I'm not happy about this. I think I'll just try to cover it up by saying I don't like that kind of fruit instead of saying that I'm allergic to it.

The List Update.

OK let's just get right down to it. I've stopped doing one thing on my list two weeks early - eating at least one raw meal a day for 1 month. Lunch got too boring, plus I couldn't figure out what the point was. I figure I eat enough raw food anyways. Why do I need to put it all in one meal. I usually have a banana on the way to work and then between getting to work and lunchtime I snack on whatever fruit I've thrown in my bag. At lunch I may have a sandwich, but I usually hit the salad bar for a little salad. There are always veggies at dinner. So, I gave up that part of my list. Didn't really see a point to it. Besides, I have enough gas.

Muni Diaries posted one of my stories.

http://www.munidiaries.com/2009/04/23/snarky-train-operator/comment-page-1/#comment-2110

Snarky Train Operator
This morning on the L Taraval the operator certainly gave his riders “what for”.
I was sitting on the train. We came up to 40th and Taraval. The train stopped at the train stop but didn’t open its doors for about a minute. The doors finally opened, people got on and then the train operator started yelling at the passengers over the loud speaker telling them that pushing the button to open the doors does not work until he releases the lock. He is not a man that will be rushed. He opens the doors on his own time and nobody is going to make him release the locks before he’s ready.
From 40th Avenue all the way to West Portal the driver would stop at every stop and then pause for about a minute before opening the doors. Once the new passengers got on he would give his speech again.
I wonder if people learned a lesson or just thought it was as funny as I did.

Another dream last night.

I had another crazy dream last night.

I was in the check-out line at Lucky. This particular Lucky had a resident kitten that was partial to the checkstand that I was in line for. I saw the kitten all curled up between the atm pad and the scale. I woke it up and started playing with it, making it be a bitey-face-fierce kitty. The checker told me to stop because he didn't want it to learn that it's fun being a bitey-face. Then there was this mentally challenged boy scout who started crying and told me if I kept playing with the kitty I was going to give it a hernia.

Quack Quack Quack Quack

I was thinking about doing an update today to my list but I'm not really feeling it to day. I have a big fat headache. I've had this headache for a few weeks now. It sits right on top of my head then creeps down to my eyes. Sometimes I can feel my heartbeat in my eyes. I went to the doctor last Monday. Dr. Quack said that he couldn't see anything wrong. He ordered a CT scan and gave me some ibuprofen. He prescribed 800ml ibuprofen. I asked him what the difference was between those and me just popping 4 200ml advil. He looked up and said "these are 800." Picture Nigel of spinal tap saying "this goes to 11". He actually told me that they were white and pretty. I took what he prescribed and they did absolutely nothing. On Friday my head hurt like a brother trucker. I called the doctor's office and got an appointment with anyone other than Dr. Quack. I got to see Dr. Nice and Competent. She told me that since my CT scan was just 1/2 hour away I should go to that then come back. Once she determines there isn't anything major going on (tumors, bleeding), she'll give me some better pain meds. I had the CT scan. Dr. Nice and Competent and one of her colleagues took a look at the scan and saw nothing unusual. They gave me some proper meds, but only 30 of them. They told me that someone would be calling me in a few days who would give me the official results, but unless there was something really freaky and unusual going on, there was nothing to worry about. The headache was probably a tension headache. So I'm on day 4 of Vicodin. The Vicodin is doing its job in that it's making me drowsy and chatty at the same time, but it is not taking away my headache. What's a girl to do? I got myself assigned to a new doctor. I'll call him when the Vicodin runs out and see if he can give me anything better.

I promised, however I would satisfy #14 on my list and give you an update.
I'm still working on #10 - finish blanket for my mom. I don't know why this particular blanket is taking me so long. Sometimes I can knock these babies out in about a week. This pattern isn't particularly crazy. In fact, I picked an easy one I could just work on and not have to worry about counting so I could just zone out and crochet.

I have the yarn for #11. I plan on looking for a pattern tonight. don't laugh but I think my Vanna White crochet book has some good patterns in it.

I started #17 today which is read the book The Other Boleyn Girl. It came in the mail today. I'll start it on the bus on my way home if my headache isn't too bad.

That's all for now. I have a headache.

There's no Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky

My dream last night or this morning, rather.

Hubby, Little Miss and Little Mister and I were driving through Kenya. Picture driving through Calistoga except with a lot of neon. We saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken, except the sign didn't say KFC in english. The sign was written in Kenyan (OK I don't know what the Kenyan language is called so I'm just going to call it Kenyan because that's what I called it in my dream). We knew it was a KFC because we as a society are succeptible to branding. Hubby said "There's a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky." Little Miss shouted out "There's no Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky, we're in Kenya."

Then suddenly we were no longer driving, but walking. We saw some Golden Arches. McDonalds was written out in english, not Kenyan. I said "I wonder if there's a starbucks." We turned the corner and yes, there was a starbucks in Kenya, but again, nothing was in english. We only knew it was s-bux because we know what the logo looks like. I made Little Miss order her own coffee. She was a little freaked out to order by herself because she didn't speak Kenyan. I told her that it is s-bux, they are nothing if not consistent. Just point to what you want.
Then we started walking down the midway, because in my dream-Kenya there is a midway filled with lots of neon and those games with the waterguns where you shoot at a target to make your baloon go up or the racecar win the race. All of the carnies were English, had super cockney accents and drank fine wine while they were working. The prizes for one of the games were bobble-head dolls of San Francisco Giants.

I love my dream life.

THE LIST update

I've started my list. It's been easier thought it would be but that may be because I'm doing the easy stuff on the list.

An old boss sent me to a Franklin Covey organization class once. The class was uper creepy and the guy that taught it was a total tool but he repeated a particular phrase at least 30 times that got my attention. It takes 30 days to create a habit. I figure if I tackle the easy stuff for 30 days, it will become habit to continue with my list.

Here's what I started last week and the progress I'm having with it.

#14 - updade my progress on my blog at least once a week
easy enough

#3 - At least one meal a day will comprise only raw food for one month during the week, not on weekends - This one has been pretty easy as there are a few salad bars to choose from in my office's neighborhood. I think I may get sick, however, of salad bar and may have to get crafty in finding raw food for breakfast so I can have a sandwich for lunch once in a while.

#7 - Not cut my hair until at least 10/25/09
#46 - let my hair grow out long enough so I can see what my natural color is
These two items go hand in hand. By not cutting my hair I will get to see my natural color.

#8 - Practice hula for at least 1/2 hour every day until 10/23/09.
I have to admit I've been a little cheat-face on this one. I've been banking my practice. For example my normal hula class is on Wednesdays and is 1.5 hrs long. That takes care of my practice for one day, plus puts an hour of practice in my bank in case I don't feel like practicing that day. I'll have to stop that.

#29 - Compliment someone every day.
I've tried to do this one. I think I've been doing it. Am I cheating by telling my son he's a smart boy when he does a new trick? or telling my daughter how pretty she is? Those two things are givens and I do them anyways.

#44 - put $1 in the change jar every time I pick my hangnails and they bleed
$4

#10 - finish the blanket I'm making for my mom.
I'm working on this one. I don't know why this is taking me so long

#11 - crochet a blanket for Darin and Rose's baby.
I bought the yarn for this one but haven't found a pattern yet I like.

#9 - put my change in a jar until I finish this project.
OK, I haven't started this one, but I haven't been going nuts spending my quarters and dimes.

This week I'm going to start
#4 - I will climb the Coit Tower stairs every day for 3 weeks, excluding weekends
and
#5 I will walk from the office to the Muni instead of taking the shuttle for one month.
My company has been doing some reorganization. If I want to do #4,5, I'm going to have to do these now in case I get reorganized as well.

OK, that's it for now.

My dreams

I had the strangest dream the other night. I don't remember much of it but I do remember telling hubby about it.
I remember saying to hubby "and then we threw him in the backyard in the pond because that's where we kept the capybara"