Oh, PHEW.

Just realized I scheduled a vacation without consulting the hockey schedule--but phew, I won't miss a single minute of ice time. March 10-13 seems to be hockey-free.

I can't stand to miss hockey, even if I'm visiting family.

Play on!

Woo hoo! I'm an Olympian again!

In 1990 (Good God, 16 years ago!), I competed in the Gay Games for the first time. They were being held in Vancouver, and I had an enthusiastic soccer team at the time that was willing to coordinate details and make up a team. It was a turbulent competition--our goalie was taken out by a late kick to the lower back, from which she convalesced for the next year. With a substitute goalie, we managed to win the consolation bracket.

Then in 1994, several of us reconvened and formed another Gay Games team to compete in muggy New York City. This trip cured me of ever wanting to move to NYC. I knew my wimpy native-Southern-California ass couldn't tolerate the winters, but then I learned I couldn't tolerate the summers either. We lost miserably but I still ended up with a medal that said "athelete." Oh, and I got to watch the women's hockey while there! Yeah!

Fast forward to the present. I am now a part of Team Canada (having shucked my USA affiliation because of our President's continuing attempt to tank the entire country). I will endeavor to meet my goal but have serious trepidation. The bright spot is that I get a new hockey practice jersey out of it! Yeah!

A glimmer of hope

I took a later lunch today so that I could stop by G's aftercare to check on his smiles. He got three out of three! -ish (the tiny note next to "cooperate" has a smiley "except for clean-up" and then a frowny face).

I gave him 3 quarters (but warned that next time he gets a smiley/frowny, he won't get the quarter). He was thrilled. He knows he can buy stuff at the local toy store from 25 cents on up, and they have super cool stuff. A quarter is a big deal for him.

Maybe this will do the trick...

My kid, in trouble, again

I'm having a hard time just believing it. The Graminator has now met with the Principal twice about his behavior. My Graminator. Wow.

Yesterday, it was because he was in the bathroom, and apparently his friend/foe P did something (wouldn't let him get a paper towel?) and G screamed his head off so loudly that he scared some kids and the Principal felt the need to interfere.

His teacher says to me, "I think the time for positive reinforcement has passed. It's time to move on to negative reinforcement." I've been doing positive reinforcement for so long now, after taking forever to learn how, that I don't even know how to do it.

The only thing I can come up with is that he starts the week with 15 quarters. Each quarter represents a situation he gets a smiley face or frowny face on at the end of each day (getting along with friends, cooperating, and ugh, I can't remember the third). He's been getting these papers home for about 6 weeks now--the teacher's idea, and it seemed to have an effect.

At the end of each day, I will see his paper and he will get a quarter taken away for each frowny face. (In the positive-reinforcement realm, I would award a quarter for each smiley face.... this is the only way I can think of to translate it into negative reinforcement.)

The problem, as I see it, is that the negative reinforcement comes so long after the behavior.

Oy! I'm still so dumbfounded. His behavior at home has gotten SO much better.

Godspeed.

To all my friends who are heading out to the hockey tournament in Vegas (baby!) sometime tomorrow, Godspeed. Be careful and kick some icy butt.

And, coincidentally, to my ex, who is headed to Vegas also, for a work thing. She was initially interested in seeing some of the tournament, but says her work thing goes till 8 at night and she didn't want to try to see some hockey too. Screwed-up priorities, I know.

Burninate!

Perhaps I can actually do this job.

Apparently, the demo went flawlessly. My part worked just fine. It was received beautifully. And perhaps, just perhaps, the pres of our company, who seems to always think that my stuff doesn't work, just maybe he thinks my stuff sometimes works.

In sharp contrast, today I worked with one of our last FORTRAN programmers, who has forced himself to first learn C and now C++ to launch himself into the modern(ish) age. I created the interface he needed for a command-line program he's been working on. I took some liberties with his design specs and created the interface in front of him on a RAD tool (Rapid Application Development, woo hoo! Programmers are so exciting, aren't we?). I explained the different parts and we planned the next step, and when we were done, he just couldn't stop praising my work and knowledge.

Maybe I'll encourage him to talk to the pres.

The weekend

I can't for the life of me remember what we did on Friday night. Relaxed at home, maybe. Saturday morning, we got up on time and got out of the house pretty much on time to make it to G's first basketball class, which was up on the Naval base. The info they sent out said not to wear black-soled shoes, but what kids' shoes don't have black soles, esp. boy-type ones? G's brand-new Spiderman ones have black soles but the box says they're non-marking. So I brought the box (just in case) and a pair of light-soled boots (just in case). It was a non-issue, of course.

I also didn't bring any food, but did bring my insulated cup of coffee--which joined countless other insulated cups of coffee at the front desk, as nothing but water is allowed in the gym. It would have been great to let us know (but the mass of coffee cups did make me chuckle). Next time, I'm bringing hot water in my insulated cup. I did bring my knitting and was so content to sit and knit during the class. (On the cold aluminum bleachers--next time, I'm bringing a stadium pillow for my cold ass, too.)

G was worried that he wouldn't know anyone, but I assured him we'd run into some kid we knew. We ran into 3: one from tumbling class, one from his preschool, and one from our church. It was great to see all these kids, growing up and having fun. The class went really well. G clung to me a bit but I pointed out that all the parents were on the bleachers and the kids were on the floor, and he let me go. The kid we knew from tumbling, A, clung to his mom for at least 5 minutes before he could stand, deer in the headlights, near his group. Poor lamb. When he warmed up to the group, and started participating, he did well.

The last thing they did was to form two lines at the two baskets and shoot baskets. I had been sure they'd lower the baskets for these kids, as many of them are barely over 3 feet, but no; they looked like regulation height. They did use smaller basketballs--one parent said they were women's size. They looked quite a bit smaller than usual. Anyway, G didn't make a single basket, which he noticed, as other kids sunk it quite a bit. Well, we'll have to work on that.

During the day, we got some errands done and I also stopped in to work, to fix a bug that a coworker who's in the U.K. needed for a demo Tuesday (today, in fact). G loves to go to my work, so it was no big deal. Then we did another errand and went home to eat one of our favorite dinners: cold cracked Dungeness crab with fresh bread (Il Fornaio ciabatta, crisped 10 mins in the oven). I also cooked some brussels sprouts, which we both love, but I did it in the bag instead of on the stove, and boy did they smell bad. Tasted fine, though, so that's good.

Then we went to The Wizard of Oz by Kids Take the Stage, in which our friend was playing Auntie Em/Glinda the Good Witch of the North. She was amazing. I knew she could dance and was poised in front of groups from seeing her perform at church functions. But this girl can sing, in a different voice (she nailed the bubbly Glinda voice), dance, and act like no one's business. I was blown away. G, having been warned not to wave when she took the stage, nevertheless blurted out, "That's A!" when she came on. sigh Got to work on that.

Sunday, I did some more work from home, then rushed to church with a veggie tray for the fellowship hour I was doing with a friend. Renie preached and kept startling me by turning to preach toward the choir, something no other minister at our church has done. When she was done, I still wanted more... as sometimes happens.

After church, I had to dash to work to do one last thing. A friend offered to take G for a playdate with his friend K too, and the parents all decided to go out to lunch first. So I handed G off and dashed to lunch, to meet everyone there after. It didn't take that long, but they were already eating when I arrived (fast service!). The friend took G after lunch to her house so the 3 could play, so I got in my car, then got out and went to Beverly's for a little shopping. I bought longer double-pointed needles to try two socks on two circular needles, the latest in sock knitting, and a skein of a soft black yarn to make another 'magic' scarf. By this time, I realized my mistake: wearing these shoes too long. I had gotten blisters!

Which wouldn't be so bad, but I had hockey that night! Priorities, you know. I got home, changed, did some cleaning and some knitting. Picked G up, picked up some Wienerschnitzel for dinner, and Karen came over for dinner and to watch G while I played hockey.

And then sneakily whisked him out the door after I'd left and brought him to hockey for a surprise birthday treat! So cool. It was a great game, too. Exciting and fast. I didn't score and only shot once, I think, but managed to catch a lot of pucks, which is always nice (and often startles me--I put my stick out and am surprised to see that the puck actually did stop there). One of my teammates managed to get a hat trick--and someone dutifully threw his hat onto the ice to commemorate it. 5-4, as Andrea's team made a serious comeback at the end, but we managed to toe the line. Great fun.

Early morning blog catch-up

Last Friday night, I had a long and complex dream. One part of it is that I had a multistoried house and one entire story was an ice rink (how cool is that?). Another story had a full-size pool.

My team was playing in the hockey rink, and I came out after first period. After the break ended and first period started, I was still chatting with some guy as I put my gear back on (who takes her gear off after first period?). I took forever to get it back on and stop talking (like 10 minutes) and I could see across the rink (for some reason I was in the bleachers) that Liz was furious with me (oops). Sorry, Liz.

Thank you

Alla you who were responsible for, or participated in, my leetle surprise birthday party tonight... thank you. Princess balloons, a hockey cake (too cool!), crack ravs (MMM lunch tomorrow!), and knitting needles so big, they scared me. What could be better?

Maybe some cod.

The story of Max's fall.

I found the page I'd put up, and put it on my .Mac web site.

http://homepage.mac.com/wearpurple/Max/

Andrea probably shouldn't read it. (wry, sad smile)

It's funny what gets you.

A friend innocently sent me the link to The Dog Breed Store, which led to Black Lab Notecards, today. The photo on those note cards stopped my heart. In a bad way.

It made me remember when Max fell down the 200-plus-foot sandy cliff at Fort Funston. She ended up in the water, which I realized when I looked waaaaayyyy down the cliff to finally spot her at the bottom, whipping sea water off of her tail, having just climbed out of the water.

Some day, I'll unearth my account of that day, but let's just say it involved me going through water that was over my head and was crashing on the rocky cliffs to get her... and coming back through it.

It was not a good day. She appeared unharmed (I think she tumbled down the sandy cliff rather than outright falling; the vet found nothing). I had nightmares for a week. Shit, I still do periodically.

Oh, sure, I'm the crazy one.

I keep mulling over something my mom said while she was visiting over Christmas vacation. I was hauling up a sizeable basket of clean laundry from the basement and she started folding it.

Then she suggested I narrow down my clothes and have fewer of them. "Then you won't have so much laundry to fold," she concluded.

I'm still shaking my head. By my calculations, if I have half the pairs of underwear, aren't I doing laundry twice as often? How is this a benefit? I seriously do not get her logic.

And no, I'm not throwing out half my underwear.

Successful overnight!

The reason I was free to go whereever I chose on Sunday morning at buttcrack o'dawn was that G had an overnight with his friend, N. I woke up at 5AM with no intervening call for a pickup, so in my mind, the overnight went well.

He did wake up, apparently, at 1AM but was comforted by N's moms and spent the rest of the night in their bed--which caused N to rush into their room in the morning, saying, "Mom! I can't find G____!"

When I picked him up around 9AM, he had already had bacon and pancakes for breakfast. To say that I was jealous is an understatement.

But, yay! One down, many many more to go! Wahoo!

Dream snippets

From last night. (Background: we have the class guinea pig staying with us. When I open the cage, I have to lift his little shelter even to get to him, and when I pick him up, he makes noises that sound like a tiny dog being tortured. A friend assured me it's a happy noise; doesn't sound like it. When I put him back, he scrambles to get back into his shelter in his cage.)

I go up to the cage, and Mikey run out of his shelter and comes up to the cage door, head up and ready to come out. Wishful thinking; he graced me with his nose peeking out of the shelter today. Sigh.

Talking/arguing with my mom, I get so angry that I just stand there, pulling my hair out, as hard as I can, over and over. She doesn't care. So strange; we're not even fighting right now. PTSD from some of the scenes at Christmas?

5 A.M. Report

Hockey is good. Free hockey is good. Free hockey with guys is O.K. Of course, hockey with all women is even better, but I take what I can get.

Got up at 5 a.m. with little complaint (friends went home promptly at 8 p.m. to give me time to rest and for once, I didn't stay up madly knitting or watching endless C.S.I. on tape). Got there right on time. A guy was walking toward his car that contained a hockey bag as I drove in and I thought, "Oh, crud. It's canceled today" and asked him, and he said that the guy was just unlocking the door. And so he was.

We trailed in, me paying my $12 and the others handing over hockey-class coupons (10/$100 or $110), and suited up next to the ice (which, I must say, is chillier than I'm used to, especially coming in from a cold morning outside). We got on, started skating around, and 6:15 rolled around... no coach. After just a few minutes, a tall guy with an indeterminate accent took charge and started running drills. He ended up running the entire practice (and no scrimmage afterwards, sob!), which was really quite good--very challenging. But as I told him afterward, I didn't once feel like throwing up. (Last time, I felt like throwing up twice.) He affirmed that he would have to make the practice harder next time.

Oh--there were 5 women at this practice! The previous time, there were maybe 3, including me. One woman looked pretty new (but fit and athletic); I told her about GHATD (huh? No like for GHATD yet on the NCWHL website?) and encouraged her to come. She begged off, saying she has no time this year, but maybe next year.

As we all filed out, several folks called out that everyone should ask for their coupons back. I got my refund in the form of a coupon, which is fine. I'll show up again sometime soon (Saturday night sleepovers, yeah!).

More hockey news: Was chatting with a somewhat new person after church today. She and another gal and I were chatting a bit, and she stopped me: "Did you say you played hockey just now?" I set myself up for another "wow, women playing hockey, my goodness blah blah Bob Loblaw" conversation--and was again surprised to find yet another former women's hockey player. Told her about GHATD, too, of course. I swear; I can't wait! (Gotta clean my gear ahead of time, though; yuck!)

Night night.

My son just fell asleep to the recitation of all of the things I love about him.

Anyone know when my stupid grin will go away?

Tag, I'm it.

Tagged by Dharma...

Four Jobs You've Had
1- Summit Inn, busgirl, cashier, and drinks waitress. My first and only minimum-wage job. Actually not bad as jobs go. The owner was very nice.
2- Admin type person at my dad's company at the time, EMCON Associates. They are so gone they don't even have a website, it seems. In San Jose. Worked hard for a wonderful gal named Barbara, who was tiny and sharp as a freakin' tack. Summers & winter breaks from college.
3 - Office Manager/Technical Editor for Computech Engineering Services (gone gone gone) and Dynamic Isolation Systems (sold for a pretty profit, I hear!). Forced to get a job by my mean mom who said she wouldn't pay my rent after I dropped out of college. I mean...!
4- AAII at UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, which isn't really a museum. Great folks. Did some admin stuff but managed to do some tech stuff, too, including getting the entire place online, dragging some of them kicking and screaming into the current century.

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1- The Princess Bride
2- Grosse Pointe Blank
3- The Usual Suspects
4- Independence Day "Oh no you di'n't!"

Four Places You've Lived
1- Palos Verdes Peninsula, which no longer exists: it's now Rancho Palos Verdes, gag
2- The Santa Cruz Mountains, near the Christmas Tree Farm where Susan got her tree
3 -The blue house near the North Berkeley BART station (such a cute house)
4- The Sigma Kappa sorority house at UC Berkeley. Loved my roommate but couldn't move out fast enough. No privacy and plenty of girls who were happy to criticize my mess. lovely.

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch
1. CSI
2. CSI: NY I've loved Gary Sinise ever since The Stand.
3. CSI: Miami
4. Arrested Development which actually falls under the heading of shows I would love to watch. Haven't successfully taped it yet.

Four Places You've Been on Vacation
1. Something like 16 countries in Europe, when I was 13.
2. Hawaii, when I was too young to really appreciate it, dammit.
3. Lake Siskiyou. Terrific time camping w/my sister and her family.
4. France: Paris, the Loire Valley, the Dordogne, Brittany. Still wanna go back for more.

Four Blogs You Visit Daily
1. I start with Andrea's blog because she lists everyone I visit except Dharma...
2. Then I visit Liz
3. and Cheddah
4. and Susan
4a. and Heather
4b. and Viv
4c. and then sometimes some knitting blogs, especially the ones that make me laugh.

Four of Your Favorite Foods
1. Thanksgiving Dinner (what, you thought I'd actually play by the rules?)
2. Chicken Koorma Masala
3. Blueberries
4. Pad Thai

Four Places You'd Rather Be
1. Snuggling my kid
2. Home, knitting
3. Playing hockey
4. Hiking.

Again--you expected me to follow the rules?

Four Albums You Can't Live Without
I have an iPod. I have to choose 4 albums?
1. Peter Frampton, Frampton Comes Alive!
2. Led Zeppelin first album
3. Green and Root's album
4. C&C Music Factory, Gonna Make You Sweat

Four Vehicles You've Owned
1. Saab 99. Dark green, "4 on the tree," shifting into reverse required no fewer than 3 movements. Looked kinda like a Jaguar. The passenger seat didn't latch well and would kinda move around when you went around curves. I never sat in it and couldn't understand how folks pitched a fit about that. Settle down! Not really owned by me but was mine to drive in high school.
2. 1985 Mazda GLC. Was really a PGLC--a pretty great little car. Bought 2nd-hand when I dropped out of college and was working. Daddy helped me buy it.
3. 1990 Toyota Corolla. Frickin awesome car. Sold it 10 yrs old for $3600. It got 38 mpg on the highway. Not great traction (very light car), but good control, as it had front-wheel drive. I only sold it because I was gonna have a kid and thought I should have more room for kidlet + 2 dogs.
4. 2000 Subaru Legacy "L" wagon. It's been terrific. I still mourn the gas mileage of the Corolla, even though G would not be happy sharing the back seat with even 1 dog. Desperately needs to be washed.

Four Taggees
1. Oh, must I?
2. No, I won't.
3. Tagging feels too much like chain letters.
4. So I'm not going to do this part.

A fun night in a great new dress.

As a "holiday party," my company took us to Teatro Zinzanni last night. I think there were 30 of us total (wow!). It was great fun.

I have to get a photo taken to show y'all, but I managed to find a killer beaded black vintage dress at Salvation Army just the day before. (Nothing like planning ahead, eh?) Buying it at noon the day before gave me some time first, to try it on (no dressing rooms at our Salvation Army, argh!), and second, to let out the butt a little (it was, ah, a bit snug). I had tried it on over my jeans and knew it was hella tight. They do have a return policy (7 days, receipt & tags still on, only for exchange/store credit), but I've bought jeans there before and not managed to get back there within the 7 days, so it gave me pause. The price tag was also kinda stiff for Sally Ann--$17.00. (Other dresses were maybe $7-9.) Finally decided I'd take it home, try it on, and just be sure to return it Saturday if it didn't fit. I get to the register, and the gal says it's actually been in the store a month, so it's half off. A vintage, beaded dress for $8.50. Ha! Also found a pair of black pumps in 8.5W that fit me great--also half off. Splurged on a pearl choker for (gasp!) $12.

Letting out the back seam worked great. It was still tight, but at least I could (sort of) breathe and even sit down (carefully!). Instead of waiting till late at night, I dragged out my sewing machine right away, pinned & sewed the seam, pressed it open, and cleaned a little splotch that I discovered toward the hem. The dress was right down to my feet, with a slit in the back, but there's also a train that hangs from the back seam down past my feet and about 3" on the floor. I think I counted 9 people who stepped on the train. I brought thread in case the dress split wide open (chuckle).

The foyet of TZ has a big round bar with yummy drinks (Sexx in the Skyy) and some things for sale: feather boas, costume jewelry, beautiful beaded shawls, and... tiaras. I tried a little fluffly feather clip ($10) and it just didn't seem right. Then I saw the tiaras. I put one on and had to pay for it because I just couldn't take it off. I totally get the Miss America thing! It changes your look so much to have a glittery crown on. It was $20 and the rest of the evening (including the drinks) was free...

Later, I heard that a coworker's wife was admiring my tiara and considering getting one for herself. She wondered aloud whether I'd gotten it there at TZ. He said, "Jennie seems like the kind of person to have a cupboard full. She opens it and chooses one." Ha! I am like that. Although this is my first.

The show was terrific. Such talented folks. Two of them walked up a vertical pole and then did all sorts of gravity-defying things. A very sensual show, mostly horizontal, barely hanging onto the pole. It also made me want to work out my arms more! Such definition. Aaaah.

A very nice way to celebrate the holidays.

I love our hockey

I was telling a coworker about our game on Sunday, and how much I enjoyed it, and he commented that it seems like a nice group of players.

No, it isn't. It's a really nice group of players. I was just musing on how different NCWHL Green would be if we all were taciturn, way-too-serious players. The biggest part of making hockey fun is the attitude that everyone shares. We're there to play as well as we can but we care

-about folks who might have gotten hurt. We really care about this.
-about folks who just messed up and are feeling bad about it. We support them.
-about folks who are trying just as hard as they damn well can. We encourage them.
-about folks who are trying to mess us up. We laugh together and play hard together.

The refs care about all of this, too. They keep the play safe and let players who need to hear it know that they need to back off a bit.

I've played cutthroat soccer. It is no fun at all even if my skills improved. Not worth it. But skating my ass off to catch up with Cheddah or Andrea or anyone else? Great fun.

What a terrific league and division. Yay Green!

Hoo, a cool realization

Not just that G has a sleepover this weekend... but now that it's been moved from Friday night to Saturday night, I could actually go to the hockey class that's at the buttcrack of dawn on Sundays!

Sleepovers ROCK!

Getting up at 5:00AM, not so much, but still, it's hockey! And it's totally surreal to be stepping out onto the ice at 6:15AM on a Sunday. Not to be missed!

Tired of being an idiot.

I cope with my forgetfulness OK. I have a list of things I need for hockey, and I used to consult a list for getting dressed for hockey, which I don't need quite so much any more (although there was a moment before our last game where I said to myself, "OK! Almost done" and then realized I had no pants on).

But I periodically lose things and have no flippin' idea when or where I lost them. The latest ones: my watch (not a huge deal), my red wool cape (bigger deal), and my iPod (huge deal). Once again, no flippin' idea where or when I misplaced these. The cape would seem hard to misplace, as it is large. But I checked my coat tree and the 3 closets in my house.

Argh.

I love this kid, installment 138

As we were discussing our evening plans last night, I said something, followed by "All righty?" and G immediately responded with, "All righty bighty schmighty balighty."

Totally cracked me up. My kinda kid.

Generosity of friends

As the ex, her sweetie, and I were chatting after dinner, Ex knocked my PDA off the piano and onto the floor. She looked aghast. I reassured her that it was sitting there because I'd done everything in my power but couldn't revive it. Handspring Visor Pro in Smoke, may you rest in peace. (I'm calm because I synched reasonably recently.)

So ex's sweetie pipes up and says, "I have a Palm V that I'm not using. You could have it! Oh, and it has a keyboard, too!"

Man, she is so sweet. O'course, I let her have my ex. (j/k; years passed between our breakup and their hooking up.) The generosity of her heart is really staggering. This is not the first time she has done something like this. Both are generous to a fault. Good people.

Hm, weekend.

It's only 2 days later, and I'm having a hard time remembering what we did on Saturday.

Friday night, we settled in for a casual night of video watching and casual dinner (leftover mac & cheese and broccoli salad from Costco, if I'm not mistaken). Knitted up a scarf I'd ripped out (big needles ROCK) in just a couple hours. Woke up late Saturday, got us both up & dressed and headed on over to Sami's for a yarn trip, prudently preceded by a yummy brunch at FatApple's, which is conveniently across the street from the yarn shop. I had brought a subset of Magnetix for G to play with and he only lost one of the shiny balls (suitable for tripping on, ugh) in the restaurant. (Next time, non-rolling toys.)

We spent way too long in the yarn shop, feeling up countless skeins of soft stuff (and some really NOT soft stuff, ack, why??), and then got the call that boydog Wyatt had been thrown in the clink. Quickly made my purchase, and dropped a somewhat steaming Sami off to rescue her pup, and headed home. Well, we almost made it. Our path to the freeway took us by Blick, a terrible name for a pretty neat art shop. I wanted to find a spiral-bound book of plain sheets (no lines) for G to pack in his crayon box for easy transport. (btw, G was awesome at the yarn shop. So quiet and amused himself in non-destructive ways. He got a gold star for that!)

Well, their bound books were non-spiral and super pricey ($6 for a tiny book?), so I abandoned that. But then we found a printing aisle and I looked for screen printing stuff. When I was younger, we screen-printed our Christmas cards for several years in a row. You cut your design out of this gel-like paper on waxed paper backing, peeled off the parts you didn't want, affixed the gel stuff to the silk screen, then squeegeed silk-screen ink across. I've been able to find the silk screens and squeegees, but never the film stuff.

The gal behind the counter ominously said that the stuff used to adhere the film to the screen itself is highly toxic, and that she even passed out once because of the fumes. "Right, OK," I said. "So do you sell it?" She said no, but there is a photographic emulsion that is much better. Went back to the aisle, looked everywhere, never found it. (sigh)

Then G wanted a set of modeling clay that you can fire in the oven. Wonderful colors, but the whole set was like $16. OK, not till he can master not getting PlayDoh in the rug.

In the same aisle were fabric dyes, including Procion dyes that I'd heard make great tie-dye. I'd wanted to do tie-dye for several summers now. I bought red, blue, yellow, and hope to make green, orange, and purple from these as well. Ominous warnings about handling the powder. I may ask Mom to send down her WWII-looking mask to wear when I mix these up. Should be fun, though!

Finally got home and collapsed. Decided, after G went to bed, to rip out and re-knit a scarf I've been trying to create. Intent on using up the yarn that had been in the previous scarf, I knit till 1AM. Ah, we didn't get to church that morning. I was actually up in time but both of us were moving so blasted slow.

At 1:30, my babysitter arrived (as I was stepping out of the shower, so as G was opening the door, I was running back to my bedroom to throw my clothes on), and by 1:39, I was on my way to a stamping workshop. I know, I know: stamping! It seems to be in the same league as scrapbooking, which I've seen and doesn't interest me in the slightest. (My method is: throw them in the album, scribble something underneath, done.)

Stamping is really quite creative now. Following the leader's examples, we all created some really cute thank-you cards using the paper, stampers, and other tools set out. I was really nervous, not the least because I had to be done by 3:05 to get back by the time when my babysitter would be picked up. I got 3 of 5 cards done and my wonderful friend said she'd finish the other 2 for me.

Got out of there promptly and was home for a whole 2 minutes before her mom came. (Phew!) Spent more time cleaning the house and preparing for dinner.

At 5PM, right on time (smile--this was an issue between us when we were dating), my ex and her sweetie arrived. Dinner went off without a hitch (SO easy), and by having them come at 5, I had enough time to get ready for hockey without rushing. So of course I ran a little late, sigh, but did get to the rink in time to get 1 skate around the ice before the game. Better than Susan, who was looking at baby pictures and didn't even realize we were starting!

And I got to see Viv! who I haven't seen for, phew, a long time. Almost didn't recognize her from the back, as her hair had colors found in nature. So great to see her again.

I played D the whole game, except for the part where I was thinking in Forward mode and found myself way out of my position. I think Andrea saved my bacon for that one. I did take some shots from D, something I thought one couldn't do, and scored with one, although it was the crap de la crap of crap goals. My team was gracious enough not to cheer, wisely coached by Liz. It did make me realize I really need to work on my shots. They were very often wide (Look up!) and not that hard. I did lift at least one, yay! I also tussled with Sue G a lot, which was fun. She is a solid player and can seem quite serious out on the ice, but she's really having a good time. We won 4-0 but it was a very even game and everyone played well, including Wendy, who I had always thought was a little timid before, and even in this game, didn't take her seriously, which was a big mistake.

I also saw an opening for the move Barb taught us at the last practice, where you dive down to prevent the shot. I saw it, but my body screamed "NOOOOO!" so I didn't do it. But I did think about it, so I'm taking 1/2 credit on that one.

Had to pass on the IHOC trip after the game, as the ex gets up hella early and I didn't want to wear out my welcome on that one. Got home about 9:45, as I had predicted, but to my dismay, heard a little voice say, "Yay! It's Mommy!" The ex looked quite sheepish to have the little one still awake. (Like I've never done that.)

Once I got him settled, he was asleep in 10 minutes (after the requisite wail of "I can't fall asleep!"). Dang, me too. A little sore today.

But I think I'd forgotten just how incredibly, fabulously fun hockey is.

Oh! I forgot the funniest part! So as I was leaving the stamping workshop, my friend offered to have me pick up my cards in the evening. I said, "Well, I have hockey tonight, so let's hook up during the week." "Oh, you play hockey?" the leader said. I said, "Yes," getting all set to hear "Oh my gosh/so violent/have you skated forever" etc. Instead, she said she used to play hockey and is thinking of starting up again! How cool is that? I love when my presuppositions are challenged, Lesbian-processy as that may sound.

Does one invite former players to GHATD? I'm thinking not. But I could start her in on Spring/Summer season!

(I guess I do remember what I did last weekend.)

It's started already.

Was over at Sue and Sarah's the other night, and G said, "Look! A spider!" Of course, I responded, "A real one?" as Sue yells across the room, "Kill it! Jennie, kill it!"

I move something, and there it is--it's a sizeable one. As my mom taught me, I immediately reach over with my foot and step on it. To my utter amazement, my son turns to me, sad and astonished, "But it's a living creature!"

Huh? This is new. (and an interesting follow-on stage from the "Oh, sweetie, look at the pretty butterfly" that is answered with the young child trying to stomp the pretty butterfly to death, for no obvious reason other than to see what would happen.)

We chat about it later, and he again asserts that it should not be killed, as it is a living creature. I explain that in our house, spiders get two chances: I attempt to throw them out windows or doors with a Kleenex. If they crawl right back in, they go down the toilet. (The above was a special circumstance with a terrified Sue who needed protection.)

If he moves on to ants... ugh.

Boobs to blogs: 2005 in review

Since I'm a follower and not a leader, and others are summarizing their 2005, I'll do likewise. In my own special way, of course.

G and I started off 2005 having recently weaned at the grand old age of 4.75, a fact that never fails to make Liz flinch. It sounds cruel, but we stopped nursing on Christmas Day. It was good to make it a significant day, easily recognizable and so forth. From that day on, he soothed by reaching his hand up my shirt and gently rubbing a mole I have under my left breast. Big improvement, you say? Better than another friend of mine, whose son transitioned to a habit of shoving both hands up her shirt to touch her boobs when he was feeling unsure. O'course, G would have been the recipient of an unintentional smack had he tried that. (whoops)

In January, I started using my Gmail account in earnest. You get 2.5+ gigs of storage so you really never have to delete. The search function is decent and it is nice to go back to see what happened etc. I'm using it to recreate this Year In Review.

Around that time, I received 11 bound volumes of Cook's Illustrated, and an index, from Freecycle. I have made a ton of recipes from them, almost all of them absolutely killer, including a deviled egg recipe that has become my mainstay. It was nice to rediscover that I adore cooking, especially baking.

I also started my first pair of socks, which are still on the needles and are horrible, and if I ever finish them, may still be horrible, as for some reason, I chose green and purple. Bright green and purple. It's super soft yarn, but I think I'll rip it out and make G some purple socks. Or something.

Still in January, Karen Bechtel took some killer action photos of our hockey division. Hm, thinking back, this was the middle of my first full season, having dropped out the previous season from a skiing injury (and that's IT for skiing--not worth endangering my hockey season!).

For my birthday, I went off to Osento with Samantha, after first shopping at Rainbow Grocery in SF, both of which I adore (well, all 3 of which). My ex, Nancy, met us for dinner at Fina Estampa for Peruvian food, which was as terrific as always. (I always end up getting the chicken in green rice dish, which is just amazing.) We went across the street for a little drinky-poo, then back to Osento for steaming together. I splurged on a massage which wasn't terrific, as I have some strange tenderness in the middle of my lower back and she just couldn't get that it was painful each and every time she rubbed hard there. Oh, well. I believe I went in the Cold Dip for the first time ever. And probably last. Interestingly, I have no idea whatsoever what I did with G that day.

In February, I got to meet Dale from the moms list. Our Family Coalition had planned a schools forum and as G was about to start K in the Fall, it seemed like a good time to think about school issues. Dale planned to go and we met up. It was great to get at least a little chance to chat face to face with someone whom I've known for something like 8 years online.

Also in February, I freaked out about the paucity of summer and aftercare options for G. It is criminal how little is available to a working parent. But I ended up having him transition to the summer program his preschool fed into, and the before/after-care onsite at his school has been fine. Thank God.

In March, we got to go to Disneyland with Sarah Rose and Ryan and their families! We stayed with Debi, whose pool was not being heated over the winter, and G gave it a try anyway (shudder). When we got there, Debi was sick and I made myself busy by cooking up some chicken soup with rice. We set off for Disneyland in overcast and rainy weather, taking a suggested circuitous route around LA and making awesome time by way of Pasadena. Who knew?

We stayed at the Hyatt in terrific rooms with wonderful views if uninteresting coffee. G and I ate breakfast in the room and packed a lunch each day, continuing our streak as the Cheap Family. I had bought 5-day Park Hopper passes for each of us, and sold the 2 days we didn't use on eBay (ahead of time) for easily 2/3 the original cost. All in all, it was a very affordable vacation and it was SO great to see JoAnne and her partner Mary, and Debi and her partner Rita, again. We were supposed to also meet up with Liz's Last Coaster Hurrah and her posse, but I fucked up and it really didn't work. When Murrita is born, maybe we can try again.

We started reading The Hobbit at home. It can get scary and graphic, but I think in the end, was too old for G. We quit after about Chapter 5.

On March 13, my kitty, Sylvester, died. He was 2 months shy of 19 years old. I saw him around corners for the next 3 months. I was at peace with his death, since I'd seen him decline, first slowly, then quite rapidly. In his lifetime, he had gone from Skittish Kitty to Ghost Kitty ("You have a cat? Really?") to Noisy Kitty to Old Man Curmudgeon. Interestingly, a sibling but not litter mate of his had died 2 months earlier, at exactly the same age. Long-lived stock. Sly was kind enough to die in my arms. He is missed.

Sue's son Eric was very sick. Their baby-by-guardianship Isaiah was sick, but got better.

G's discussion skills blossomed. We had discussions about cremation (Sylvester), reanimation (the Lazarus story), and conflict resolution (what to do *instead* of calling someone a poopoohead).

Grcontemplated my death. At one point, h e turned to me and tearfully said, "What if you and Auntie Faiah [his name for my sister] *both* die? Anna [his cousin] and I will need to find someone to take care of us--" (now choking back the sobs) "AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!!!"

My sister and her kids visited for Easter. It was fun to dye eggs and hide baskets for all the kids.

G and I read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and talked about choices and how maybe some of the things Willy Wonka does are just plain mean. And how a glass elevator could fly out of a roof.

In early April, I discovered that my lawnmower had been broken. When my ex, Nancy, heard about it, she offered to have her yard-clearing guy clear our back yard in preparation for G's birthday party. I accepted her very generous offer and G's party was a success. As with previous parties, I planned more activities than actually happened (this year, 3 vs. 1). I made a castle cake by request and it turned out pretty darn good, if I might say so myself.

Then I took advantage of a county program and turned my gas-powered mower in for a big discount on an electric one. Eliminates pollution and is much quieter. All I have to do is manage not to run over the extension cord!

Had my first Mammogram in April. It was not awful.

I signed G up for the neighborhood school, about which I wasn't terribly enthused, and then found out from someone that we had a good chance of being bumped to the school a notch below this one. Fortunately, we weren't bumped, and the school turned out to be just fine.

In May, I hosted a Mother's Day potluck for my single-mothers-by-choice group. I had a house full of moms and their kids, and it was exhausting and terrific. It is so great to see all these moms who are doing just fine raising kids as a single parent. And great for G to see families just like ours, too.

Also in May, G and I participated in a fashion show at his daycare. It was really an excuse to have a party, as we all modeled the clothes we already had. G and I wore matching camping clothes and emergency whistles. It was pretty funny, especially the kids who were just born to be in front of audiences!

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to my sister's in Ashland, OR.

Pervasive weather

A coworker who is in Pennsylvania emailed me this morning to ask how things were here. She thought perhaps the office had closed, as she hadn't heard from anyone here yet this morning.

I was emailing back that things were fine, no big deal, when I glanced out my window and saw the huge tree that had fallen down at some point last weekend.

That certainly pales compared to having had to spend 30 mins pumping maybe 3" out of my driveway (which has French drains, or, as I like to call them, pieces of shit. Drain, my ass).

The tree has now been cut up and carted away, just moments before our afternoon rain began. Now there's just a stump and a huge hole where its foliage was.

Sure, we're not being flooded out, but I can't claim we're unaffected.

Really not sure

where I found the link for this site, but damn, it's interesting.

Found Things

Thank God for Rimadyl.

Last Tuesday night, Maddy looked pretty bad. Maybe my mom's 2-yr-old Lab had body-slammed her, maybe she just got up wrong, or fell on the back steps... finally took her to the vet on Friday after she just wasn't getting better all that fast. She is 11, but still. She sometimes looked better (enteric-coated aspirin twice a day), but sometimes looked just as bad.

The vet poked and prodded, stretched her limbs this way and that, and couldn't find anything for sure. She offered to do an x-ray but pointed out that we would treat it the same anyway: some sort of NSAID and rest, and re-evaluate after a week.

Well, after 3 days, she was like a puppy again. Only the slightest limp left, and she was actually hopping into the air to greet me. Wow.

I was honestly worried that this was the beginning of the end. Phew.