my soft spot

just a mom who plays hockey and knits

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Love those questions

I'm reading Treasure Island to G at night, one chapter at a time. We got to a place where there was a barrel of apples open so the sailors could help themselves at any time. It's such a big barrel that Jim Hawkins climbs in to get the last apple.

Anyway, they also talk of beef jerky. G doesn't know what that is (I was surprised, actually). I explain what it is and that it's hard to chew and really salty, and he asks,

"Why do people eat it, then?"

and it's one of those questions that makes me think. Wait, why do people opt to eat this incredibly hard, dry, salty stuff? Oh, right, it's a lightweight way to transport and store meat without refrigeration.

But it did take me a bit to get to that answer. (And why do people eat jerky now?)

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Wow!

HGTV has an online room planner! I love the Internet!

This is awesome.

New bed on the way

I have bitten the bullet and ordered a new mattress set. It will probably want to be delivered when I'm away at Knit Camp. Such is the life.

I've decided to put the old set out on the driveway with a big FREE sign on it and see if the faeries want to spirit it away. If not, I'll ask a friend to help me take it to the dump, for a big $14 per piece fee.

Me, in a new bed! Whee!

Time to change my room around.

Best pillow ever

I just have to rant about this pillow. My neck ached for like A YEAR and then I finally coughed up $18 for this pillow, and--nothing. I wake up feeling fine, every morning. I love this pillow. If you have neck aches--do it!

Questions to which one never answers "No"

"May I have more broccoli?"

"Can I help you clean?"

"Can I scrub the toilet?" (followed by a careful handwashing with lots of soap)

and last night's:
"Can I please go to bed early?"

I have found lately that when G goes to bed late, the lack of 'me' time tends to result in my going to sleep even later. When I have a cold, especially, this does not work. So really working hard on getting G to bed early meant I was happily esconced in bed, knitting madly, by 9PM, easily. And I got to knit for more than an hour, solid.

And he woke up on his own, which I much prefer, because it means he got enough sleep. Sadly, he did wake up pretty upset, having had a bad dream about jumping into water just outside his school's Media Center (mostly a library) and losing his shoes, and returning to find two of me, which disturbed him even more. Poor lamb.

We are out of eggs, so I couldn't make him pancakes this AM, so I took him to McD's instead... and for the first time in a long time, we were actually on time. Go figure.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Happy Blogiversary to me

Well, I did post on my Blogiversary, but I forgot to note that that was my blog's 2 yr anniversary. So I must say thanks to my small but select group of readers.

Thanks, readers! You make it all worthwhile.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Thoughts on being sick

Now I have no idea of when to take it easy and when to trudge on. Last Saturday, I actually had chills when I went to bed. Had a hard time stopping shivering, even with two down comforters. Then I finally warmed up, drifted off to sleep, and... woke up sweating like a mofo. Threw off one comforter, finally kicked off the other one and lay there, still uncomfortable, for a while. Ended up getting up to gargle with salt water, maybe do some neti pot, and then took 3 ibuprofen and slept peacefully. Woke up feeling mostly OK except for the aches. Gargled and did Neti all day, until it was time to pack the youngster off to my uncle's for his overnight and me off to Red tryouts.

Nuts, huh? But I really wanted to make Red, and honey, you don't reschedule this. I was so intent on getting into the locker room that I blasted right past the coordinator, who didn't realize I was there until just after the first drill (a ladder drill, which I didn't do well), when I skated over to ask her to let my evaluator know I had a bad cold and would do the best I could despite it. "You didn't check in--I didn't even know you were here. I had you down as Out!" she blurted. Ugh! She found me an evaluator, though, because honey, I'm now a Red Player in the NCWHL!

Hung around a bit to watch the Maroon tryouts, seeing old friends as Maroon and others as Maroon hopefuls, and then took off to Belmont for the Stick Time a friend had arranged. I suited up in my wet stuff (had had the foresight to pack new dry things to wear underneath) and got on the ice... and felt tired. Stayed for about 45 mins and then gave up the ghost. It was great to take shot after shot, though. I finally lined up 4 pucks in a row like another player was doing and shot shot shot (shot). Even though they all went to Nora or wide, she said they were nice & hard. If only I could do that consistently in a game!

Monday morning, I felt fairly awful, but had to pick G up and transport him to the full-day Y-Kids. He was still a little coughy but in good spirits; I conked out at work after less than 3 hours. Went home and took it easy, drinking a lot of tea, watching taped TV and knitting. Picked up the kid and conked out.

Next morning, I got up and took my shower, feeling achy and borderline. Kid wakes up and says in a convincing voice, "Mommy, I don't feel good." I was all ready to try work, but that took the wind out of my sails. (Ironically, he'd periodically asked to stay home, sick, before. Not convincing. Now, I tell him he's staying home, and he nearly bounds out of bed. "Yeah!" sigh.

Predictably, this is not a terribly restful day for me. I do convince him that we're going to have TV-free time for a bit, so I get him set up at the computer, playing a computer game, till I hear him pounding on the keyboard in frustration. another sigh Give him a timeout, things even out, and we play a cool new game my dad got him for his bday (early). (He won, 248 to 223.)

At bedtime, I'm once again miserable. Finally take 2 ibuprofen to be able to fall asleep despite the coughing.

What I'm coming up against is that it seems like, with enough pharmaceuticals, you can power on through almost anything. So... should you?

Friday, March 16, 2007

I have a dent in my calf

I was putting lotion on two days ago, and found a dent in the back of my calf. It's not an injury; it's muscle tone. Muscle tone, me? And today, while skating, I felt my calves working hard hard hard... I think I'd be less wobbly if I had better core strength. More situps (yessir, right away).

There was a guy there, in really cool looking hockey skates, doing these intense, deep crossovers. Very slowly moving his legs, but with reasonable overall speed. He fell a few times and looked disgusted... then I watched him before he fell: he was trying to do these super-tight turns with his skates at a really extreme angle. Well, kudos to him for falling! I did once yesterday but not at all today (but my transitions seemed much better and I was less tired). I peered a few times and decided that he did have kneepads on (I was wearing my Freecycle basic kneepads, which were a Good Thing yesterday).

Then, as I was getting ready to go, he happened to be resting. We chatted, and it turns out he's never played hockey! Thinks he'll be ready in the fall. (He's ready now.) I raved about how fun and addictive it is, and he nodded, excited. I mentioned that it is expensive, and he'd heard that, too. What's the wait, guy? Go for it!

Oh, I also had a really close near-miss with a figure skater. She managed not to fall but scared the freaking bejeezus out of me. I was doing circles and thought I'd been watching the other skaters--we both probably thought we were watching the other skaters, but I think I was going over the top of the circle, not the way she expected, and she was just a lot faster than I expected. My heart was beating fast for a full minute, I think. Yow.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Ugh. Finally done.

Updating your resume has to be one of the hardest things ever. So much self-contemplation, having to pump oneself up (I am SO smart), think of all those good things I've done, blah blah blah! I really hate it.

But a fairly big Bay Area company (rhymes with Moogle) cold called me a few weeks ago, and I've been kicking myself for not getting my resume updated and out to them. Finally finished a few minutes ago. Sent a link off to a bunch of critics friends (drop me a note if you want to see and comment!), and hope to "share" it by the end of tomorrow.

And then try not to even think about it.

Why did no one tell me...

...that Free Skate is so much harder than hockey? I started thinking, "What is it about wearing that hockey gear that makes it all easier?" Then I realized: when you play hockey, or even practice, you get some time to rest periodically. In Free Skate, you just keep going around and around, and even if you're just skating relaxedly, it is work. And if you practice your transitions (when did I lose my transition from back to front? wobble wobble wobble) and crossovers and fast-between-the-blue-lines and fast-lap and fast-two-laps... man, 1/2 hour just seems interminable. Thank God Lunch Bunch (oh, now it's "Lunchtime Skate Special," because what? that's catchier?) ends at 2.

And now, to nap.

Oh, and---their frickin' Pro Shop was closed, so I couldn't get my skates sharpened! Do I dare do it right before Red Tryouts on Sunday?

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Yearning for a shouting match?

(When I posted recently that I was reclaiming this blog, I mostly meant that if K was still reading it, well, I may post stuff that you don't want to read. So you've been warned.)

After IMing to Liz that my last conversation with K was one of the most honest we'd ever had, I had a daydream where she and I meet up at Asilomar at our conference's annual meeting this May, and have a huge shouting match, where we tell each other exactly how we feel. I realized I actually wanted this, and not just to hear how she feels. I want this so that we can get past the uncomfortableness of the post-breakup and be friends--and that one of the reasons I want to be friends is so I can look like a good person ("see, she's friends with all her exes!"). Pretty dumb, huh? It is important to me... and I need to work on letting go of that. sigh.

Despite all this uproar, I am looking forward to going back to Asilomar. Despite the constant need for layers and a good, portable raincoat, it is a beautiful place, stuffed full of nature (G and I saw 6 deer on our way down to the pool one morning) and a stone's throw (if you don't throw like me) from the ocean. Plus, I scored my boss's passes to the Aquarium, so we'll be visiting there again this time.

Mostly, I want to slow down and savor that place this time. It's a unique opportunity. And we have a room with a fireplace. (yay)

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The weekend

I'm really not sure what we did Friday. Seems like we had no plans and just had dinner (oh, I think I recreated the Totally Yummy Homemade Mac & Cheese I'd made for the "multicultural" dinner at G's school on Wednesday. (I just made 2 c of white sauce from Joy of Cooking and stirred in about 2 c of crumbled cheddar cheese--I'd bought slices but they crumbled well--and poured it over half a package of cooked macaroni noodles.)

I know I stayed up late reading the first half of our book-club book, Interview With a Vampire by Anne Rice. Just as intriguing as the first time I read it, probably 20 yrs ago. And that G negotiated sleeping in my bed that night. He complained that he was having trouble falling asleep, and so of course was asleep 2 minutes later. Well maybe 1 minute.

Saturday, I slept as late as I could with him saying, "Mommy, it's wake-up time!" every 5 minutes. I decided this was the day we were going to dye our hair red. I got out G's red stuff and it turned out to be I.C.E. Spiker Colorz Styling Glue (I believe it was Paranoid Red). Yes, glue. Yes, just that sticky and dries just that hard. I kept putting it in; he kept asking for more. When I'd finally streaked his whole head and showed him how to look at the back of his head with two mirrors, I stopped with him, and started with me. I washed my hair over the tub, as I'd done his, and applied some of the Manic Panic I'd bought (in Vampire Red, and boy was that accurate!). I'd already carefully applied Vaseline to my forehead, having remembered that from some previous hair-coloring time (in college). I combed it through until foamy, as the directions say, and left it on for 15 mins, the least amount suggested. When I rinsed it out and let it dry a bit, it was a disappointing pink. So I got a new pair of gloves on, slathered more of it on, combed my heart out, and left it on, covered in saran wrap, for a full 30 minutes. That's more like it! It's not quite red but a very respectable jewely deep magenta. Yum! It's in two swaths on either side of my head. I rather like it. I'm tempted to do my whole head. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the colors....

At about noon, I started getting us ready for the 2:10 showing of Bridge To Terabethia at the Jack London. I made sure we both ate lunch, packed everything into this cool backpack/water carrier I got at Costco, we stopped at Albertson's for a candy run, and made it into the theater just before the movie started. Great movie but there was one part that was very hard for me to take. We both got to the end wanting more, more!

Then, having validated our parking ticket, we went over to Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for my latest wish, an extending bathroom mirror that flips over to magnify, in brass or any gold lookalike (why is this so hard?), and came out with a new, spongy bath mat. G spotted a weird egg thingy by the cash register: it either is or closely resembles a real hen's egg, and has one of those grows-to-twice-its-size-in-water things inside that's shaped like a chick. You put the whole thing in water (has 2 tiny pinholes in the bottom and 1 in the top), and the thing inside swells until the shell breaks, like a chick hatching. G decided he must have it, and at $2.99, I wasn't going to buy it. We went back to the car, where he had his purse, and with the allowance I owed him, he had enough. Back to the store we went, bought it, and then went across the street to Cost Plus. Let me just say they have a lot of toys these days (ostensibly for Easter). We emerged easily an hour later, having bought a couple of cool gift bags for Liz & Andrea's birthday presents (which they got tonight, so I can tell you that they're mugs with totally cute photos of Val on them).

Went home and I believe that's when G told me about the birthday party for a classmate on Sunday. I asked to see the invitation, and there was none to read. He knew the classmate's name, the park it was at, and the day. The time? He had no idea. I decided we'd stop by after church and see if we found anyone there. It's very close to our house, so checking back would be a non-issue. At about 12:30, there was one clear party group there, so I started across the field toward them. G stopped. "I don't think it's them," he said. Finally, he admitted to feeling shy and asked me to ask the group if it was the party. As we approached, he stood behind me. Yes, it was his classmate's party and was just underway. The kids happily descended on the playground, G included. I went home to get some sunscreen for both of us. I put it on, and checked in with the adults there, who were fine with me leaving him to run some errands. Realizing it was a beautiful day (and that I was sweating in my light sweater and jeans), I put on a short-sleeved shirt and shorts and pumped up the tires of my bike. Yippee! Went back to the park to
check in with G, who was now trying to launch a kite. Unfortunately, the park is surrounded by trees and there was only the lightest of breezes. A small kid went past my bike on his, and mine came crashing down. When I left, I found that I couldn't shift the rear derailleur at all. I now had a 3-speed bike, like the red one I grew up with.

I biked down to Park St and went to the store I'd been patronizing lately. Closed on Sundays. Arrgh. Went to the other bike shop, which was open for business. The guy was friendly if not terribly helpful. He said the shifting cable was getting caught up somewhere and that a tune-up would resolve it... but not today. He managed to force it to shift into a different gear, made me an appt. for a tune-up later that week, and off I went on my new and improved 3-speed wonder. I did my shopping at our shopping Centre (gag) and headed back to the park (G wasn't quite ready to go) and then home. Dropped off the bike, put the milk away, and leashed the dog to head out to the park and pick G up. Poor thing is getting old; she really dragged on the way home. It was a warmer day than usual, but still, it's like 5 blocks. I think if I managed to walk her every day, she'd do better in general. I'd love to manage to fit this in.

So tonight were the Red tryouts. I had red hair, a red-and-white jersey (with a hastily taped '7' on the back), and red Gatorade. I was ready... but fairly noncommittal. It was so hard not to make Red last time that I decided that this time, I'll be in Green, and if I make Red, it'll be a happy surprise. For now, Red tryouts are fun and a great time to see my compatriots in Green do great, and a nice opportunity to see my friends who are now in Red. (Turns out it was also a time to get warmer than I've been in a game maybe ever. After the game, I Superman'd onto the ice and lay there a while. I'm sure my face was the color of cherries. It was great fun, though. (shrug) We'll see.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Topics of conversation

I have taken a course on diving at Laney College twice. It's given by a guy whose name is (no kidding*) Bob Sherman, who is a terrific teacher. When I told folks about it, I ended up saying "springboard diving," because lots of people thought I went into water for long periods of time, very deep, and with a tank on my back.

*to the older set; more young readers might not know who Bobby Sherman is.

Nope, I threw my body off a diving board over and over again, sometimes with unpleasant results (remember hitting the water with your stomach, splat?), but overall, with great confidence building.

I was remembering the "springboard" part when a friend at work told me she was going to practice her sport this weekend. "What do you say?" I asked. "That you're going boating?" "Well, I usually just say 'paddling'," she says. "But with people I don't know, I add 'outrigger,' because sometimes they get a different idea..."

I love it.

Flying monkeys, meet my nose

When I was a young computer geek, I learned a lot from the comp.lang.c newsgroup. One of the things I learned about was undefined behavior. When you do certain things in C, the result behavior, according to the standard, is undefined. As the old salts (as old as salts can be in a newsgroup about a language that started in the 70s) say, when you do such-and-such, then maybe flying monkeys will come flying out of my nose.

I was just thinking fondly of those days--or more accurately, with mixed feelings. I have a notion that many of those guys were/are my age, and yet they chose to act fairly superciliously, even while sharing their knowledge. I did enjoy learning more about the language, and getting to know the main contributers to the group.

But they were all guys. If I strain, I can maybe remember one other female contributor to the group. There could well have been many, many women who read the group but did not post; that behavior left them completely invisible. That makes me alternately sad and mad.

I'm thrilled that there are more women than ever in software/hardware/IT. I would really like to see our company hire another software engineer who has tatas. Just one. And if flying monkeys come out of my nose, so be it.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

S'up?

G is reading a new "Captain Underpants" book, and today, on the way to school, there was a little 'homie' dialog. The way he said, "What up, dog?" completely cracked me up--he totally enunciated the 't' and that made it just hilarious. I tried to model how to downplay the 't' to make it more, eh, believable, but he just kept saying, "Whattt up, dog?"

I swear, I laughed for a full minute. Perhaps you had to be there.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

My sweet boy

I do want to write about my sweet boy... although it is ironic that I got a phone call from the principal's office today about him whaling on another child. Oy. For another post, I suppose...

I've noticed lately that when we talk about someone deserving of sympathy, G often will say, "God bless her, Mom." I agree, of course, and then think, "Who talks like that? No one in our family." It must be one of his aftercare teachers. I think it's sweet, and a kind way of thinking about someone who needs sympathy. It just cracks me up... and touches my heart.

I love this kid.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I'm going to freeze my ass off

I just read in a common on the Yarn Harlot's blog that Vermont is going to experience its first-ever 40-below evening tonight. 40 freakin below. I have experienced 29-above weather. Found it very cold. 40 freakin below? Would probably kill me. Or leave me wanting to be killed.

So... remember that Knit Camp I'm going to in late April? It's going to be freaking cold. Most folks told me the harsh winter will be gone and it'll mostly be just rainy. They lied.

Not even freakin 50 during the day? I'm cold just thinking about it.

Here's my home city's average temps, for comparison. Oh man, that's still kinda chilly. Think I'll go put on a sweater.

Monday, March 05, 2007

My kitchen is still clean

This is huge. I have been able to keep my kitchen tidy for more than 2 weeks now. In the past, it was with great struggles that I'd clean, only to have a small setback (getting sick, incredibly busy day, small dinner party) and things would grind to a crashing halt, resulting in an enormous pile of dirty dishes and very negative feelings of self-worth....

My attitude is different this time. I'm much more calmly noticing that the dishes in the dishwasher are dirty, so I can just plop this fork/plate/whatever into it and not have anything on the counter. Or I notice they're clean and just start putting them away, rather than wallow in my hatred of emptying the dishwasher (oh yes, those 3 minutes of torture, so hard to bear).

I'm also not killing myself when I notice a speck of cheese on the stove as I'm leaving in the morning. I know I'll get it when I wipe it down tonight, no harm, no foul.

And in the end? I am LOVING this. Loving that I am creating a non-chaotic environment for myself and for my son, loving that it's not fraught with tension and doubt and temporary enthusiasm that just turns into despair.

Yup, this works for me.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Yay, hot oven! Boo, big check.

The appliance repair guy called back on Monday to schedule a visit for Tuesday. Called me Tuesday morning to set a time and showed up pretty close to that time. (Impressive. Wish it weren't so!)

He looked at the stove and decided I'd been right; it was the igniter. I had thought it, and the washer part, would be pretty cheap. Wrong-o. Each was about $60 and with the house call and labor (the tinest part of the bill, at $20--$10 each), I ended up writing a check for $215. Argh. They don't even take credit cards.

Oh, well, we ate Dutch Babies for breakfast today, so I guess that's worth $215 right there. I guess. There's a recipe here, but we make ours one at a time--an egg, 1/4 c milk, 1/4 c flour. Works for us! I usually eat them with fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar, but forgot to buy lemons, so we had them plain and with the sugar. Still delicious. G had been looking forward to that for a while, so it was a nice treat. And we still made it to school on time.

I claim this blog in the name of Spain

I haven't posted in 9 days now, and only intermittently before that. I was just reading Viv's blog, and she blogs just about daily, often more than once a day. I am going to try to do that, NaBloPoMo style and all.

I'd also like to get back to blogging our weekends, à la Andrea.

So... last Friday, G woke up with a horrendous, barky cough. I was immediately concerned, because my dear friends' sons were just diagnosed with RSV, which is a nasty, nasty virus. I think several of my coworkers have it, from the sound of their coughing. ("Why are you here?" I ask. "Home got boring," he answers. Ugh.)

So I decided on the spot to keep him home from school for the day. He is elated (of course he is; he doesn't feel sick, after all, and he has been begging to stay home, periodically, for a while now). Since I can't face a whole day at home without some distraction, we head out to the video store (I wish they had a website; they totally rock!) and stock up on some DVDs. I grab Brokeback Mountain from the 99-cent movies rack (the Oscar Losers; they always have a theme for the 99-cent rack and the movies generally don't suck) and manage to get a 1-day-old copy of Flushed Away. Unlike the other movies, which we get for five whole days (did I mention they rock?), FA is only on loan for 2. I worry I won't manage to remember to return it on time. Only 2 days?!?

Flushed Away rocks. Incredibly well done, lots of inserted jokes for the grown-ups, wonderful actors. Loved it, loved it. Highly recommended.

We lazed away the Saturday, too. I think we got out once, but can't remember what we did. I did manage to call the appliance-repair folks so that we could get someone to replace the igniter in the stove oven and the valve in the washer (no oven at all, and the washer had been dripping). Sunday, I played handbells for the postlude and did very well. Didn't play any wrong notes but did miss one of my notes; unfortunately, it was when someone behind me hit a wrong note, so my playing my note might have helped. Overall, it went so well that many people spontaneously applauded.

That afternoon, I went over to my Stampin' Up Independent Demonstrator's house to "play" (if you're patient enough, you'll see me in one of those photos). I showed off some cards I'd put together the previous night (after G had gone to bed) that had turned out well, and finished some cards I'd been planning, with the generous donation of a piece of pretty blue cardstock that worked beautifully with the chocolate-brown I'd been using. I'll post a photo when I get a chance, mostly to bore you folks. :)

We spent hours there, which worked out well for all involved: G got to play wild and active games with his friend, which included racing through the dining room to fall on a big pillow, over and over again; I got a tasty lunch and dinner; and we got to do some great talking/sharing/collaborating. Another friend even dropped by later and had some nice ideas for some of the stamps I'd brought along.

I didn't end up subbing in the Green game that evening, but was happy with my choice in the end. I'll play in our last game on Friday and help out with GHATD on Saturday (after carefully drying my gear out!). Next weekend, Red Tryouts!