Eat cheese

Take your eyes off me.
There's nothing here to see.
I'm trying to keep my head together.

-- Freedom, David Gray



Wednesday would be one year together, Liam and me. We didn't quite make it.

Clone

Zoe was on the webcam with her dad, and Jacob was fascinated. So he got out his own toy computer and followed her throughout the house.

You light up my life

"Now I don't want you back
For the weekend,
Not back for a day, no no no.
Baby, I just want you back
And I want you to stay."

-- Walking on Sunshine, Katrina and the Waves




The sun decided to pay a visit to Pittsburgh today. Lately, this seems to be about as rare as, oh, I don't know... me cleaning my baseboards.

We've had the tree up for a week, which is what I blame on an otherwise unblamable ladybug attack in my living room the other night.


While all the glass ornaments and candy canes are hung at my shoulder height or above, Jacob is still finding a way to get at them. He slung a glass globe around the dining room tonight, with five other people within 10 feet of him, for several minutes before anyone realized, HEY, THE BOY IS TOSSING A GLASS ORNAMENT AROUND THE DINING ROOM. More curious than how he got it off the tree: How the 2-year-old didn't break it on the wood floors.

Let me see the light

I'm so far down,
Away from the sun again.
I'm over this.
I'm tired of living in the dark.
Can anyone see me down here.

-- Away From the Sun, 3 Doors Down



OK.

I moved back three years ago, right before my first ever driving winter. I lived with my dad then. Any time I had a problem with snow, he came, got in my Jetta, threw the gears all around and used a lot of gas, but he got my car out of all the snowbanks I drove into. I got to follow him home in his 4WD Explorer, watching him expertly slip and slide ahead of me. I have no doubt some of his skidding was for show.

My second winter back, I lived with Joe in Carnegie HIGHlands. His two cars occupied the garage, and I'm surprised he didn't make Zoe and I occupy the garage also, but nonetheless I parked in the driveway. Up on the hill. The very windy hill. I might note that the entire time I lived with Joe, never once did Jacob ride in his cozy, garaged cars. But that's another story best laid to rest.

That year I was happy for my AAA subscription. Not so happy for all the dings Joe put in the left side of my car one day trying to chip off an inch-thick layer of ice. OFF THE WHOLE SIDE AND BACK OF THE CAR. Before I could even get in the car to warm it up.

Last winter, in my own home, I bought that high-powered salt stuff. I don't recall what it was, but as soon as it hit the snow in my driveway, it was like... it caught fire. Instant melt. On days when it snowed during the day, my friendly neighbor normally plowed the drive before I got home from work.

All this has left me with one lesson: As a Pittsburgher, I need to put on the gloves, so to speak, and tackle the snow on my property. Unless someone else volunteers to do it for me.


I threw regular old salt on my driveway tonight... and gleefully so. I strapped on a Playtex glove and dispersed a good three pounds on my asphalt.

An hour later... it's like... nothing happened. Snow is still falling, and it's covering all that salt I responsibly tossed around generously. I keep going to the window to see the progress, but there's nothing. Nothing but a nice, shiny sheen of snow filling in my footprints.

I thought for a moment that the morning sun would come out and melt it, but there hasn't been sun in ..................... weeks.

We're embarking on another winter... my fourth... and I'm still learning the ropes.

And chains. And salt boxes. And plows. And shovels. And delays.


God, it's me, Sirschy. If you let me have a delay tomorrow, I will recycle more and eat less junk food.

More evidence of her father's DNA

Zoe: So, what do skunks do when they fart?

Mom: (Silence.)

Zoe: MOM.

Mom: I don't know.

Zoe: It's a joke. You have to answer.

Mom: OH! I don't know... they smell good?

Zoe: No! They give out their spray!!! Bwahahahahahahahaha!

Mom: (Silence.)

Zoe: Hahahahahahahaha!

Mom: Did you make that up?

Zoe: Yeah. Isn't it funny!!!!

Mom: Maybe on the next library day, you should get a book of jokes.

Times are tough

My time at home has been mostly preoccupied with projects that cost me little to no money. So, I turned my attention to my basement. Even though I have been living in this house for less than two years, I have accumulated a good deal of CRAP.

Much of it is stuff the kids have outgrown. I put the broken stuff on the curb, and I stuffed my trunk full of old stuffed animals and not-quite-good-enough-for-my-friends clothing.

Tonight I headed to Goodwill to drop the stuff off, and I coaxed Zoe inside to "shop." I actually found a few neat things... a flower box that looks like a picket fence, and the horse-head-on-a-broom-stick (is there an official name for this stupid toy??) that Zoe asks for every time we see one in a toy store. Both for under three bucks each!

The store also had rows and rows of purses, handbags, clutches. I have been feeding my belongings into bigger and bigger purses and have run out of room, so Zoe and I browsed the selection, and I actually found a bag that I like that is quite roomier than anything I own. My only goal was to be able to stop carrying a diaper bag for Jacob, but to have something big enough to throw in a couple of diapers and a sippy cup.

Wouldn't you know, I get the purse home and as I start rifling through all the pockets, I realize what I've bought: A diaper bag.

I now have a diaper bag for a purse.

And strangely, it doesn't really bother me.

Negative cycle

I got sick again today... and left work abruptly. That's... hmmm... three out of the last four weekends that sickness has overcome me.

I tell myself it is because I have two young kids, or that my co-workers are germy, or that the change in season has an effect. Those seem to be among the top reasons I hear cited whenever anyone has anything from a slight sniffle to violent vomiting. But something else occurred to me the other day: I am, officially, getting old.

I thought the threshold was closer to 30. I remember sitting through my 29th year thinking, this is it. It's all over for me. But nothing really happened.

But it seems like ever since I began approaching 35, and since I turned 35, my health has been wacky as all hell.

I have few friends who are sick more than I am lately. I have two kids going to two different places during the day, so that's probably a big chunk of my problem. But knowing that doesn't exactly solve it. The other day I was reading about the Herrin twins, whose family seems to be sick all the time, and it made me feel like... well, that I had it good, to be honest. But at the same time, that mom is not working, thus she is not constantly coming up with excuses for a boss as to why she can't make it in today or why she must leave early. Her job is way harder than mine, I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE living that life, but I have to let myself feel sorry for myself.

Being sick so much lately... it sucks. Getting older sucks. Wanting to do nothing but sleep sucks.

Turning to stories of families who have it worse just for perspective... that sucks too.

The holiday season...

... is making it crazy around here. I know I have pictures of my sister's Thanksgiving visit, but I can't find them!!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past couple of weeks, and I'll post more as soon as I find whose camera has pics of what!


Jacob voluntarily goes mute.


Geotrax rocks when you have lots of it.


This is Jacob's favorite dress-up get-up. I PITY THE FOOL....


Let me be the first to say, I accept him as he is! If I turn him gay, errrrr... if he turns out to like Barbies, it's not my fault! GO ELTON JOHN!


Jacob gets on with the creative side of him.


And because I have concentrated too much on Jacob, here's a pic of them all concentrating so hard on being good that they made a chart to track their progress. They were rewarded with a Chuck E. Cheese outing. I'm sure I have pics somethere of that..... SOMEWHERE.