Wordless Wednesday

San Francisco
November 2007

Little Shopping Carts

Our grocery store has those little shopping carts, for your little shoppers to "help" you. Unfortunately, they are exactly at the height of your Achilles tendon, and as we all know, kids are not the best drivers (hence the reason we don't give them drivers licenses until they are adults), and so exactly what you think might happen, did happen today while shopping. And naturally, being in front of my kids and in a public place, I could not let loose with a stream of words about how I was really feeling. I ended up saying "Ow", "Ow", "OOW", "OW", "that really HURTS!", "OW". That and a little limping was all I was allowed. Next time, no little carts.

Our Candy Buy-Back Program

For two years now, I have offered (well, actually, there is not much of an option) to buy my kid's Halloween candy at a rate of $.10 a piece. This year, my son started asking me about it early in October, so I knew I was in good. My daughter was not so sure, but I think our weekend shopping trip sealed the deal.

On Halloween night, both kids were very goal oriented, bringing home 300 pieces of candy, a cool $15 bucks each. Little A asked to have her $15 in $1 bills, The Big Guy wanted a $5 and a $10. The Bug Guy already knew what he wanted to buy - Pokemon Cards at Target. Yes, I know, but it is the lesser of two evils in this case. Little A was not so sure, but was excited to get her candy.

Sunday morning we found time to go to Target - The Big Guy made a beeline for the Pokemon cards, while Little A and I got stuck at the $1 bins. Low and behold, there was a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff in those bins, and Little A cleaned up. She found a little bag, gel pens, stationary set, stickers, notepad, and charm pen. In addition, she was able to buy princess lip gloss and a kitty notebook. The smile on her face was enormous and I think we will have no problem next year with the Candy Buy-Back Program!

Daylight Savings and Tomato Canning

Today is one of my favorite days of the year, with Thanksgiving and my kid's birthdays in close contention. The reason I love it is today is the day we change our clocks back. Almost every time I looked at the clock today, it was an hour earlier than I thought. I really did gain an hour!

And with my hour, I read the entire Sunday paper, looking at every ad; I made 3 containers of potato leek soup with organic produce from my CSA box; I canned 8 quarts of organic tomatoes for use this winter; sorted my big mail pile; bought two birthday presents; lunched with the family; and several other inconsequential errands. We also managed to fit in dinner with some friends.

I love daylight savings!

Man Hair

In the hotel room this morning, I was so excited to see the extra super-close up mirror, the one "ladies" use for applying makeup and such. I even took a picture.


And then, I decided to take a look at my face, marvel in the beauty of my pores and give myself that up close inspection everyone needs to do from time to time. And then I discovered, I have MAN HAIRS!

I am sure someone else has covered this topic before in a better way, and I know it is part of aging (someone told me about it at a party), but I didn't think it actually applied to me. When I looked in the mirror, I saw little black hairs on my upper lip (like a mustache!) and several more under my chin. OMG, I do not like this getting old thing, Sam I Am, I do not like it one bit.

Thankfully for that special mirror I was able to pull the nasty buggers out, and I put in an emergency call to my sister so we can have "that talk", you know, the one about getting old and re-learning how to take care of yourself. So far, aging has meant a couple gray hairs (I yank 'em out as soon as I see 'em), some tightening in my hips (not of my hips, as in slimming down, more like a pain in the joints) and a mid-section that won't go away (well, I don't think it has anything to do with all those peanut butter cups from Halloween). How can it possibly get any worse? Oh yeah, Man Hairs!

Can you hear me now?

Heard this morning at 1:45 a.m.

"Did you check the price of blah blah blah?" "Yeah, $13.50"

and then

"What about blah blah blah?"

Him: Humm, that sounds like people talking outside the house, I won't bother to get up and investigate, I am sure it will all go away soon.

Me: D&#m walkie talkies. The kids were using them this this afternoon. Who the heck is using our frequency? Better get up and take care of it, since the walkie talkies are in The Big Guy's room and it will probably wake the kids.

So, I get myself out of bed, walk down the hall, find the walkie talkies, turn off the walkie talkies and walk back to bed. Then I spend another 30 minutes awake, wondering how it is possible that he could not have known it was the walkie talkies.....

Day 1: Intro to NaBloPoMo

I am not sure I am going to get this right - on various occasions, I have written NaBoPloMo, NaPloBoMo, NaMoPloBo....and I am not 100% positive what it is all about, except that I know I have pledged to write a blog post a day for the entire month of November. Fun, yah!

Yesterday was Halloween, and while I am opposed to so much candy and sugar, our family does have a great time. Our day started with getting the kids ready for school, with costumes on. School parade started at 9:30am, and following the parade, both kids had class parties. Little A's party was for the entire kindergarten, all 140 children, and was controlled chaos. The Big Guy's party was a much lower key affair, with healthy snacks requested by the teacher, and everyone sitting at their desks. I enjoyed being involved with their classes, something I had not done much before this year.

After the parties, I got a little work done and then picked up the kids from school. The Big Guy had a birthday party to go too (you have got to be kidding me, on Halloween!) and while he was busy, Little A and I decorated pumpkins. We did not have a ton of time, so we opted to paint our pumpkins, instead of carve them. That was fun. After picking up The Big Guy, we headed home for more pumpkin decorating, followed by quick dinner. In rapid succession, we finished dinner, DH came home, costumes were reassembled, wine was procured, friends were greeted and we were out the door to Trick or Treat.

This year, we invited several friends to join us, and at the peak, I think we had about 40 people (kids and adults) walking around our neighborhood. The kids were having a blast, the adults were enjoying the conversation and wine and a great time was had by all. Sounds like we might do the same thing again next year!

Ok, now I need to get started on my list of potential topics for the month, with a holiday and vacation thrown in there, I hope to find enough interesting things to write about....