My husband is sick. He just sent me an e-mail letting me know that he's at home with the baby but vomiting, so I'll need to hurry home.

My day in a nutshell: Up all night tending to a wee 'un's runny diapers, working forecasts at work without the aid of my crystal ball (I wonder if a Magic 8 ball would work...), and now looking forward to scurrying home in the still inclement weather to face yet another restless evening - this time with a very ill spouse and the never ending bouts with Toddler Tummy.

[sigh] There's never any rest for the wicked, is there?

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Why should I come up with interesting things on my own when everyone else does it for me?

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In exactly one week, I will get to enjoy a little mini-vacation. I was able to move my afternoon appointment to first thing in the morning (after dropping off The Boy, of course), so as soon as I'm done with the dermatologist, I'll get to have an entire afternoon to myself!

And, now there's the question of what to do. (Cath asked this when I announced that I desperately wanted a vacation. I think it would be a different story, though, if I had more than a few short hours. I would still try to figure out the best use of my time off, but if I had a few days - or even a week - I would probably want to go somewhere.)

Anyway, as I make my list of things I'd like to do, I wonder if it's something I could conceivably do with The Boy in tow. Repotting my basil plant, for example, is something I ought to do on my own without little hands threatening to rip off basil leaves, but with proper planning, I can do it this weekend while he and Chris are enjoying a splash in the kiddie pool. I'd like to make some mini bagels, but that's actually something I should do with The Boy close by because it's (a) not dangerous, (b) somewhat crafty, and (c) similar to playing with play dough (which I've made for him but still haven't reintroduced since the last time he tried to eat it). And if he eats this dough, I won't fret too much about it, even though the play dough I've made only contains corn starch and baking soda. A lot of baking soda.

Which leaves me with doing something crafty - or doing something about my craft room. Talk about needing to plan! Not only do I have myriad projects on which I'd like to work (or, in some cases, start), it's also an absolute mess and in dire need of help. And it's not like this is a project I can sort of work on each evening and during naptime on the weekends. I'm trying to use that time to cook or prep for future cooking (nothing like chopping bags of onions at once for multiple recipes).

I'll need to ponder this some more.

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What were you afraid of when you were younger that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by wandie

Sir Graves Ghastly

Growing up in Detroit, there was this show called The Monster Movie Show that aired on Saturday afternoons. But I always called it The Sir Graves Ghastly Show because as the host, Sir Graves made quite an impression...at least to a young child. The opening of the show always began with Sir Graves rising up from inside his coffin (which was in a graveyard) in order to address his TV audience about the movie of the day. He had this unique & scary laugh. I remember having to run out of the living room of my grandparents house and into the kitchen during the intro because I was always so scared. Then I would go back in and watch the movie...usually starring Vincent Price.

It makes me laugh to think the intro scared me back when I was little, but the movies didn't.

RIP, Sir Graves.

Apr 29 2007 Fox 2 - Sir Graves Story

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I'm exhausted.

A big part of it is my fault. After all, instead of immediately crawling back into bed, I paused at my computer to blog about being tired.

The bigger part of it, however, lies solely at the feet of my nemesis: Toddler Tummy.

Yes, after two blissful weeks of normal stools, my dreaded foe has returned. This evening, it hit with full force, requiring not only a diaper change but a full pajama change and a bedsheet change.

There is nothing more entertaining than changing your child's bedsheet while he is lying on the floor holding a tiny flashlight. More than once I was afraid I might step on him, and more than once I silently praised him for being so good and keeping quiet for Mommy.

If this is anything like the last TT bout, I've got at least four more days of this.

Thank God the storm hasn't knocked out power. I'd wind up throwing away all his pajamas!

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As I was getting off the freeway on my way home from work this afternoon, some a-hole in a black Acura cut me off.  I was able to avoid an accident, but as any good red-blooded American would be, I was PISSED.   So, being the mature adult that I am, I followed him a little too closely and repeatedly flipped him off (which I'm pretty sure he didn't even notice) until I got stuck waiting for some pedestrians to cross at an intersection and lost him.  Imagine my delight, no, my sheer glee, when I saw a cop pull him over for yet another dangerous move which I'm assuming was failure to make a complete stop at a stop sign since he rolled through every stop I saw.  The sad thing is that the cop was right there at the stop sign.  He wasn't hiding or in an unmarked car.  He was right there, out in the open.  So in addition to being an a-hole behind the wheel, this guy's obviously a complete idiot as well.  The best part was being able to watch him as he waited for the cop to come to his car; I prolonged this magnificent moment by making sure to come to a nice long and complete stop.

Don't you just love it when jerks actually get what they deserve?   

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So, I have two doctor appointments next Wednesday. One is an annual check up and not a big deal. The other is a visit with a dermatologist. This is actually an appointment I've been putting off for some time, but now it's absolutely critical that I go.

Quick backstory: My mother had a mole on her upper chest that my sister picked at when she was an infant, so Mom had to get it removed. Thanks to the power of genetics, I have a mole in about the same place. And guess what? My son has taken to picking at it, too. And it's now bleeding. [sigh]

Hence next week's appointment.

For the time being, I'll need to be particularly vigilant at making sure this stays covered and that The Boy's small hands (and tiny, razor-sharp nails - how on earth do they grow so fast?) can't inflict further damage. But at least it will only be a little while longer before I'll have it checked out.

The downside, of course, is that I'll be spending yet another day off at the doctor's office. But at least this time I won't have spend my afternoon scraping stool samples out of dirty diapers.

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Normally, I would be so excited to hear those words, but only because it would be so nice to see my friend Faye (and her husband and child, of course). Alas, no; I refer to the Tropical-Storm-predicted-to-turn-into-Category-1-Hurricane Fay.

The storm itself doesn't bother me. Our house weathered Charlie and Frances and Jeanne four years ago (Jeanne hit on our move-in day but was at least kind enough to wait until we had returned the rental truck and were safely in our house with all our possessions - and both cars in the garage - before she hit), and except for a problem with the front window (that was later fixed at the builder's expense), the house did just fine. We also didn't lose power for very long, which was very nice.

I hope they let us go home early tomorrow and/or close the office tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm not looking forward to driving 25 miles each way in the wind and rain.

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What is the one word that perfectly describes your day today?
submitted by [this is connie]

COURAGE!

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Let me start with a little anecdote about my own 10-year high school reunion. I was, after all, on the planning committee and did my part to contact alumni and help plan the event. Because I was already living in Orlando, I wasn't able to do any legwork (i.e., contacting vendors, securing properties, etc.), but I did a fair job of tracking down former classmates and tried (the key operative word, here) to keep expenses in check so that it wouldn't wind up costing more than Prom (accounting for inflation, of course).

Well, the cover charge ultimately came to $85 per person, or $160 per couple. As the only person out of state on the planning committee - and certainly the only person on the other side of the continent - my pleas to bring the charges down to a more reasonable amount fell on deaf ears. Not only would people traveling from out of state need to pay their own way to get back to California, we would also need to get rental cars and hotel rooms - none of which was remotely considered because, well, the rest of the committee was local.

So, as the planned date neared and my deadline for booking reasonably priced flights for Chris and me (because I had no intention of going alone) approached, I decided to save the almost $1500 I would have needed to spend on travel arrangements, lodging, a car rental, and the cost of the reunion itself and opted not to attend. (Back then, on a $30K annual salary, $1500 was a small fortune. Even now, that's almost an entire mortgage payment, so, yeah - it's still an awful lot.) As it turns out, most of my former classmates had the same idea.

Fast forward six years to a diffferent graduating class from the same high school. My cousin sent me a link to a "renegade" high school reunion party for her class, basically a reunion-for-those-who-don't-want-to-pay-$115-per-per-person party at a venue aadjacent to the official reunion.

I had to double check what I was seeing. $115 per person? $230 per couple? It's a pretty venue for sure, and I realize that it's it's not that much more expensive than mine was, but really? Our high school is in Southern California - where it still costs about $70 to fill up a tank of gas that will probably only last you a week and a half at best. Not to mention that many of my cousin's fellow alums are in the same boat my former classmates were in six years ago: many were in graduate school or just finishing, there were quite a few brand new parents, there were a few new homeowners, and only a select few had the kind of disposable income where money was no object. No matter how you try to justify it, $230 for a single night's entertainment is ridiculous. Christ - my wedding didn't even cost that much per person, and we went through at least six cases of Maker's Mark!

Here's the other thing... I really don't think I would spend that much to attend a party - at a venue I can visit whenever I want, anyway - just to see the people from the old days with whom I may or may not have anything in common anymore. And I'll be honest, too: the majority of people I considered my friends in high school were either in the class ahead of mine or the class after mine. So a reunion restricted solely to my class just wouldn't be as much fun.

So, here's what I think (and please be honest and let me know your thoughts): What about a big reunion ever couple of years open to all alumni from all classes? Sure, the Alumni Association can still have their big milestone reunions if they want, but I'm thinking of something that doesn't feel like a repeat of Prom, something that takes place out of the Valley (I mean, do we really need to go back in every sense of the word?), something that allows you to reconnect with all your old friends.

And we could have the first one in Vegas. Any takers?

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