'Nuther vacation log

Last Friday, cutie girl woke up with a huge swollen upper lip. It didn't get worse, so we waited until Monday to take her to the doctor, because it was still there. She has a huge welt/thingy on her upper gum, protruding out quite far, and it was bleeding. Eeew! The doctor said it was not infected, and told me to administer Children's ibuprofen and come back in a week.

Well, just since we've been doing the ibuprofen, her mood has improved considerably, as have her sleeping habits. Imagine that: pain relief means better sleep and disposition. Who woulda known?

Also, today the swelling is down considerably. Maybe we won't have to go back on Monday, after all. It was traumatic for her last time--3 people holding her down while she screamed. Yeah, I don't want to revisit that.

I've been making soap. My fatigue has impacted my practice--I made a mistake measuring last night, so I have to re-batch that tonight. Grrr. I can't unleash lye-heavy soap onto the public, though. Lye-heavy=bad. Fatty=good.

Summer Vacation Log

Well, summer vacation is in full swing. Time for an update, I guess. I feel like summer is slipping through my fingers. I can't find time to actually relax. I crave time completely alone, and I have none, really. It's difficult to find. I suppose I should schedule it.

Which I did, yesterday. Yeah, it's only 20 minutes, but I'm scheduled for an appointment with a psychic, two Fridays from now. Hee. It ought to be enlightening, and, of course, frivolous, which is what I need.

I suppose scheduling to have lunch with friends would be a good idea. Take a little time and get my feet done. Etc. Etc.

I've been spending a lot of time making soap and lip balm. Hope it pays off. Gotta make that extra credit card payment soon.

Toiletry

Today I needed a break from everybody. I've finally been getting some sleep, but since doing that, my body only wants more. I'm tired all day, now. Depression? Recovery from the school year? Who knows?

In any case, I was on the internet, and papa was watching the cutie, and I was looking at crafty things. And then I thought, "You should just go to the craft store. It is summer, you know."

So I told papa and cutie that I was going out.

However, I didn't go to the craft store. I went to Cost Plus World Marketplace. I must say, I am disappointed in their soap selection. They aren't importing handmade soaps anymore. They are all "made exclusively for Cost Plus" by some company in California. They used to have French soaps and Scottish soaps--no more. Furthermore, many of the soaps they carry are glycerin-based, and not handmade. *sigh*

After that, I went to the Cherry Creek Mall, which is right next door. I bought myself a pair of new Crocs--the flip-flop style you see above, only with a white footbed and light blue, um...outer parts.

Anyway, before I bought the shoes, I had to visit the ladies' room. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Cherry Creek has always had the best toilet stalls ever. I went in there, and closed the door, and hung my purse on the very thoughtful hook. I locked the door. I then strode to the toilet, which was a full 3 feet from the door. There is a LOT of room in those toilet stalls. And with the door locked, nobody's going to bother you. I thought to myself, the person who needed some solitude, " I could stay in here all day and read a book, and nobody would know." It was a very comforting thought. Furthermore, the stall for people with disabilities is so large, a mother with a large stroller could fit in there, comfortably. They do have a family restroom that is spacious, as well, but in a pinch someone could use that stall. Or they could set it up as a small office.

With my new Crocs in hand, I walked on and found myself in front of the "handmade" soap store. I guess most of their soap is, indeed, handmade. I found some that wasn't, but whatever. They had good stuff, mostly. I bought a sugar scrub, thinking I can reproduce it for myself. I don't think I want to sell them, as there are preservative issues involved.

But I bet I can recreate it close enough that I'll be happy with it. I need to use it on my feet. They are currently hideous.

OMG!

Online marketing easy strategy number 1 (one):

Always, always, ALWAYS put a link to your book/soap/whatever in your email signature line.

This week, my website link was posted to a writing newsletter, unbeknownst to me. I sent the editor an email, thanking her for a good idea she had, and that I pursued. It seems she included every single part of my email, including the website link and book link.

Of course, she's a publisher, so she knows how important these links are.

I HEART ANGELA HOY! If you are a writer, you should too. Go join the WritersWeekly newsletter and forum. It's great networking, great fun, and run by a great gal.

Nobody knows this.

Nobody knows how depressed I can get in the early days of summer.

I suspect I'm not the only teacher that feels this way, which is why I'm revealing it. It takes me a long while to shed the stress of the school year. Since it ends very suddenly, and summer begins very suddenly, the transition can be tough. I still feel the need to fill my days to the brim. I still feel the need to work 12 hours each day, at least. I still feel like I should fall into bed each night, so exhausted that I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow.

And so I schedule things--all the things that didn't get finished during the school year. Banking, cleaning, shredding junk mail, sorting laundry for the goodwill, gardening projects, etc. etc. It all gets very big and looms very large, and then I have something to stress out about.

At which point, I start to get very depressed.

I'm used to being under a tremendous amount of stress, and I'm used to working a tremendous amount each day, so that when I sit and think, "I should be relaxing," I can't relax, because my list is so long. I think, "No time for that--there's too much to finish."

I have no balance in my life during the school year, and I don't have much balance in the summer anymore, either. It's far better than last year, however, when I was working for the university--that was far worse.

So today, I haven't done much in the way of anything. I did unmold the soap I made last night, and cleaned my mold and prepared it for tonight's soap. Otherwise...I've put in a load of laundry, and played with my daughter, and had a lengthy, in-person conversation with a friend. Watered the tomatoes. Made some mac and cheese for the cutie.

I'm still depressed, though. I feel trapped.

Ahem.

See?

Beast, Shmeast.

Oh, brother. Here we go.

I saw a HUGE write-up in the Rocky Mountain News today, about , of all things, tomorrow's date. June 6, 2006. If written numerically, 06.06.06.


May I be the first to say



WHOOOPITY-DING-DONG.


This is the most ridiculous excuse for getting worked up that I can imgaine. Don't we remember Y2K? Don't we remember what happened? That's right: NOTHING!

Nothing happened. The calendar turned. No earthquakes. No fire and brimstone, for certain. No end-of-the-world. Not even an end of the internet!

And now, this. Now we have talk of women scheduling C-sections so that their babies won't be born on that date. I don't know if that's true, it's just something I've read, and I can't imagine if a news story actually can establish it as fact. However, I wouldn't put it past some people.

I hope my feelings are clear: this is LUDICROUS. We are all going to get up tomorrow, brush our teeth, shower or not, and go about our day. Nothing untoward is going to happen that is out of the ordinary. No spawn of "Satan" is going to spring out of the ground, and begin wreaking havoc on the masses.

Nope. Not gonna happen. Absolutely ridiculous.

Egocentric

So I was at a baby shower today, and we began discussing different neighborhoods in Denver. Blah blah blah, my neighborhood is mentioned, and someone asked, "Is that the King Soopers with all the Jesus candles?"

"Um....I guess so?" I answered. And next was the moment when I showed my egocentrism:

"Don't all the grocery stores have the Jesus candles?"

"Um.....NOOO0OOOOOOOooooo, they don't!" was the ubiquitous answer. Well. I didn't know that. Because, apparently, if they sell Jesus candles in my grocery store, they sell them in all stores. Silly me, forgetting about "target markets" and such.

THEN the conversation changed to the Jesus candle, and whether or not they make Hindu candles that look like the Jesus candles, but have the Hindu gods on them. As you can see above, they do.

I'm gonna get me some tomorrow.

Discounted Soap! Get yours now!

Okay, folks, this is the deal:

When making soap, it is important to keep track of the ingredients involved very carefully. Making soap is not like cooking--a mistake can mean the soap will be drastically altered. On the bad end, too much lye means the soap will be caustic to the skin, causing extreme irritation.

That's not what happened here.

I was making my Lavender Calendula Baby Soap--standard recipe (100% olive oil) that I've done many, many times. Well, I missed a tick mark when I was measuring out the pounds of oil and........I added an extra pound to the batch. The result: a very soft soap, that holds its bar shape, smells fabulous, and is GUARANTEED not to last very long. Or lather much.

However! You, as the reader of this blog, have the opportunity of a lifetime! Okay, the opportunity of a month when the soap maker was scatterbrained--these soaps are ultra-gentle, ultra-soothing, and ultra-discounted. Each bar of this particular soap is just $2.00. I've got 36 bars.

Let me know how many bars you would like to reserve. I'm not stamping them with my groovy stamp, either. We've just got to get these soaps out to the people.

Oh, and one more thing: the soaps were in the mold, near the window. Bad Dog jumped up on them to get to the window. BAD DOG! So, some of the soaps have paw/claw prints in them. No worries--the soap was covered with plastic at the time. *sigh* Welcome to my world.


Contact me through my website to order these bars.

Make that "Spring Vacation."

We made it through the first real heat wave of the year unscathed. And now I sit, sipping hot tea and wearing a sweater, in my kitchen. It is 61 degrees outside currently, and much cooler than that in the shade, of course. And it feels cooler than that in our house, the windows of which were open all night, because we've made that a habit, what with the heat.

But not tonight, I think.

No, today it is supposed to be a perfect 74 degrees. I plan on taking the cutie to the park to wear her out. We might go by a street festival I know of, as well. Get a funnel cake. (I don't like these, but I'm betting my cutie will.)

My snapdragons are up and blooming. The photo is from google--not mine. Mine are a firey orange-red with orange centers, and a darker red. I have a few in my window box as well, that are pink with yellow centers. I love snapdragons. We plan on doing a lot of gardening this summer. I think the day after tomorrow will be a good day for it, as it is supposed to rain tomorrow, and digging in this horrible clay dirt after a few dry, hot days is a nightmare. We're planting trees and creating flower beds, hauling bark chips and flagstone, and good dirt in bags. Coming from Iowa, there is still a bit of hilarity in my mind when I purchase a huge bag of something called "Supersoil." In Iowa, that's called simply, "dirt."

Summer vacation is here.

Today is the first day of this year's summer vacation. It usually takes me until Monday to register that I'm on vacation. However, my margarita and beer yesterday helped me to feel relaxed and vacation-y. I'm paying for it this morning (such a teetotaler). Took some ibuprofen and had some coffee with my eggs-and-toast breakfast. That is another indicator that I'm on vacation, too.

I must confess my sadness at this school year ending, mixed with overwhelming relief. The relief comes from this infernal year simply ending. I conferred with several colleagues who have been teaching a long time (one of them for 40 years), and they confirmed that this year was one of the most difficult. Our principal got sacked 2/3 of the way through, so our AP took over, and we got a new AP. But then we got a new principal for next year, who is bringing in her own AP (apparently they can do that), so our old AP is out, too. I don't know how I feel about our new principal--she's been working in a school where many of the children are hand-picked, and doesn't understand why two people run our discipline office. Ha. I think she's going to have what is known as a "rude awakening."

The sadness comes from losing another friend to the lure of adventure. Friend S. is attempting to secure a teaching job elsewhere. He does not want to stay in this school district, and since he is single, is searching for jobs in places he would like to live--Scotland, Montana...and somewhere else I can't remember. He's moved out of his apartment, because his roommate is getting married and has moved out. This spurred him to purge his belongings and move the stuff he wanted to keep down to his mom's place.

Yesterday, the last day of school, I kept running off to the lavatory or some other private place, to cry. I can't imagine not teaching with S. next year. We've been teaching together for the past four years, and during the first year became very close friends, and have been since. We team-teach every day, me being the special ed teacher. I feel like I'll never see him again, which is possible.

Just last week, some friends of mine moved out of state. I feel like people are running away from me, and I'm filled with sadness. It's a difficult time in my heart.

This pain is lessened, however, by my daughter, who climbed into bed with us in the middle of the night, and since she wasn't kicking either of us in the kidneys, we left here there. I woke up looking at my girl, blinking slowly, turning her head, looking at me, smiling, whispering, "Hi, Mama," in the sunshine. Was it coming from the window or from her face?

I suppose I'll make it.

Go read this.

Do it now. You won't be sorry. These bitches truly are hilarious.

My husband, the smart-arse.

I make soap. That's one of the things I do. Not only do I make it, but I sell it for a profit. Many people have purchased my soaps and find them lovely. Many people have received my soaps as gifts and wondered, "Is she trying to tell me I smell?"

But I digress.

Today, after dinner, my husband decided it was time for him to bathe. Thank goodness. It is Tuesday, after all.

So he's in the tub, and starts hollering for me. I go in there and have the following conversation:

Me: What!?

Smart-Arse Man: What's this soap? (hands it to me)

Me: *smells soap* It's Macho Man Face and Body Soap.

S.A.M.: Pfft. Isn't there any decent soap in this house?




*rolls eyes*

He knows, of course, that I have about 400 bars in the garage. Ass.

Best. Rejection. Ever.

Just this morning I was discussing a "good rejection letter," with a novelist friend of mine. She had received one. This afternoon, after a particularly harrowing day at work, I received one as well.

I had entered a writing contest sponsored by The Denver Post. Every year they choose 16 people to be a "Colorado Voice." Those people get the prestige of being in the paper, plus a "modest honorarium." Hmm.

In any case, I participated in this contest, as I did last year. My rejection letter last year pretty much looked like this:

You lose. Get off my property.

Oh, okay. It wasn't quite that bad last year. It was more like:

Thank you for playing. You lost.

Yeah, more like that. Short and to the point. This year, however, the letter was far more detailed. Included were these points:

• Nearly 400 writers participated
• My articles made the first cut, as the "final 80 contenders."
  

That was in the upper part of the form letter. Yay! Way cool! I made the first cut! Sometimes Tiger Woods doesn't even make the cut. (I have no idea if this is true.)

It gets better! My letter contains a personal P.S.! The details therein:

• The judges, "...loved your writing." Your meaning my.
  
• "Your talent is extraordinary!" Wheeeeee, dogies! Someone noticed what my mom always thought!
  
• I was among the 30 final writers. I.e., I made the second cut. Yowsa!
• I was encouraged to try again next year (of course).
• I was encouraged to email her my ideas for guest commentary, and she would consider them! Whee!

That means, I don't have to wait until next year--I can email this woman and tell her my ideas for guest commentary, and she'll consider putting me in the paper, anyway! Shibba-dow!

I never knew that a rejection letter could be the perfect end to a perfectly crappy day, but this one sure worked for me. And can I use another bizarre exclamation?

I think I can!


Sweet Fancy Moses!

What the hell is a meme?

Someone please tell me what a "meme" is, because I don't know. Apparently, it's something like this:



Four movies I would watch over and over:

Almost Famous
Undercover Brother
Bridget Jones' Diary
The Beverly Hillbillies

Four of my favorite flowers

Peonies
Lilies
Lavender
Cosmos

Four magazines I suscribe to or buy on a regular basis

Entrepreneur
Cook's Illustrated
InTouch Weekly
US News and World Report


Four of my childhood toys still in my posession

Various stuffed animals. Otherwise, none.

Four TV shows I love to watch

Deadwood
Sex and the City
The Next Top Food Dude (or whatever it's called..it's on Food TV)
that's it. I don't watch a lot of TV.


Four recurring nightmares

Being killed at school.
Being kicked in the stomach by my principal at school, and then she looks at me and gets mad when I protest.
Being killed at school.
Being killed at school.

Four places I've been on vacation

Iowa
New York City
Colorado (in my youth...it's been a while since I've been on vacation...)
Austria/Germany/Poland/Czechoslovakia--this wasn't vacation, but I've been there.

Four languages I can speak

English
German
Spanish
Special Ed Teacher

Four places I would rather be right now

In bed, sleeping
At home with my child
Getting a pedicure
Anywhere but here

Four of my favorite foods

Strawberries
Roasted chicken
Fresh green salad
Toast

Four of my favorite alcoholic beverages

Bourbon
Tequila
Red wine
Vodka

Four of my worst vices

Sloth
Reading InTouch Weekly
Picking my pimples
Biting my fingernails

Four accomplishments I'm most proud of

My marriage
Owning my own business
Writing a book
Publishing said book by myself

Four of my biggest fears

My child being killed
My husband dying
Not being able to ever be self-employed
Not being able to enjoy my life

Four genres of radio stations programmed in my car

Classic rock 99.5 The Mountain.

that's it.

Four items I always carry in my purse

Wallet
Phone
Keys
Lip balm

Four things I look for in a mate

Loves me
Sense of humor
Conversation skills
Kind

Four things (realistic) I want to do in the next four years

Finish writing my teacher book
Publish my teacher book
Sell many many copies of my teacher book
Become independently self-employed

Four friends I am tagging who I think will respond

None of my friends will do this.

Wikipedia Game

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I'm a copycat with no imagination. So, when my friend told me to play the Wikipedia Game, I did.

To play: Go to Wikipedia.org, and do a search for your birth date, without the year. Then, on your blog, list at least:

--3 neat facts
--2 births
--and 1 death

that all happened on your birthday. A-like so:


February 1:

1790 - In New York City, the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.

1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.

1978 - Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.

1999 - North Dakota Public Radio is launched.

2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts onboard.

2004 - Janet Jackson exposes her breast on American television during the half-time show of the Super Bowl.


Births:

1901 - Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960) [rrrowr]

1902 - Langston Hughes American writer (d. 1967) [awesome]

1931 - Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia

1937 - Don Everly, American musician (Everly Brothers) [Wake Up Little Susie]

1937 - Garrett Morris, American comedian [from Saturday Night Live]

1938 - Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor [Mr Jefferson!]

1942 - Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer [of Monty Python's Flying Circus!]

1948 - Rick James, American musician and composer (d. 2004) [he's dead, bitch!]

1965 - Sherilyn Fenn, American actress [from Twin Peaks, my favorite show when I was in college]

1965 - Princess Stéphanie of Monaco

1968 - Lisa Marie Presley, American singer and actress [Yep. Elvis' daughter]

1969 - Me. :)

2003 - My daughter. :) :)

Deaths:

1851 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797) [wrote Frankenstein]

1966 - Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885) [whoever she is--I like her name]

1976 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1878) [and presumably inventor of Charmin]

2003 - The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, astronauts:

* Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959)
* David Brown (b. 1956)
* Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961)
* Laurel Clark (b. 1961)
* Rick D. Husband (b. 1957)
* Willie McCool (b. 1961)
* Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)

Finished my taxes!

Take THAT, IRS.

The bad news: I owe taxes.

The good news: I owed taxes last year, and had to pay them with my credit card, which sucked. How is that good news? Because of that experience, I saved money every month to put toward this year's taxes.

The best news: I have enough money, with some left over, to pay this year's taxes. Yay!

Back to work.

Well, spring break is over. That's all I get. Let's see how much of my list I got finished:

1. I made about 4 batches of soap. That's 168 bars. Not too shabby.

2. I ordered my banners for the market.

3. I ordered supplies to make lip balm and more buttah.

4. I picked up supplies I had ordered last month.

5. I went to Costco and bought soap supplies.

6. I made my presence known online.

7. I did some research for my new website.


How did I do?

Wacky weather.

It was INCREDIBLY warm yesterday, which was wonderful. I got a lot done in the garage, while watching my cutie play with bubbles and dance. I took her to the park with papa, got some errands done, ate dinner at home with my family.

It was a wonderful, wonderful day.

Spring break log: Day 3

I suppose yesterday was day 3, because we should count the weekend as the beginning of vacation.

What have I completed from my list? I made a batch of goat milk soap yesterday. Taught at the University last night (was that on the list?). Did a load of laundry. DH is cleaning and rearranging the garage, so that our soap making can be more productive.

Today I plan on relaxing a lot. The weather is nice, so DD and I will probably go to the park. I'm going to put soap on my new shelves in the garage, and label the shelves. I'll probably make another batch of soap tonight.

Oh, and I was talking to the bank yesterday about getting a business account and some merchant status. That's going to be a slower process--a choice, not a requirement.

I've got to do some gradebook stuff for my University class. Otherwise, today is all choice. I love that!

Spring Break is Here!

Yay!

My parents were in town this past weekend, so I didn't get anything "done" per se, which I suppose is okay. Of course my entire existence is dependent upon what I get accomplished in a day. I was too tired this weekend to do anything, anyway.

However, refreshed by a full night's sleep (finally!), I'm ready to tackle everything:

Soap making
soap sign making
tablecloth washing
tent preparing
soap making
shelf assembling
label making
label applying
cream making (see photo)
container ordering
container filling
etc.
etc.
etc.

Let's see what I can get finished.

p.s. For those wanting to smear their skin with the lotion pictured above, click here.

Введите текст на латинице

All I do is copy my bloggy friends. I have no creativity left, apparently.

One of my favorite blogs is by a woman named Sherri who lives in San Francisco. She's heading to LA, and is a bit scared. Her description of LA is HILARIOUS.

I recommend you read it.

I read things on craigslist...

...and hilarity ensues.

To wit...

Chanty McGee

Yesterday was another long day at work. After such a day, especially on America's National Drunk Fest (i.e. St. Patrick's Day), many people head to the pub for a pint. They sit with their friends, relaxing, taking in the atmosphere of dark wood, cigarette smoke, and alcohol.


Others go to the local Metaphysical Faire. That would be me.

We took our baby girl to nephew's house, where grammy was watching nephew. She took our girl, too, and hubby and I took off. We took the long way to get there, as it was rush hour and we decided to take some "shortcuts." We finally arrived.

Once there, it was a matter of browsing around for a tarot reader/psychic/other weirdo to tell us our business. Of course, the faire has many vendors as well, and I wanted to peruse them all. Which I did.

While hubby was waiting for his reading, I wandered around and realized that my back hurt. I almost sat down to rest (a sensible thing), when I spied a dude with a massage chair. "Ah!" I thought. "I can get a little mini-massage while waiting for hubby." So I gave the dude my money, and settled into his chair.

He began a-rubbin', and it felt good. He talked to me about energy, and healing, and how his engery would enter me (oh, dear), and that he might make noises and such while rubbin' me, because he likes to chant, to tap into the universal energy, etc.

"um..what?" I thought to myself. But before I knew what was happening, Chanty McGee began.

"ooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm," he chanted, right into the top of my head. The sound went right down my spine to the small of my back, where I was in pain, and made it tickle. It tickled like when someone sneaks up from behind you, and talks right into the back of your neck with a low voice. You know that tickle? Yeah, that's the one, only it traveled down my spine.

"Does that hurt?" he asked, when I squirmed.

"No, the chanting into my head just makes me tickle in my lower back," I said, trying not to laugh.

So Chanty kept on chanting and rubbing, and I did my best not to squirm.

After that, I perused the vendors and found someone to read tarot cards for me, which was cool. It was a good reading, in that she told me everything that I wanted to hear. I like that in a reader.

Oh, and I got a henna tattoo on my hand. As evidenced above.

So, you decide. Better than getting drunk on green beer?

I love Jones New York

My first round of interviews are over, I think. I haven't received a call from any other schools, but that is still a possibility. The timeline is getting short, however--schools have to be finished with interviews by noon on Tuesday. When I interviewed this afternoon, those folks had been there all day, interviewing, and still had some to do after I left. They said they would be calling folks "by Monday," which means they will probably start calling tonight, if they've made decisions.

I already got one call from a school, just to tell me that they hadn't yet made decisions, and they didn't want me to go the whole weekend without a phone call. I thought that was very professional of them, and told them I appreciated the call. I bet they call folks on Monday, as well.

Now, the waiting.

Before my interview today, I vascillated between being nervous and not caring about the outcome. I do care, but I was trying to get myself not to care so much that I got nervous. I don't know if it worked or not.

I've given up on second-guessing why people hire who they hire. My experience last year was depressing.

I'm just sittin' here, surfing the internet, and waiting...



p.s. I love Jones New York. Throw on anything made by them, and you'll look stunning. I promise.

Hand cramp.

Damn! Those hoops are annoying!

I went to my pre-qualifying "audition" thing today. My parents are in town, got into town last night, and I wasn't able to visit with them until around 6:30pm. My hubby held dinner for me, which was nice but a little unreasonable, I thought. We usually eat dinner around 4pm, because of my work hours.

Anyway, back to the hoops. We had to watch a video of a teacher teaching, take notes on it, and then answer two questions about how we would coach that teacher. Then, we had to read an article that was, essentially, useless (no information there, really), and respond to a prompt. Then, I had to respond to three more prompts, because I was auditioning for "staff developer."


What-ever. I was so tired when I got home. And our girl was so wound up from having grandma and grandpa over for most of the day, she was tired and throwing a fit. She cried and threw a fit for over an hour. Before that hour was up, I was fed up and put her in her bed, even though it was early, thinking that such a fit was caused by fatigue. After about 20 minutes of screaming, she tired out and fell asleep.

So we got to eat most of our dinner in peace. Poor baby girl.

Tommorrow I'm gonna get off from work early, and take us over to the park by my aunt's house, and then for dinner mom and dad are taking us out to a Chinese buffet. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Jumping through hoops

That's what I'll be doing, tomorrow around 4:30pm. "Auditioning," if you will, to pre-qualify for a job that is primarily staff development.

Which is, primarily, what I do all the time at the university.

*rolls eyes*


Whatever. Here I go.

Did I say "shunning?"

We had a meeting after school today. Please read the previous post to understand a bit about the job cuts. Well, I mentioned that the teachers who helped make these very difficult decisions would probably be shunned.

Never did I think they would be called out, publicly, by a colleague. That's what happened at the meeting after school today. And for the life of me, I cannot imagine why.

This teacher expressed, publicly, his disappointment in the teachers on the committee, saying he did not feel represented, and went so far as to say that he's certain that "most" of the teachers would agree with him.


First of all, I don't agree with him. Second, that's just rude. Third, it's unprofessional. If he had a problem with a colleague, he should go to that colleague. It serves no purpose to discuss his disappointment publicly, except to ridicule the teachers in question. It's unprofessional and cruel.

I don't understand why he would do that. My opinion of him is now diminished.

That time of year.

It's happening again. Every year around this time, the schools start cutting teachers. I have a friend who is on our school's committee that decides who is cut and who is not. That committee is comprised of the principals, teachers, and parents. All must come together to decide where the cuts will happen. Obviously, it is not a happy time.

However, even though they are cutting teachers, they will probably have to hire new teachers in the summer. Why? All of the budget is based on projected numbers. We always end up with far more students than were projected, so the teachers that were cut will have to be re-hired. Unfortunately, the people who were cut will have moved on already, through the internal transfer process. So, the teachers who have established themselves in the building as team players, who have made friends, and who have strong ties to the community are uprooted and have to go elsewhere. They are replaced, of course, by strangers.

I hate this time of year. We find out whose jobs are cut, and then we have a bunch of pissed-off people to work with for the rest of the year. And if a teacher was on that committee that chose the cuts? Oh, yes. There is shunning.

The whole thing makes me sick.

Random thoughts

I'm applying for jobs. I have my resumé updated, but this one job is really testing my patience, and I just might let it go. I suppose there's nothing out of the ordinary about the application itself--it calls for an entire work history. However, I can't simply muster the motivation to list it. And to find my current and former salaries. I mean, I would be estimating. And the application practically makes you promise that you'll poke your own eyes out with a stick if you put false information on there.
Well, hell! I've been working for a long time! I don't remember what my teeny-weeny salary was 14 years ago! Jeez!
So, I'm thinking I should just let it go. And focus on writing what I want, which is my book. I think the payoff will be greater.

**************

Oh, speaking of my book--no, I haven't written much for it. But I have been collecting data for it, and reading for it, etc. I'm also still teaching at the university, which gives me a good idea about what I need to put in the book. I already had a good idea, but I'm collecting details. I'm also thinking of having an editing party at my house when I'm close to being finished writing.

**************

It's very cold today. We keep our house well-refrigerated at 62 degrees anyway, so it's just a bit colder inside the house than normal. Our heater does a relatively good job of keeping up. I suppose if we updated our windows, it could cut down on our energy bills. I don't know how much longer we'll be in this house, but it could save us some money in the interim. I'd also love to add central air conditioning to the house, but paying off credit cards comes first. I can't imagine that I'm mentioning air conditioning when it's barely 3 degrees outside.

**************

Does blogger now support images? The last time I checked, there was some long process to do it, and you had to pay for it, etc. Now I see a little "insert image" button up there, and don't know if it will work. Let's try it, shall we?

Looks like it worked. Except it's up top. Oh, well.

3 years old

What does 3 years old mean?

• Being able to turn on the "Wee Sing" CD in the player all by yourself.
• Singing along with all of the insane songs on said CD.
  
• Buckling yourself into your high chair and yelling, "Eat!"
• Running around the kitchen, snorting.
  
• Kicking and screaming and fighting when it's time to comb the hair.
• Saying "no" every time mama asks if you want to use the potty.
• Singing the ABC song.
• Counting to 20.
• Using the fine art of extreme passive resistance to get what you want (i.e. going completely limp and falling to the floor when mama tries to pick you up).
• Finding the correct letter on the "find the letter game" on your little LeapFrog radio.
• Hiding in the closet.
• Crawling into bed with mama when you wake up at 3am.
• Kicking mama in the kidney for about an hour, when in bed with her at 3am.
• Not protesting when mama gets fed up and carries you back to your own bed.
• Giving kisses. Exclaiming, "It's a kiss!" after each.
• Playing with mama's phone.
• Inadvertently surfing the internet on mama's phone.
• Reading Curious George at night.

My poor little dog

My poor little dog got hit by a car yesterday.


He often escapes from our backyard by digging a hole under the fence. We are constantly repairing the fence in various places because of this. Sometimes he comes home through the back, and sometimes he comes around to the front of the house.

Yesterday, he was gone less than an hour. We didn't even know he was gone. I looked out back, and asked, "Where's Taquito?" My husband didn't even know I'd let him out.

So I looked out the front door, and there he was. But he was leaning against the house in a strange way. I opened the door, and he came up to it, slowly, and slowly hopped inside, with his tail between his legs, like he'd done something very, very wrong. He stopped walking, and turned around to look at me with sad doggie eyes.

I bent down, asking, "Is something wrong? Are you okay?" And that's when I saw the huge gash in his leg. I immediately began changing my clothes, and hollered at my husband that I had to take him to the vet right away. I told the dog to go to bed, to get him out of the way of my 3-year-old. He walked all the way to his bed, and lay down. I changed into clothes as fast as I could, called the vet and told them I was coming, and went to look at the dog. He was closing his eyes, as if to sleep. At that moment, I thought he was dying.

I ran for his leash, which is the one thing that can coax him out of any spot, and luckily, I was correct this time, too. He hobbled out of his condo, I snapped the leash on, then gently picked him up, avoiding the gash in his leg. I yelled for my husband to open the door, then yelled for him to push the button for the garage door. I got my dog to the car, then to the vet. Brought him in. Put him on the scale in the room. And after observing him for a couple of seconds, the tech got the vet right in there.

Now, I thought he had cut his leg pretty bad. I thought a big dog had bitten him. The vet came in, and began examining him. She lifted the skin at the gash. And that's when I almost fainted. The skin flap kept going up and up and up....all the way across his "shoulder" and up to his neck. It was a huge flap of skin that had been ripped right off his muscles beneath. He was, in that section, literally skinned alive.

The vet and tech took him to the back to give him an IV and clean his wound, and also to get him away from me, because I was quickly becoming somewhat hysterical.

The doctor suspected that he had a dislocated shoulder, and as such, recommended I take him to the animal hospital, because if he did need surgery, someone at the hospital would be there for him overnight, but nobody was overnight at my regular vet's. Okay, here we go again. This time we take him in a blanket to the car, with an IV stuck in him.

I drove to the hospital, carried him in, asked repeatedly if my vet had called as she said she would, etc. They took him immediately to the back. I sat down. And then I didn't talk to anyone for about an hour, which sucked. It pissed me off, but there wasn't much I could do. The TV was playing one channel: Some Dude's Wild America. Those wildlife shows with the ultra-mellow narrator. Good god.

After a long time the vet came out and told me they wanted to x-ray him. I knew this was going to happen, so I said, "Yes, yes, do it and tell me what's next. I know you have to x-ray him!"

So she did. And you will not believe this. Bighorn sheep butt heads in slow motion!

No, that's not what I want to tell you. The unbelievable thing was this: NO broken bones. NO dislocated shoulder. Absolutely unreal. So the vet gave me an estimate of what it would cost to sew him up. I paid. I then left, and picked him up at 8pm.

My poor little doggie was walking, slowly and carefully, but walking. Drunkenly, but walking. I took him to the car, and he HOPPED into the front seat. He promptly laid down, but I was amazed.

He's been in his condo all day, resting. I took him out 3 times to pee. Each time he looks better and better. He ate a bit today.

This 9-year-old doggie is now an indoor doggie. I'm so glad he's alive. I can't believe he survived being hit by a car, which is what the vet concluded, with some conviction. He probably got clipped by a bumper, which ripped his skin.

He's so small and quick........I hope the people didn't see him. If they did, they'd better steer clear of me. I'll bitch slap them up the street.


My poor little doggie. He's such a lucky boy. I hope he comes out of this whole thing okay.

More blatant self-promotion.

One purpose of a blog is to let folks know what you're up to. I always wonder about strangers who may read this. Why are you reading it? Do you read blogs for fun? Are you bored? Are you looking for porn?


Or are you just downright filthy?



I have the answer! Olde Crone's Bewitching Bath Soap will cleanse your skin, while leaving it soft and smooth, moisturized and smelling lovely. Don't take my word for it. Read the customer testimonials on the home page.

Are you, stranger reading this blog, crafty? Do you like to make things for yourself? Do you find yourself shopping, and constantly saying to yourself, "Pfft! I could make that, for a lot cheaper." If so, then perhaps you would be more interested in my ebook, Making Soap In Your Own Kitchen. Many others have had the same thoughts as you, and are now making their own soaps. You can, too. It isn't difficult.


Speaking of my book, I recently dropped the price, and I sold triple the amount of books that I normally sell in a week! Hooray! This self-publishing thing is a really good idea. I think I'll do it again, only with a print book. Of course, I could make up some shorter, downloadable reports, on how to make specialty soaps. Hmmm. (I'm giving you a glimpse into my thought processes...scary.)

Gotta run. Gotta do some work for one of my many enterprises. You go see my soapy site, now.

I know, I know.

I know. I haven't written in a while. I've started teaching at the University, and it really blows me out of the water, energy-wise, for about 3 days afterward.

However.

I've gotta let you know--this group of students is HILARIOUS. Many of them know each other, and we played Two Truths and a Lie to get to know each other, etc. and they really got into it! It was hilarious! This one guy just lied for each of his statements, but didn't let us know until after he'd lied again, saying, "Yeah, that's the one that's a lie." But they were all lies! We were rolling. They were elaborate lies, too, involving cranes and cars, and rapping like Snoop Dogg at a wedding.

They've got a lot of energy. To give you an idea of what they're like, our most heated discussion came when we were deciding whether or not we should have a schedule for people to bring snacks.

Somehow hopeful.

I cannot explain why I feel hopeful these days, but I do. And when I say "these days, " I literally mean just the past couple of days.

I absolutely cannot explain it.

I have this hopeful feeling, this feeling that, no matter what, everything is going to turn out ok. Everything is moving in the right direction, and everybody will love whatever I do, and I will get the job I want, and when I publish my book, everyone that I want to will buy it.

It's weird.

When a person hates her/his job, many strange psychological things can happen. Depression. Despair. Bad hair days. But I don't think "hopeful feelings" is one of the symptoms of job hatred.

I just can't explain it.

So instead, I'm rolling with it. I'm taking steps in the right direction every day, and when the opportunity presents itself, I'm gonna jump on it.

Hope you're outta my way when that happens. It could be spectacular.

Back to the green.

Okay, I'm a sucker for pink. But I, too, couldn't take the Pepto quality of it.

Blogger needs to get more template choices, is all.

New Year. New Look. Readers chime in.

So, I'm a sucker for pink.

This is why: my birthday is in February. And whenever I see little tchotchkes in shops, all artfully displayed, and they're all pink and white, with hearts and sweetness, I love it love it love it. And that's because I think of my birthday and get all happy.

Hence, the different look of my blog. Too bad it doesn't have any little hearts.

Lemme know what you think.

New Year. New Ideas.

It doesn't always happen that I start thinking about money in particular at this time of year. It's just that, well, taxes are due soon, and I need to make sure I can cover them.

We usually have a big ebay selling stint from February through March, in order to cover the tax bill.

In any case, I've already started my taxes. I think this may be the last year that I do them myself. My time is getting more and more valuable. However, I am a control freak about my finances, which I do not think is a bad thing. However, sitting around for hours and hours, adding up receipts does not hold the mystique for me that it used to. I can't imagine that it would cost that much. And I always owe on my taxes anymore, anyway. Harumph.

So, because I'm full of the money-making ideas, I present a list to share. Perhaps I'll help/inspire someone else, as well.

My idea list:

• AWAI . I wanna buy their Six-Figure Copywriting thingy. I think it could prove very useful.
• Getting my book finished.
  
• Finding some writing work.
• Making sure I'm on the right track, financially.
• Making sure my thought processes are on the right track, too.
• bump up the ebay stuff. Way up. Gotta make some cash.
• apply to a couple more farmer's markets this year. Bump up the soap. Way up.
• No teaching this summer! Just soap!
• Okay, some writing time, too.
  

It's difficult to fight this extreme fatigue I'm feeling and have all these ideas, too. I don't know why I'm so tired all the time.

MASH unit

What do you think would happen to you if you worked in an Army M.A.S.H. unit, for 5 years straight? If your work was constantly an emergency, someone else's emergency, and everything you did wasn't good enough? And everything you did wasn't done quick enough?



And it all just kept piling up and piling up, and there was nothing you could do to make it stop?


Now remember, in this scenario, you did this for 5 YEARS STRAIGHT.


What do you think would happen at some point? Bitchiness? Depression? Bad fashion choices?

You know the answer as well as I do.

Back to work.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!


I am sitting in some "staff development," listening to this woman, go on and on about her agenda. Always her agenda. Always she pushes her personal academic agenda onto all of us. It is so tiring.

And it is also one reason why people leave this profession. Their ears start bleeding and they have to retire.

Oh, and after they sent us off in small groups to talk about an article and come up with some ideas on things we can do in our school, I offered our group's idea. The response? An unequivocal no. Of course.

Don't ask for my ideas if you don't want to hear them!

Vacation Log: Day 17--Last Day. :(

'Tis the last day of my vacation. Baby girl got up at 4:45am, and did not fall back asleep. I got up with her around 6:30am and made pancakes and bacon. They were delicious.

Little monkey played for a long time in the morning, while I read the paper and did some work on the computer. Newsflash! I did my sales tax returns for my soap business, and I have the money to cover the taxes! This is an accomplishment for me, anti-saver.

I called my mom today, and talked with her for a while. Her knee is getting better, and she's been going for walks outside. This is a major improvement for her--that knee has given her trouble for a long time.

*sigh* Did some laundry. Watched some kiddie tv. Now I'm just waiting for bathtime, so I can go to bed.

And go to work tomorrow.


*sigh*

Vacation Log: Day 16

It's January 1, 2006!

Should I resolve something? Is my life so desperate that I need to "decide firmly on a course of action," to make it better?

How about this: I'll just continue to go to work every day, and make enough money to feed my family, and continue to be a generally good person.


(Am I cranky, or what?)


Okay, okay. I'm just scroogy. I'll stop now. "I resolve to be less scroogy."


How about we make resolutions that are fun? How about, "I resolve to speak in old-fashioned phrases more often." Example: "Fill up the car with petroleum distillate, post haste!" Or "He doesn't have the sense god gave a goose." Yeah. That'll make my life better.

I also resolve to speak my mind more, and care less what people think. That'll improve my life, too. Not that I care too much what people think, but when you work in a school, this thought that everyone is dissecting your words and actions does take over, somewhat. So, I'm gonna speak the truth. There's some life improvement for you.

Truth #1: It's freaking cold in my basement, where my daughter is watching Boobah right now.

Truth #2: I actually love Boobah.

Truth #3: Getting in touch with old friends is awesome! I talked today with a friend who I haven't seen for 12 years. It is so great to find out how he's been doing, and what he's been doing, etc. He's been leading a very interesting life. Except now he lives in Houston. Too bad, that.

Truth #4: Tomorrow is the last day of this vacation. Boo.


Grade for day 16: A+++++++

Vacation Log: Day 15

Well, both of my old friends got back to me. Yay! I'm so happy.


Yesterday was Dec. 31, 2005. Whoopity-shite. I don't make too big of a deal with the calendar change. It's a good excuse to have people over for drinks and snacks and Trivial Pursuit. Which is exactly what we did.

And it was so much fun! Thanks, folks, for coming over and snacking on the snacks, and drinking the drinks, and playing the games! I had a great time!


Grade for Day 15: A+

Vacation Log: Day 14

More sleepy sleep. Yaaaaay! Thank goodness. I wore baby girl out at the mall yesterday. Went to Cherry Creek to play on the breakfast food. It creeps me out to see huge sausages lying around on the ground, but I get over it for my girl. (In the link, that is not a photo of my girl...it's just a photo I found, as a point of reference to those who do not know of the giant breakfast food.)

Today I am spending the entire day at home with my girl. Well, we might go somewhere, but if we do, we will have to take the bus. Papa took the car to go pawn shopping in Colorado Springs. He and his friend Bam do this every so often--apparently the pawn shops down there have different stuff than up here in Denver.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Time Passes<<<<<<<<<<<<<

We didn't go anywhere. I'm still waiting for papa go come home with the car, so I can go to Costco. Gotta get snacks for tomorrow night. We do not go out for the new year festivities. We do not even capitalize the new year festivities. We stay home and play games. With Steve.

Anyway, I'm sittin' here, feeling weird, because I just located a couple of friends from college, with whom I haven't spoken in a long time. Well, one of them a long time, and the other a loooooong, long time. And it's got me all nostalgic and weird, because I knew them in college, and that was a very weird and exciting time for me. I've changed a lot since then, hopefully for the better. Some things for the worse, I guess.

I guess that weird feeling is called "regret," which is really a wasted emotion, if you think about it. There is absolutely nothing I can do about the past; I can't fix it, change it, or otherwise modify it. It is what it is. I can just hope that these folks will correspond with me, at least just to say "hey." The other probably will, but one of them?


I'm not so sure.


Day 14 grade: A- (for the weirdness)

Vacation Log: Day 13

Lots of sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleepy sleep. Love it. Got a lot of it last night, which was warranted. Little Monkey slept through the night. Hoo-ray. She need to repeat this habit, nightly. No more of this 3am business!


I'm all paranoid, now.


So, today I had some "me" time. I went to see Harry Potter. Yay! It's awesome. If you've read the books, I bet you will enjoy it. They had to leave out a LOT of details, of course, but I don't think they detracted from the story. Fabulous time.

I'm now off to the library to pick up a DVD that I'm borrowing: WalMart: The High Cost of Low Prices. Ought to be interesting. It's only 3:38pm right now, but today is shaping up nicely.


Two movies in two days. It's been a good vacation. Oh, and I got a soap order last night, too. Made some money, saw a movie. Yep. Good day.

.............Time Passes..............

Stayed at home the rest of the day. The little dog dug a hole under the fence and ran away. Had to go get him in the car. Watched that WalMart movie. It's fabulous. I recommend it to everyone who even slightly thinks that they don't like WalMart, but they can't put their finger on why. The movie will tell you why.

Day 13 Grade: A

Vacation Log: Day 12

Today's blog starts in bed. At 3am. Approximately. Yes, once again, cutie woke up. This time, however, she climbed into bed with us and fell asleep. I, however, did not fall asleep immediately, because she was sleeping on the edge of the bed, on Papa's side.

This was disconcerting for me, and any mom out there will understand why: even though she was with her Papa, there was always the danger that he would fall asleep, lose his grip, and she would fall out of bed. And our bed is higher-up.

Papa finally put her in the middle of the bed, between us, and right at that moment, I fell back asleep, knowing she wasn't going to fall.

We all woke up around 8am after that, and our day was a plain day, until 2:30. Before 2:30, I read the paper, played with Cutie, shopped for groceries. Then Papa joined me, and we went to the bank, washed the car, and went to the post office.

And then we went to the movies.

Okay, I wanted to see Harry Potter. I've read all the books and seen all the movies, and love it all. The Man was going along begrudgingly. He wanted to see a movie, but thinks the Harry Potter series is for kids. Anyway, when we got to the theater, it turns out that the online movie times that I checked were inaccurate. There was no showing of Harry Potter at 2:30. Luckily, there was another movie showing at 2:30:

King Kong.

Oh, how I love that Peter Jackson. I didn't know just how much I would love this movie. I have not seen any version of King Kong, not the original and not the one from the '70s. My man has seen both several times, so he knew what to expect. I knew a bit of the story, so I knew a bit of what to expect. I will not spoil anything for you, but I'll tell you this:

I'm aerobically worn out after seeing it.

Day 12 grade: A+

Vacation Log: Day 11

Well, finally, cutie slept through the night, so today was a better day all around. We just stayed home and did little projects. I moved the microwave oven to a different spot. Did some dishes. Helped cutie with her train set.


.....................



That's about it. Huh.


Day 11 grade: A

Sleepytime update

I kept the monkey up until 10:30pm, to ensure her fatigue. I was also thinking that, if her sleep is no longer at the 11-hour stretch it used to be, then when she wakes it will still be at a (relatively) reasonable hour.

She came and got me out of bed at 8am. This means she probably woke up around 7:45am. Which means she slept for 9 and 1/4 hours.

Which means we need to remember this, when putting her to bed, so she doesn't wake up at 3am.

Any. More.

I finally understand.

My parents made a relatively big deal of Christmas. They always gave us gifts that they knew we would like, and I remember them sitting on the couch, drinking whatever they drank in the mornings, watching us play. Dad would sometimes play with us, if the toy required assembly, etc. They would sit and watch us, at some ungodly hour of the morning, as we played with our new toys.

As a kid, I always thought that adults got the shaft. They would just sit around, watching us, and they didn't get anything from Santa. I didn't understand how they could be so happy.

Today, I do.


Today, I assembled a train set for my daughter. It was not difficult, as it was manufactured by Fisher-Price. It has tracks that include a hill, a windmill and a factory, and two engines and 4 cars. Okay, here's the cool thing: the main, larger engine is battery-powered, and there is a remote switch that controls it. After about 10 minutes, my daughter is now making the train start and stop around the track. Every time she makes it stop, she says, "huh?" even though she is the one who made it stop, and she knows it.

Oh, and now she has just figured out the manual switch on the tracks, to make the train go up the hill, instead of under it. Smart girl.

And just a minute ago, I was standing there with her Papa, smiling down at her as she played with her new toy, and I was completely overjoyed.

I think parents give gifts at Christmas so that they can see pure, unadulterated joy in their children's eyes.

Vacation Log: Day 10

Aaaaaaaand she woke up around 3:30am, again. Aaaaand the dog was barking outside at that hour. I asked TM to bring the dog in before someone called the cops. So he did, and she cried in her condo for about 20 minutes. So, he put her back outside and she was happy. I cannot win. Right after the dog was put back out is when LM climbed into bed with us. We spent some time quietly with her in our bed, but she did not fall asleep. I do remember asking her if she had a diaper, and she said, "Yes!" So Papa changed it and put her back in her bed, but she came back to our room about 1/2 hour later. We tried to get her to sleep. Didn't work. Put her back in her bed. Didn't work. So I got up with her, and I got dressed. I was going shopping early today, anyway.

So I took the cutie with me. There we were, outside the doors of Target at 6:55am, and she was jumping up and down, having fun. We shopped at Target and at Linens 'N' Things, and after that I thought she would be hungry, so we went to a diner for some breakfast. She was NOT hungry, and pretty much tormented me the whole time I was eating.

Got home. I tried to put her to bed, because she was obviously tired, but she would have none of it. So I got Papa to watch her so I could finish my shopping. He did, and I did. When I came back, I got LM something to eat. She was very tired, but adamantly refused to go to bed. I desperately wanted her to go to bed, so that I could nap, which is something I never do. I could hardly see straight. Nonetheless, I read the paper, read a magazine, read books to LM, and waited.

At about 1pm, I heard her calling me from her room. I looked in there, and she was on her changing table. This is a pretty clear indicator that she needs a diaper change. So I did--and while I did, she STARTED FALLING ASLEEP. Right there. Her eyes would droop, and fly back open, droop, back open. So I picked her up and put her in bed. Of course, she started throwing a fit again, but this time she didn't have the energy to fight longer than 10 seconds. She was out.


And so was I. I took a solid 1 and 1/2 hour nap today. It was awesome. I still feel a little groggy, but at least I can get through the day in some productive fashion.

To wit: I assembled LM's train set! It is cool! It has a wireless switch that makes the train go and stop, and it has a feature where, when the train drives past the windmill or the factory, the gears work the mill/factory so that things spin, whir, move, etc. and you have to flip the switch for the train to move on. It's really cool.

So now we are just hanging out at home. We're keeping her up until 10pm tonight, so if she gets up after 8 hours, it will still be a somewhat reasonable time to rise. At least for me it will be reasonable. We've got to get her on her regular schedule. No more of this 3am nonsense! Except, everytime it happens, she has a diaper. So it's not like she just wakes up--I think she wakes because she is uncomfortable, and then simply decides to stay up.

Grade for day 10: B- (because of the horrible "no sleep at all" feelings)

Vacation Log: Day 9

Today was Christmas day.

I let The Man sleep in. I got up at the same time as Little Monkey, and we just hung out. She played with her toys (still very excited about her trains), and I read the entire Sunday paper. This is a treat for me--usually I don't have the time for it. I made us some breakfast/lunch (we got up late), and after the paper was finished, I got dressed, got cutie dressed, and we went to the park.

Yes, the park. On December 25. It was well over 60 degrees outside. Lovely, lovely day. For the first 1/2 hour, we had the park to ourselves. Most folks were spending time with family, I guessed. It was a great time--we spent about an hour there, basking in the sun, sliding on the slide, and LM spent a lot of time on the swing. Some days she loves it, some days she hates it. Like most of us.

We went home and had some dinner. It was around 4pm, and I suggested that we try again with the Christmas lights; we knew LM would want to see them. So we got in the car much earlier than yesterday, and went straight for the retirement community where they do up the lights.

Well, LM fell asleep AGAIN. This time, we were undaunted. We woke her up when we got there. She woke right up, and was happy to walk around with us. And walk around, we did. She was enthralled by the displays, and walked right up to some of them and sat on the ground, mesmerized. It was very cute. I think we went there more for us than for her; it was so much fun for us to see her so happy, because of pretty lights.

We got home, and we ate again. I made sure LM had a full tummy, so that she would sleep well. She had her bath, and I put her to bed, and she fell asleep quickly.


And so did I.

Grade for Day 9: A

Vacation Log: Day 8

I wish I could say that today was uneventful, and hardly worth writing about. That's how it started out. I spent almost the entire day in my jammies. I played with Little Monkey and her new toys. I fed her. We hung out. The Man slept in, and after he had eaten, he took care of LM so that I could soak in the tub, which I did. After that, I read my book in bed. In my jammies. I got up in the late afternoon to prepare some dinner.

After dinner, we drove around town to look at the lights. We wanted to get over to Windsor Gardens, a retirement community, where the holiday light displays are always spectacular. By the time we got there, LM was sound asleep in her carseat.

So, we got home, and put her to bed.

I started feeling depressed, because I miss my mom and dad, and I suppose I was feeling this way because it's Christmas. So I was crying when I went to bed.

I got about 3 hours of sleep and then I woke up because TM was helping LM with a diaper. She was awake. Of course. She fell asleep at 7pm. So now she's awake, and won't fall back asleep. I stayed up, reading my book, to make sure she didn't get out of bed and start wandering the house. After two hours of this, when TM came upstairs to go to bed, the Big Dog started whining. When she does this in the middle of the night, I have unfortunately learned from experience, it means she has diarrhea. So, I was letting the dogs out to pee, one of them on a leash because he digs holes under the fence and runs away, when Big Dog rushed up to me to pet her.


And she smelled like, you guessed it, Dog Diarrhea.


I couldn't handle this new development. Her entire butt was covered in diarrhea, and the stench almost made me vomit. She is my dog, however, so I got an old towel, wet it with hot water, and went outside to wash the dog's ass. It was much more extensive than I originally thought, so I put the towel down outside and left the dog outside, too. It's not that cold, and she's shaggy. One night shouldn't hurt her. And when I think about that stench filling up my house, I don't feel bad about it. I'll deal with her tomorrow. Or, uh, later today.

After coming in from my 3am dog grooming exercises, LM was still going strong. So I decided to fight fire with fire, and started making

Mac and Cheese.

Oh, yes. Not even my little cutie can resist the soporific effects of a full stomach. So she danced around the kitchen while I made her a meal (don't know what to call it, it was 3am), and she happily ate a whole plate of it. I wiped off her face and hands, got her into bed with some juice, and read her a story, just like our regular routine. (Well, usually she takes a bath before bedtime, but it still felt like it.) When I read her story, I used my best "fall asleep" voice.


It's now 3:58am. I'll check on her in a few minutes to see if my ruse was effective. In the meantime, Al Franken awaits.

Grade for Day 8: B-

Vacation Log: Day 7

What a great day!

I still had cleaning to do, but got up relatively early to do some of it. Cleaned the bathroom thoroughly, cleaned the hardwood floors, cleaned off a ledge that collects weird, unassociated items. The Man went for groceries that he didn't get yesterday, and I started cooking.

We made shrimp with linguine in cream sauce, a prime rib roast, salad, glazed carrots, roasted vegetables (eggplant, peppers, oninos, and jalapeños), (purchased) rolls, and had chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, and apple pie choices for dessert. I made the cake--the other pies were brought by our guests.

And you should have seen the children. My Little Monkey was never so happy with a toy! She received both a Thomas and a Percy train, where you push down on the driver, and they they shoot across the room. Excellent. She just walked around all night, with those trains in her hands, and as I knew she would, she took them to bed with her. She enjoyed other toys she received, too, but none as much as the trains.

Getting her to go to sleep was another matter entirely. She was overtired and worked up at the same time. She had her trains there with her, but just kept crying and crying, because I said it was time for bed. It took her almost an hour to calm down--I had to call in Papa as a reinforcement. She then woke up at 3am with a huge pee diaper, which I changed, but she kept calling me back in for various reasons--she didn't fall back asleep until 4:30am. I employed the previous tactic of Papa, and it worked again. Of course, I'd given her some warm milk by that point.

As a result, I am very sleepy still, but I had to get up because my aunt is stopping by this morning to drop off a gift for Little Monkey. I'm going to be in my jammies, because I can. And, because I received new jammies as a gift from The Man. So I'm wearing 'em, all day today.

Day 7 grade: A

Vacation Log: Day 6

What a party we had last night! Champagne...dirty dancing on the tables....strip poker....um....


ahem.



Okay, that didn't happen. But the party was very fun for a couple of parents who never get out. The food was great, and we did have some wine, and The Man had a bit of beer, too. Games were played and a movie was watched, and the worst thing that happened was the kitty swiped Little Monkey's arm as she was walking by. A few tears, but she was otherwise okay.

It was really fun. And a really late night. LM went straight to bed when we got home, although she still insisted on a story. I went to bed right after that, and woke up tired at 8am.

Today was slow-moving, yet still full, while I did laundry, stripped the beds and put on new sheets, cleaned the heinous, threatening-to-take-over-the-whole-kitchen pile of CRAP that's been there the entire year. I am not even exaggerating. I found my Valentine's day card in the pile. It was time to clean it. Shit, we've had a busy year, if I can't find time to clean The Pile until the winter holidays. Damn.

I suppose selling soap and writing a book and teaching at the university and teaching full time will do that to a person.

In any case, I'm very tired, and I'm considering taking a bath. I should get to bed early, so I can get up early for tomorrow. We have The Man's family coming over tomorrow, for Christmas festivities. They'll be here at 3pm. Still a lot to do.

Day 6 grade: B-

Vacation Log: Day 5

This day is shaping up to be much better than yesterday. After a mostly sleepless night, however, it didn't feel very productive. I still got the cards sent out, and wrapped packages and mailed them, and bought a couple more gifts, and called back my friend Sherri.

I also went to the grocery store, got some stuff that was on sale, went out to the car, got a call from The Man, who told me we were out of juice, so I had to go back in and do it all again. Which I did.

Then I gassed up the car.

And now I'm sitting here while LM eats her dinner, before we go up to Boulder for a cocktail party. Yay!

I'll be too tired to post later, so I'll grade today right now: A-

Vacation Log: Day 4--nighttime.

Last night was a "doozy." (Whatever that word actually means.) LM got up at 4am, yelling for "Maaaaaaa maaaaaaa!" Papa went in instead and changed her diaper. He gave her a little something to drink, and then put her back to bed. Then he came back to bed.

***5 minutes later***

Patpatpatpatpatpatpat. We both heard her. "Little Monkey?"

Right next to our faces: "Hello. How are you?" And she climed up into bed with us. That would have been fine, and we made a valiant effort to both ignore and snuggle her, but she was having none of it, and stayed awake. (As an aside: The softest, gentlest, most loving touch I have ever felt is my daughter caressing my face at 4am.) We tried it for a little while, but then I put her back to bed, with some warm milk. This worked for a longer while, and then more shouting: "Maaaaaa maaaaa!"

I guess Papa had had enough, because he got up and went to her room. And then I heard the funniest nighttime conversation, ever:

Papa: *stern* Do you have a diaper?
LM: No!
Papa: *stern* Then it's time for na-nights.

And that was it! Granted, it was probably close to 6am by this time, but at least she stayed in bed and fell asleep.

On to today's activities, which include:

• delivering a soap order
• mailing more cards
• wrapping, packing, and mailing gifts
• shopping for gifts
• cleaning the house
• going to a party!

Yay! I'll recap the day for you later.

Vacation Log: Day 4

Today was supposed to be better.

Today was supposed to be fun.

Instead, I made an insensitive comment.

And now, all I can do is try to be kind, and hope everything turns out okay.

Day 4 grade: F-

Vacation Log: Day 3

'Twas Monday, and the slithy toebs
did gire and gimble in the wabe...

....wait a minute.


'Twas Monday, and I got up early. (That's better.) I had to go to Auraria Campus to finish my grades, and return all the finals in a box. 80% of the students won't pick up their hard copy of their final, and I'll have to throw them away at the end of the semester, when I drop off the new finals. Whatever.

I got to Auraria to an almost-empty parking lot, as classes were out. I wheeled my Geek Box into the building and got up to the office. Triple-checked my grades, one last time. Entered them in pen, then pencil, and signed in pen. Done and done.

After that, I drove to the bank to deposit some money. I thought that 11th street would take me across town. I was wrong. HOWEVER! Did you know that some of the most GORGEOUS homes in Denver are in the block surrounding 11th and Humboldt! Seriously. Absolutely incredible. I could almost see the original owners wandering around in their Victorian attire, bemoaning the fact that Denver was developing up all around them.

Finally got to the bank. Then went to a different bank after that. (Don't ask.) Then went home. And in 30 minutes, I:

1. Made Little Monkey her lunch.
2. Pulled, packed and addressed a package of soap for an order.
3. Went looking for our vagabond dog.

After which I took off for Lunch With Becky. I hadn't seen Becky in literally months, because she is doing her Master's degree in social work, and has no time to even think. Her classes are out for the semester now, though, and we met for lunch, which was lovely. She's engaged! It was a lovely lunch.

This was all before noon. Rather busy for a "vacation" day. So, when I got home I sat in the living room, reading the paper, while LM climbed all over me. We read books and played with toys and I read the paper when I could. I lounged around pretty much all day, except for when I did some cleaning in the kitchen.

I guess I thought I was being rather lazy, because I decided to go to Bikram yoga class that evening. Thank god it was only a 1 hour class. I almost died. It was good to sweat, though.

Took a shower. Got LM into bed. Did some online marketing. (Gotta sell that ebook: www.soapcrone.com/ebook.php)

Finally got to bed around 10pm. Slept very snuggly after all that Bikram.

Grade for Day 3: A-

Vacation Log: Day 2

Yummy. I got about 9 hours of sleep last night. I was awakened by doggy whining. They are so pent-up--literally, because it's so cold outside. Poor doggies. Quiet, doggies. Quiet! Oh, all right, I'll get up.

I got online and began checking my email, sorting old email, etc. Did some Yahoo IM-ing with a friend. Wondered if he wanted to go out with us for pancakes. The Man and Little Monkey were still sleeping at this point, but pancakes on Sunday morning is a pretty good bet. While I was still talking to my friend, LM woke up. And so did The Man. So I made the appointment for pancakes at 10:30.

Our pancake place is very popular, so we had to wait for a little while--about 15 minutes, I'd say. Not too bad. LM polished off all of her eggs, and most of her bacon, and hardly any pancakes. This is strange for her, to ignore pancakes. I did not ignore mine.

After breakfast/brunch, I took The Man home, and I took LM with me to Costco. I wanted to get a couple more gifts for The Man, which I did. I also got 3 books for LM, for when she is older: Wizardology, Dragonology, and Egyptology. They are so cool! I've started building up her library, for when she discovers the wonders of reading. She's getting there--she likes to read the books to us after we've read them to her. She usually gets one or two words correct per page. She's going through the motions.

I just shuffled The Man off to Bikram yoga. He's never been to it, but I predict he will like it, because it's very macho. I'm betting he will love it, and then I will be in the poorhouse.

So I'm just sitting here, blogging, while LM eats popcorn. I plan on taking a soaking bath later, during which I will read the book I checked out from the library. It's been another great vacation day, full of nothingness.

Grade for Vacation Day 2: A

Vacation Log: Day 1

*inhale* fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

*exhale* haaaaaaaaaaaah.

Vacation.


Finally, I am on vacation. This first semester almost killed me this year. I am somehow grateful for being a teacher right now--not everyone gets the vacation we do.

Of course, not everyone fears death after working for 17 weeks.

Aaaaaaaaanyhooo, it's vacation. Here's my daily log:

7am: Wake up. I went to bed at 9:30pm, so this represents the BEST SLEEP EVER. It was awesome.

7:30am: Little Monkey wakes up. We eat a cinnamon roll for breakfast.

8am: I go downstairs with LM. She watches Thomas the Train and then Elmo, and I write and address all of our holiday cards.

10am: I wake up The Man to watch LM, and then I take off.

10:30-1:30: Amy's Time. I went to the post office, for starters. Some woman in front of me didn't know how to use the self-serve kiosk, and got pissy. I think my cheerful mood pissed her off even more. I was delighted by the stamps that I purchased from the kiosk--they were all Santa ornaments. Yay!

After the post office, I treated myself to a trip to the library. I owed them money (fines! fines! I am a terrible human being), and paid it off. I picked up a DVD that The Man had on hold, and then I perused the (gasp!) fiction section. I checked out two novels from Dan Patterson. That should hold me for the duration.

Next, I went to Cherry Creek mall. This could have been a mistake, but I was coming off a good night's sleep, and I was by myself, so there was no worry. It was crowded and a bit ridiculous, but I did alright. I bought an external hard drive for The Man's computer, and after that, upgraded our cell phones. Check it out here.
1:30-9:30 Made myself some lunch, talked to my mother, read the paper and some magazines, etc. Around 7:30pm we had popcorn and hot cocoa for dinner. Then it was bathtime for Little Monkey. Then bedtime for Little Monkey.

And then bedtime for Mama.

Day 1 grade: A-

Interpret my dream

Some dreams are difficult to figure out. They are filled with best friends who really arent, houses you live in which you really don't, and strange situations involving dragons and pop tarts.

This morning's dream, however, is a little easier to figure:

I dreamed that my colleagues and I were in staff development. The assistant principal kicked me in the stomach, in front of everyone. She then proceeded to get angry with ME when I protested.



Hmmmmmm.

Shazam!

I just joined a new Yahoo group. I'm a member of, oh, about 53 groups, but I only post regularly on a few of them. Obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn't have time to eat and sleep.

This new group came about because another, larger group exploded. Lots of dysfunctional shit going on there. Anyway, the new group is going strong, has about 70o messages in its first day, and is full of great people.

If you are a writer and a mother, and want to join this wonderful group, you won't regret it.

Which book are you?

This is a really fun internet quiz:

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Friends and family

We've had a whirlwind of activity since last Monday night. So much that I haven't had the chance or the energy to blog. Like I've got either of those on any given day, anyway.

And as much as I enjoy having time off over the holidays, I'd love to have more time to just do nothing. I didn't get much time for that. We were really on the go, entertaining, etc.

It's tiring.

Thanksgiving itself was actually a great, relaxing day, which is odd. It was the most relaxing day of any of them.

Now it's back to work for me. I'm applying for a new job. I'll keep you posted.

Sweet!

So I was checking the web stats of my website: Olde Crone's Bewitching Bath Soap. I can see how visitors get to my site, and one person got there via Google!

This surprises me, because when I would input "how to make soap" on Google, my site wouldn't even register. Well, maybe it did, but I didn't have the time to find out how far down the list of thousands it was. So I looked at this guy's search criteria, and it was:

start+making+soap+materials.


Hmm. So I went to Google and did this search, just to see where mine hits. I couldn't believe it.

Number 15. I was only on the second page! This is incredible progress! This means that people are linking to my site! This means that people will see my book and buy it!


Yippee!!


Start making soap now!

Always Use a Tablecloth

I sit at the kitchen table to do most of my work on the computer. I don't have an actual office in our house, and until I do, I sit here, so I can watch my daughter while she plays.

Sometimes I watch her while she eats and I work. It's nice because we are both at the table together. Just a few minutes ago, when she was finished, she pushed her plate away, saying, "All done," as she does for every meal.

And in doing so, knocked over my glass of water, which was sitting behind my computer.

Which brings me back to my headline. Okay, then.

Free day!

Yaaay! Today is a free day! I got to sleep in until 6:45am!



Yaaaaaaay!


Time to make soap!

All natural handmade soap

Yep. That's what I make. All natural, handmade soap. In an effort to boost my online sales, I've been joining more and more online groups, and have been participating in them. Gotta get some exposure.

Then I thought, "Blog about it, goofball. Google will pick up on it."

Perhaps. Therefore, I offer this blog as an unabashed attempt at self-promotion:


My handmade soaps are incredible. Soft, fluffy lather will leave your skin moisturized and smooth. My ebook about soap making will show you how to make your own soap, if you choose. Purchase it now, so you can make soaps for holiday gifts. If you prefer to purchase handmade soaps, you can do so here.



Okay, I'm done. :)