anagram of brat

Well and Happy New Year. In addition to making appearances at esotericscribe's party, cell23 and I spent most of our New Year's Eve throwing a mini-bash for the kids. We dressed up and had snacks and watched the ball drop, and laughed at all the cold people in Times Square and toasted the new year and errthang. Well 3/4s of us did. Wee Beastie balked at changing into his good outfit at the last minute. Eh, what can ya do, he's six.

Since we had aersi and deliriumdeva pop over from the other party for the express purpose of watching Drew assemble the weird Popin' Cookin' candy the kids' uncle sent them for Christmas (y'all... this candy. I can't even - it's so... O_o) I had them snap some pictures of the four of us, because Reasons. A serious one first:



Then several silly ones, but this one came out the best:



To quote from 11th_letter, "this is what we show the world, this is how we really are." Except that top photo ain't fooling anyone. Also It doesn't matter who is wearing the Pikachu mask, it is ALWAYS creepy-looking.

I had myself a bit of a cry about half an hour after the new year - Dad was always the first call I'd make after midnight. It felt so wrong just... not being able to, and I kinda freaked a little. It's okay. Grieving, process, etc. cell23 and Kidzilla hugs plus Moonbeam climbing into my lap to sit and purr (she has never been a lap cat, despite being a rabid cuddler, so this was a Big Deal) helped.

But yeah. New Years was rung in. Tomorrow we take the kiddos back to their mom's... and then... back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now. NGL, its going to be weird and too quiet in the house when they go and I'm going to miss them horribly, but I'm kind of looking forward to being able to unearth my house from the detritus of Typhoon Tatro.

Oh hey also new kidlet icon. They were overdue for an update.

I made the Boston Run* by myself this evening, as I had the flex time in my schedule and the kids needed to be picked up a day early.

I do and I don't mind the drive out. On one hand, it's a long drive and I love those. Just me, the road, whatever music I want on the radio and a lack of self-consciousness about singing along to it. I don't get too much road time anymore, and it's starting to show around the edges - I'm getting a lot of the same problems I used to have when I was first beginning to drive back, not to mention my eternal squirrelliness about left turns - I pretty much drive like Zoolander models. Part and parcel of not really driving much anymore I guess, but it bothers me that I've gotten visibly rusty at Actual Driving. But I digress. It was a chance to drive, yes. On the other hand, it's to a destination to which I only go because I have to, along a route that frankly makes me want to drink afterwards, and it is, when you come down to it, about five hours total in the car.

All that said, the end result is worth the aggravation, which is getting to hang out with my two favorite small people.

About two thirds through the trip back, we usually stop at the Wendy's off of Rt. 2 in Gardner for something vaguely snacky, either because the kids didn't get dinner before pickup or because the grownups in the car got hungry. It's just become sort of a thing now - we'll sometimes change it up and stop at Friendly's, but most times we end up here and the kids have come to expect it as our normal pit stop, to be skipped only if no one feels like eating or going potty. Tonight I had to wake them out of dead sleeps to go in and eat; their sleepy grumps over their food amused me enough to take a picture.



Of course once I looked at it, I realized I'd taken an almost identical one before. I looked it up when I got home just to prove I wasn't crazy.



Yep. Not the same booth, but pretty much the same picture, same car-weary grumpies, same kids, minus almost three years. Wow. I kinda want to take another picture of them three years from now at Wendy's. For science. Or something.

Every so often I'll get a picture of Kidzilla where she either seems older than her age, or there's some hint of what she's going to look like when she grows up, and I'll just kinda sit and look at it and just marvel at how damn quickly time flies, how fast they are growing up, and lastly, and maybe more poignantly, how long we've all been doing this. I mean, I've known them both since Kidzilla was small enough to still find her toes fascinating and possibly tasty, but that's sort of different from being an active part of their lives and doing my little bit to poke them here and there into being whatever people they end up being. I mean... this was about how big they were when cell23 and I became A Thing:



Needless to say they're a wee bit bigger now, but my gods, where the hell did the time go, seriously.

The other thing all this reminded me of was my own childhood and how much of it was spent in the backseat of my mom's car. I was amusing Kidzilla over her chili** by telling her tales of driving to Ohio to visit my grandmother, and just what a desolate wasteland I-80 through Pennsylvania is, and how I always knew we were getting close to Grandma's by the change in gas stations (is SOHIO still a thing?) and more relevant to my interests, the sudden appearances of Bob Evans. Oh Bob Evans. I realize it's the midwest equivalent of Friendly's and therefore probably terrible, but 5-14 year old me still has a soft spot for their chicken soup with the fat noodles. Anyway, the thing that made her eyes get all big was the idea that we'd spend all day and almost all night in the car just getting there. Certainly put 3 hours into perspective, anyway. 'Course, they spend most of the trip asleep...

Anyway. They're tucked into bed finally. It feels weird having them here on a "school night" everything about today is telling me FRIDAY and it's not. Tomorrow morning I have to get all of us up and out the door - Me and cell23 off to work as usual, but first I'm driving them to their Pepère's to hang for the day. But then, kid weekend, progress as usual.

Time to shower, sack out, and pray it'll be a bit warmer tomorrow morning. Least I don't have to be at work at ass forty five.



* I keep wanting to make Kessel Run jokes every time I say this. Problem is I haven't yet found a way to make River sound anywhere near as cool as the Millenium Falcon. I could say that I make it in less than 3/4ths of a tank of gas, but in the age of hybrid cars that's just not impressive. I suppose it's impressive that Teeny Weenie Blue Car of Nondescript Doom has racked up almost 160K worth of Boston runs over the past four years and change and not fallen apart yet.

** Holy crap! She's outgrown kids meals! That's a super new development. Does this mean we finally get to introduce her to the wonderful world of Beyond the Mac and Cheese option on menus???

For some reason I felt like dressing up a bit for tonight's adventure with the Squirekids in New Chinese Food Place.



Alas, Ginger Garden was rated by the whole gang between a C- and an F (they seem not to have figured out how that whole restaurant thing works yet and the food was a) late b) not spectacular, eh, or kinda gross depending on the dish) but good company more than made up for that so the adventure wasn't a total wash.

And hey I look pretty.


While I'd like to post about the rest of my Saturday, I can't because I mostly spent it unconscious. No really, I slept until 3. I wasn't playing when I said that I was devoting my Saturday to hardcore power-sleepage. Which is fine and dandy because do y'all know when the next time I'm going to get to sleep in is? yeah neither do I.

It's September and we're going frakking apple picking tomorrow. Fuck it, I'ma start using this icon.

( moar icon stuff )

Shaping up to be a very lazy Sunday, seeing as we don't have any big plans or anywhere to go today as opposed to yesterday (Fair! Farmers Market! Shopping!) and tomorrow (Kidzilla's birthday party! AAAA!) cell23 and I stayed up late last night watching the latest Torchwood and Doctor Who (hmm, I'm overdue for a "What's Andee Watching? post... later maybe) while I oven-dried the tomatoes I bought at the farmer's market. I finished those up this morning and I think I overdid them this time around, as some of them taste a little burnt, but they're still good. They also have a bit of a bite to them since I sprinkled pepper on them this time as well. Thinking of looking up a recipe for bread that incorporates them into it - I still have very fond memories of the sun-dried tomato bagels at Brueggers and am still mad they were only available that one summer years ago. But really all that's on tap for today is sticking close to home, making sure the kids don't kill each other, and chilling. I may try to get some work done or my hair yarned up today as well. Also we have some party prep to do later, mostly in the way of baking Kidzilla's cake and wrapping up her presents. Also figuring out what the hell we're going to do with the bajillion apples we're going to come home with tomorrow, considering she's having her party at the orchard for at least the third year running. I say at least because I've only been attending them regularly since she turned five - she very well may have had previous birthdays there as well and I'm kinda too lazy to ask cell23 about it right now. Oh, that reminds me, I'd better charge up the camera.

By the way, those of you with iThings and an overdeveloped sense of voyeurism or a liking for anonymous confessions? The PostSecret app just dropped and it is addictive as FUCK. Buyer beware, you will do nothing else for an hour after downloading it.

But yeah. The Andee abides. Pretty much it.

HOOOOO SHIT PICTURE POST FUCK YES

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The sun finally peeked out for a bit today so I went out back to check how the plants took to all the rain.

( FUCK YEAH TOMATO )

Itty bitty baby tomato omg! It's so cute! Can't wait until it swells into a giant heirloom monster of beefy doom!

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It's a good day for kidlet pictures too.

( West Side Tatros )

Jesus Horatio Cracker-Lovin' Christ, these kids are getting so big! Still want to get one of Lovebug and cell23 together today seeing as they're both wearing Superman shirts and the cute is KILLING me.

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And of course Lily says "I'm the star of this post. Yes I am. WORSHIP MY CATNESS." Never mind that cell23 and I nearly made a hat out of her ass this morning for biting and clawing our toes until we got up to feed her.

( Well, it IS Caturday after all. )

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And my obligatory pride cum skyscraper porn from last night made into an icon. Now that I'm past the wellspring of emotion, the picture just makes me smile. A lot.

Haven't done one of these in a while. But I didn't really like my other Lana icon much. I'm a lot happier with this one.

Happy April Fools. Or, if you're like most of the grouches on my f-list, including me, Let Me Know When It's Over April Fools!



I'm rather glad that the April Fools snow we got was nowhere like as bad as the April Fools snowstorm of 1998 (I think) where after a mild, snowless winter OMGSURPRISE 3 feet and Smith wasn't gracious enough to close campus, even through none of the professors bothered to show up. Fun shit.

Youtube's viral 1911 vids are pretty cute, as is Google's Helvetica gag, Wikipedia's front page, and the Dragon Cave turning all its dragons to carrots. WoW's Crabby the Dungeon Helper got an actual audible snort out of me (but I'm one of those people that were amused rather than annoyed by the Office Assistant). Less impressed with Gmail motion. bellarisa's troll on facebook was actually really funny once I stopped having a heart attack. Otherwise, April 1 this year is kinda bleh, which is fine; anytime anything of note happens on this date it tends to not go well for me, so I'm genuinely okay with bleh.

In other news surviving the first day without coffee with lots of water, a cup of tea and extra strength tylenol. Getting work done and planning projects for the weekend, and since the weather's finally eased up, trying to psyche myself into getting laundry done, though that will very likely fail. Whatevs, not like I have to have anything nice clean before Sunday morning.

I'ma go find and hug a kitty now. She will hate it. I don't care.

~~

( and a little less wild )

No, there will not be youtube of me whipping it back and forth.

well before I get into complaining in earnest, HAPPY BIRTHDAY rhipowered ZOMG.

In squeeful news I'm pleased to report that once again my hair is properly fortified with sweater guts. Nothing crazy this time - I just went with flat black, which looks... interesting. First of all it does rather underscore that my natural hair color is nowhere near black itself, so it looks kinda weird/cool. Also I look like a huge ass goth because I cut it super long and the ends trail to my lower back. The effect is very Morticia, if she were plump and black anyway. This, I might add, is in no way a complaint, but I do feel like I need to be in the corner listening to Covenant and writing bad poetry about graveyards and how I could outangst Morrissey. While standing in said graveyard. With a bucket of eyeliner. In the rain. And whipping my now awesome hair back and forth. I really am kind of appalled by how that song's grown on me, fungus-like. I think it's because black girl headbanging is a completely different beast from all other headbanging and I kinda like the fact that there's a song about it, annoyingly overproduced as it is.

In complainy news, I got absolutely no sleep last night. There were two interlocking reasons for this involving a head to toe bout of SUPREME ITCHY and an anxiety attack. Far as I can tell I'm either having an allergic reaction to something or an eczema flareup. Thinking maybe the latter, though if that's so that's annoying - I haven't had one of those in four years or so. Worrying about that, scratching, and worrying about the usual shit (which is somehow ever so much worse when you're tired and staring at the ceiling for hours) made for an uncomfortable, completely sleepless night, which I'm supremely peeved about considering I actually finished my hair at a reasonable hour. (We'll ignore the fact that reasonable = around 1:30 am). UGH. I finally crawled back into bed around 6, completely forgetting I'd offered to shuttle cell23 back from dropping River off for her oil change this morning, so I got back up to do that after half an hourish. Two point five cups of coffee and still ragingly itchy later, I think sleep's a lost cause. Ah well. Hanzo needed the walkies anyway.*sigh* Gods I miss my car. Was good to take him out for a bit, even just for like 10 minutes.

Wellp, I'm awake, might as well fire up last night's Sons of Anarchy and get something productive done.

...because every lady needs a little Gemma in her head, heart and personality.

Also now I have something to illustrate with next time I go on about my Katey Sagal induced ladyboner.

Cryoburn comes out TODAY.

I'm being good and waiting until at least Friday before I lose my shit and go get it. If my paycheck comes in on time and at what it should be, then that'll be my treat for the week.

Meantime I'm going to be over here trying not to EXPLODE from anticipation.

EDIT: first 5 chapters are over here... eeeek