anagram of brat

The meeting of the Tiny Nerdlings was accomplished today and other than one major meltdown where the bossy stubborn six year olds butted heads over how to play a game they made up about dragons in space* and about 20 minutes of "EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE" sulking, all three kids from that point got on like they'd known each other in previous lives. Yes, all three - Kidzilla to my surprise wanted to come out to the playground with us, and she and C got on quite well. And Drew and Matt got along as well. So mission accomplished there.

After getting an appropriate level of hot and sweaty at the park (My gods, the humid today Eeeeeeuuuuggggggh) we wandered over to Flayvors of Cook farm where ice cream and visiting the cows happened.



Apparently being sniffed by a calf tickles like whoa.

C gave both Kidzilla and Beastie hugs when it was time to part ways and all three of them seem enthusiastic about meeting up again.



Aaaagh they're all so damn cute I can't stand it.

Also can I just squee over Google+'s auto-awesome feature? take a bunch of photos in sequence, or that all look reasonably similar, and G+ will either animate them or arrange them contact sheet style. This has resulted in all sorts of unexpected animated hilarity when I upload pics. Also in this case, rampant cute.



* from what I can tell; they tried to explain it to me and it was just complicated kid word salad.

New glasses are new! And shiny! And dyeeeerrrrrgh! I'm still adjusting to them three days later. It was crazy, I put them on for the first time and WHOA NELLIE THE CLARITY IT BURNS US PRECIOUS! Which is all well and good, it was just a major adjustment. My old lenses were so scratched up and the coating was so dead that the having the new shinies on was... yeah. Whee.

The nice bit is that for the first time I have a workable sunglass type thing. The new hotnesses had a little clip on shade option so I ordered it. Sunglasses, man. I AM IMPERVIOUS TO THE EVIL DEATH RAYS OF THE DAY STAR WHILE DRIVING! Or something.

The last interesting thing about new glasses is that now that I have the new ones, all the dysfunctional patterns of behavior I'd unconsciously developed to accommodate the old busted ones are actually noticable now that I don't have to continue them. I used to hold my head at a weird angle when bending over or looking down to keep the old ones from falling off. Don't have to do that anymore, but noticed I still was last night when I was gathering up the laundry. Blerg. The other is that I hadn't noticed how close I was sitting to various computer screens or holding books and devices. Too close. It's kinda nice to be able to sit back and still see what I'm doing. Probably better for me too from an ergonomic standpoint. Plus they're cute. I'd camerawhore, but between allergies and having the Cold that Doesn't end, my nose has erupted into this special tantrum of cold sore mayhem. It's gross, and I hope it gets at least marginally presentable by Pax. But anyway. New glasses are awesome.

The weekend in general was a good one, mostly hanging with the short people doing quiet things. Lil'Beast was having a super hug and cuddle sort of weekend, which was a nice change. And Kidzilla continues to be her amusing self. I've been especially tickled by the fact that she's already developed a fantastic flounce - she now leaves the room in a hilariously indignant huff if either we tease her past a certain point or fail to behave like her interpretation of rational serious grown-ups. I always thought that was more of a teenager skill, but at seven, she's got it down and it is funny as hell.

One of the things I've been enjoying about their visits indirectly is that Kidzilla actually really likes Doctor Who and has been watching the newer series with her father on Netflix. Being the giant fanboy that he is, cell23 is over the moon that she's enjoying it. Yesterday we all watched "A Good Man Goes to War" and it was really fun watching Kidzilla react to the various bits of the episodes, even if a lot of the humor went over her head. (The Sontoran's line about "superior lactic fluid" still cracks me the fuck up.) But that first moment when the Doctor makes his surprise appearance on Demon's Run? She bounced in her chair and clapped her hands; it was adorable. Makes me sort of wonder if the Sarah Jane adventures are on Netflix, though awww, Elizabeth Sladen... *still sad*

In addition to the glasses I also acquired a working printer/scanner thing on Friday, and seeing as I had things to print yesterday afternoon (more on that in a bit) I got it set up. This wouldn't warrant mentioning other than it's Fisher Price My First Wireless Printer (what the hell is this wifi witchcraft? THE FUTURE) and watching the cat warily trying to ascertain what sort of intruder this thing was was unexpectedly hilarious. She'd walk up and sniff it, then it would suddenly start printing and she'd be all AAAAGH IT MOVED HOLY SHIT RUN AWAY!

Why is cat trauma so fucking funny?

Anyway, the reason to print stuff is that thedavin made an attempt to resurrect Drinktank, which from what I understand was a short-lived Squirekids writing workshop involving a nonzero amount of alcohol, and I decided what the hell, I'd go both to spite my socially anxious hermit tendencies and to jumpstart my writing some. Also get over that whole crippling fear of people reading my shit. It turned out to just be me, thedavin and bloodandsmoke in attendance, and none of us drank, but that said, we did join thedavin's family dinner (which was quite with the tasty) and had an enjoyable evening critiquing each other's work. I got some good feedback on the story intro I'd brought with me, as well as some suggestions for where the story could go afterwards. Reminds me, I need to type up the notes I'd made on both of their contributions and send them out. But anyway afterward I went home and spent some time implementing the suggestions received and starting to scribble down ideas for the next step in the story. Clearly the exercise was good for me, as cell23 did comment that it was nice to see me on a roll again. Anyway, we will definitely be doing it again next month. If anything, it will give me Things To Work On during my PAX downtime this weekend.

Holy shit, PAX is this weekend, eeeeeeeeeee. I don't really anticipate having all that much spending cash - when do I ever? - but the excitement of the rest of the Squirekids going is infectious and I am excited about the panels I want to attend and the list of exhibitors. I will probably spend some part of this week assembling my convention survival gear (ha). But yeah, I'm getting excited and looking forward to Friday.

One of the few dates where it don't matter which side of the pond you're on, it's still right, lol. Anyone who makes wishes at 11:11 in general should make a couple of big ones today, I think.

I'd like to say something big and important about Veterans' Day, but elf_fu not only beat me to it, she said it far more eloquently than my caffeine deprived brain is capable of doing so I'ma just link over with a resounding Hell Yeah and a reminder to self that I need to call Dad. I need to check whether he's finished those Carnagie Deli sandwiches yet anyway.

I do not have the day off, which I'm okay with. The buses, however, are on No School Schedule, which I'm somewhat less fine with seeing as getting back across the river on Fridays is challenging enough with traffic. Tonight is the Boston run; we shall return with two short stacks to entertain for the weekend (and hopefully one Hess Truck). The only thing really on my agenda is reading to Kidzilla - during the blackout I started reading her The Graveyard Book and I'd like to at least finish that, not to mention make some progress reading Eragon as well. Also I want to find her a copy of So You Want to Be A Wizard - it's an older kid book, but if she can handle Graveyard, she should be fine with evil man-eating taxicabs prowling the streets of New York. Which they pretty much do anyway.

The Secret Sqwrrl project is getting a bit big to contain within my head at this point. I may need to go through my stacks of blank notebooks and three ring binders for one to dedicate to the project. Either than or take the excuse to make a trip to Staples - I have Things to Find Out there anyway.

Other than kiddos, I'm gonna do my best to Get Things Done this weekend - between blackouts, trips to New York, lingering sick and constant tired/lazy I've kinda fallen behind on Life and Everything. Course, playing catch up when Lil'Beast is chasing the cat trying to get her to eat handfuls of kitty treats never works out well, but I'm gonna take a shot at it nonetheless. :)

HOLD UP there's an LJ community dedicated to snarking on The Baby-sitters Club???

WENDY, I'M HOME.

(bsc_snark, cause I KNOW I'm not the only one. *side-eyes the likely suspects*)


In other squee news, just got off skype with Kidzilla who has a brandy new hole in her smile due to a lost front tooth. Its pretty hilarious-looking. Will have to get more pictures of it this weekend.

We took the bus down to Umass today to feed the ducks at the pond. There were a LOT of ducks. As in we were completely mobbed by waterfowl.



I think I successfully dodged Kidzilla's question as to what the original lyrics of that song are, lol.

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Best:
I'm very good in a crisis. Generally shit hits the fan and my brain goes into overdrive, my wibbly jello core hardens into cold determined steel, and usually I can have whatever problem has come up solved or handled if not immediately, within a few minutes. It feels a bit like hitting a star in Super Mario - I briefly become impervious to all things that would squick, rattle, unnerve or otherwise freak me out. It usually comes at a very high cost though - generally after crisis is managed I have to go away and recharge my spoons for a while.

Also, I am easily amused. Yeah, when people tell me that it's usually pejorative, but it's true. I can literally find some way to entertain myself or have fun/interest in just about any situation. This makes me really good to have adventures/watch obscure series/anime with or get me to read a book.

Worst:
I have no focus or really much ambition/drive to do anything with myself. This is frustrating. I'm also kinda lazy and tend to procrastinate on everything. A lot. I also hold terrible, hate and vitriol filled grudges.

Would my friends agree?
Yeah probably.



LAST CHANCE TO LOVE ME!

I'm mostly just posting to kill time until midnight, when I plan to go hunting for this year's Valentine eggs. Yes I'm a dork and obsessed. Bite me.

Today was kinda rough for a few reasons, but mostly because Little Beast was having another day of not feeling well. This manifested in the second worst tantrum I'd ever seen him throw. Half an hour of piercing "SOMEONE IS CLEARLY MURDERING ME CALL THE AMPERLAMPS" level screaming all sparked off because he did not want his clothes changed, and then when we got to the Chiasson's today, he was wobbly and listless and cranky and fevery and then right before he left (thank heavens we hadn't made it to the car yet) his breakfast and lunch made a violent reappearance, so we ended up staying there to wash his clothes and coat up. Oyyy. Poor little guy. He spent a good portion of today curled up in a sleepy daze on various laps. I hope his tummy feels better soon.

KITTY! cell23 and I returned with trepidation after leaving Lily in the house alone all day, but apparently she'd just spent a quiet afternoon sleeping under various beds. We've been playing with her all evening to make up with that, she is ridiculous when after toy mice or anything with tails. Plus the usual lulz of cat unable to brake on linoleum floor. She is currently curled up asleep near cell23's feet... who, in the rare instance of him collapsing into bed before me, is also pretty much passed out. My bedroom is full of cute right now. AND WE HAS A KITTY. EEEEEEEEEE. Not going to lie, she seems to have settled on cell23 as her designated hoo-mon and mostly only shows an interest in me when she wants to play or shove her entire face in my dinner bowl (yes she did that) but I'm rather well used to that, and she seems more than willing to play when I offer, so it's cool... and it's nice having a cat around again. I didn't realize exactly how much I missed living with the bitsy assholes. :)

Gotta get my Valentine dragon-snagging on in a few. 'Night LJ.

ETA: Mission accomplished! Love my dragons?



And Kidzillas, too:

This probably makes me a horrible person but a frustrated declaration of "THIS REALLY SUCKS!!" is fucking adorable in a three year old lisp.

He had legitimate reason to be upset; both kids are on the tail end of a nasty stomach bug and Little Beast made this statement right after puking up his breakfast. Poor kiddo. Puking really does suck.

In other news, we're off to Dakin with them. WE'RE GETTING A KITTY. More on that later.

In no particular order:

• Hanzo still regards snow as no big thing. What snowbank plowed behind me? VROOM.
  
  
• That wind was CRAZY ASS SHIT today. I am honestly very surprised we didn't lose power at all. Also days like this, thermal underwear is a positively delicious thing.
  
  
• My intestines hate me. I need to be nicer to them until New Years.
  
  
• Watched the DW Christmas Carol this evening. ( non-spoilery teal deer: I enjoyed it. )
  
  
  Rest of season? CAN. NOT. FUCKING. WAIT. River Song and the whole I'll be in my bunk aside, Matt Smith may bring sexy cool back to the Stetson.
  
  
• I got accepted into stepmoms today. I'd honestly forgotten I'd applied at the beginning of the month. Extra support and "no you're not crazy" always welcome. :)
  
  
• Tonight's experiment in chicken seasoning ended up an unexpected success. Been trying to vary it up from just breading and baking it. So far so good. I'm surprised and honestly a little appalled by how much I rather like getting dinner together several times a week. Domestic? Me? who'da thunk it? Buh.
  
  
• Need to stop 'crastinating about a few things tomorrow and get down to some brass tacks. Also my resolution list for next year is getting CRAZY. I need to prune it down so that my goals are actually achievable.
  
  
• Habari Gani! Kugichagulia! No, I don't celebrate Kwanzaa, but the second day of it has meaning to me - not so much as self-determination (though goodness knows I could use some of that on a personal level), but as a reminder of an interesting time now way in my past. Also it's wicked fun to say.
  
  Yeah yeah yeah, I know. Like I even HAVE a Black card anymore.
  
  
• Got the pictures off my phone (it's still good for that at least) and my camera for the last month, so I'm caught up reasonably with my 365 project. I haven't kept up with it nearly as well as I'd have liked, and I note that the chunks of time I missed pretty much directly correspond to my bad patches of anxiety and whatnot. However the project did get me into the habit of taking pictures of things that catch my fancy and got me out into the big wide world on occasion with the Hatemonger. Also I have a good handle on what needs work in terms of technique, the limitations of the Nikon starter lens, and under what conditions I can get better than decent pictures out of my phone camera, so I won't count it as a total failure even if I wasn't consistant with it.
  
  Also? I don't think I can complain about not having a constant human subject anymore. Kidzilla and Lovebug have filled out that role VERY nicely to the point where I definitely have to roll over their picasa album come January first. It's just crazy to me how much they've grown up in the year and change that comprises that album, I can't even.
  
  But I digress. I don't THINK I'm going to attempt project 365 next year, but I will be taking lots of pictures nonetheless. Just not strictly one per day. And I'm thinking a small goal to save for this year is some more camera equipment. Like holy balls of hell, can I buckle down and get a motherfucking tripod already? Sheesh. But I also would like a better zoom lens and some filters. Also want to actually take the DSLR class at Iris Photo one of the times it rolls around next year.
  
  
• little bit of a heads up, I'm going to be doing a little temporary friends pruning. Not a cut, because I'm not defriending anyone or dropping people from filters or nothing, but my default reading list has gotten overwhelming and one of the things I want to do in 2011 is step back a bit from the interbutts. Since I'm not really announcing who I'm filtering off, I'll just say if it's important, shoot me a comment/message just to make sure I see it, and I'll still be reading everyone, just a few of you won't be getting read quite as often as, oh, every three minutes.

The highlight of my evening, though? Getting pinged by chirping_monkey because Kidzilla wanted to Skype and tell me all about her new dragons. XD What have I done to this poor child? LOL. I was having a bit of an iffy day emotionally, truth be told, but fifteen minutes squeeing over holiday eggs and pretending to pinch the camera and getting the Christmas breakdown with a very giggly six year old? Yeah. Dear fates she looks adorable without her bottom teeth, lol.

~~ (hers)

So um yeah. Shower and book time now.

• Ah, the fall chillies are setting in. The bugs have all frozen to death, I can sleep comfortable under three billion comforters if I wanna, and sometime today I do have to truck up Uncle Knickknack's winter wardrobe from the trunk downstairs, cause t-shirts ain't cutting it even with a flannel. None of this is in any way a complaint, I thrive in this 40-70 degree in between stage of fall.
  
  
• I pulled out the yarn yesterday, and am rather impressed by the length of my hair all of a sudden. (You can pull the sproing down to shoulder length, about) Nice progress from when I cut it in January, I think. Sometime today there wll be brush-out and blow dry, seeing as right now I'm kind of rocking a dark brown sideshow bob look.
  
  
• It has been pointed out to me that my posts have definitely gotten very kidcentric lately. Not in a bad way, mind, I'm not at the point where I'm documenting in exhaustive detail every poop, puke and giggle, but more in a fun life-affirming way. Nevertheless, I do worry about veering too much into Momzombie territory, seeing as people who do nothing but post about their children's farts babbles and blinks get on my nerves like whoa. (It's cute and all, but I like to hear about YOU once in a while, KWIM? Nice to know there's a human being under the dairy farm.) I'm not at the NEEDZ MOAR KID FILTER point yet, but y'all should let me know if I'm getting annoying with the OMGKIDZ posts, k? K. Yeah, I worry about this shit, deal. :)
  
  
• Last night was plagued with weird, vivid dreams, and not all good ones, though the only one I actually remember was the one where I was Peggy from Mad Men and Don and I had to find a missing ad executive in the subway tunnels. (WTH?) The rest of the evenings worth of subconscious romps I don't remember, just have lingering impressions that they weren't good. Honestly, I'm a little more rattled by cell23 dreaming I ended up in the hospital again.
  
  
• Making it a three coffee cup day in the hopes that I can use the caffeine to jumpstart all the GET SHIT DONE drive that needs to happen. Also fired up Toodledo again for the first time in six months, here's hoping that'll help keep me on task in the weeks ahead.