Up and Around

Getting back into the swing of things after an illness is always a challenge. I was cut down by a sinus infection last week and holy moses, that was an eye opener for me. I have been plagued by allergies my whole life, and with that has been a barrage of related health issues. Somehow I escaped nearly 34 years without a sinus infection (to my recollection) but now, I can tell you, I know. I know. It was terrible, and I still have lingering sinus issues but today is my sixth day on antibiotics and possibly the second day I feel human. I slept and whined for several days while my husband had to handle pretty much everything child related.

But now things are better. We tried to go on with our weekend despite my face having been hit by a truck. Mostly, we managed. We hit Disney on Saturday, mainly because the Seven Dwarfs ride just opened and we had hard-to-get fast passes. I powered through until a little before dinnertime when my Sudafed stopped working but it was a long time until I could take more and I just had to insist we leave. The ride was good! The line is nutso – I don’t think I would do it without a fastpass for a while although there are supposed to be fun games to play while in the standby line.

Sunday we took the boys to see Maleficient. I was not sure about taking them because it is PG-13, but the parent websites said it was mainly rated that way for darkness and fighting, which my kids are fine with. They’ve seen all the Harry Potters. Dare I say, I think Henry enjoyed it the most – he never got scared and he laughed a lot, particularly when Aurora is a baby. I thought it was excellent. So - if your kids aren't easily scared by fighting and large animals (wolf, dragon, ent-like tree things), I whole heartedly recommend for any age.

Books I read: May

reread:

32. Days of Blood & Starlight - Laini Taylor

33. Cold Magic - Kate Elliott

34. Cold Fire - Kate Elliott

35. Delirium - Lauren Oliver

new:

25. Kingdom Keepers 1, Disney After Dark - Ridley Pearson I was very disappointed in this, and I don’t think I’ll keep going with the series. I wanted to try, because you know, Disney, but meh. It was all over the place and didn’t really ground the fantasy/mystery in anything at all.

26. The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell I didn’t like this that much – it was boring, and that’s hard for Sarah. I wanted Take the Cannoli.

27. Cold Steel - Kate Elliott I really disliked the focus on Drake, but otherwise I really liked how this ended, and I love Cat and Vai.

28. Dreams of Gods & Monsters - Laini Taylor I was worried when this added so many extra storylines for the last book in the series that it would be all over the place, but it was so so good. Tight.

29. Into the Still Blue - Veronica Rossi Meh. The first one was fantastic. The second, very good. This one – not my favorite.

30. Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver I was confused in the beginning and the end (last page) was super predictable, but I liked it overall. It moved the plot forward and I hope the third does the series justice.

But mom, everyone else was meme-ing!

Is it bandwagon jumping if I do it in the middle? Anyhow, Jess and Elizabeth and Jennie and Tara and others have done this meme, and it was a fun little distraction so I did it too! You're welcome to as well! Come on, all the cool kids are doing it!

1. What is your favorite type of cheese? It is definitely easier to say what cheese I don’t like (swiss, pepperjack) but my favorite is chevre. I could eat goat cheese all day, every day and for/with every meal. Yum.

2. What are you excited about? Right this very moment? Probably just going home to be with my family. I’m attending a 20-yr reunion of sorts at my high school tomorrow evening, but that’s more cause for anxiety than excitement at this point. Next month C and I are taking an overnight trip out of town to see Paul McCartney in concert and that’s pretty exciting.

3. How did you celebrate your last birthday? Goodness, I don’t really remember. I’m sure we went out to dinner with family, and separately I’m sure C and I went out to dinner ourselves (our birthdays are a week apart so we tend to celebrate at the same time). … oh! I remember! We both took the day off for a day date but then the kitchen sink started leaking pretty badly and it took all day to install a new faucet and couldn’t see the movie we planned on seeing. Had a nice late lunch together instead.

 4. What’s on your bedside table? My earrings from the other day that I forgot to take off before bed, a couple books I’ve been meaning to read, a box of tea I got for Jonna but have been too lazy to ship.

5. What do you order from the movie concession stand? If I go with C, we’re usually going after dinner so I don’t get anything at all. If we take the kids for a Sunday movie, we get a large popcorn and sprite to share.

6. Do you have a garden? What’s growing? I wouldn’t say I have a garden, but I do have plants. My favorite are the snow on the mountain bushes that are thriving in my front beds and the new purple plant I can’t link to but is attracting butterflies. I am not good at gardening so anything that can grow with minimal help from me is good stuff. I have an herb garden by the front door now planted directly in the ground and it’s nice that they’re all still alive. I’m happy about that.

 7. Any summer plans? We are headed to Colorado for a week in August which I am excited about since I’ve been trying to plan that trip since last summer and it came together pretty easy once I got C’s mom involved in the planning. Mountains, here we come!

 8. Which TV couple(s) are you rooting for? I can’t think of any in my current shows that I have any investment in, but I’m starting into Dawson’s Creek and I’m firmly encamped in Team Pacey (I’ve always loved Joshua Jackson, go Mighty Ducks!)

 9. What’s the last thing you bought? This is a hard question. Today, nothing. Yesterday? Nothing. Monday? Did I buy anything Monday? Ahh, food while I was on a business trip. Mahi salad at Shula’s. The last non-food thing? Shorts and a shirt at Old Navy last Friday.

 10. What’s one thing you are passionate about? I am very middle of the road on most things, but I do believe that everyone should have the same opportunities and rights as everyone else. There should not be discrepancies on pay or rights because of your sexual orientation, gender, religion, race or any belief system.

11. What are you grateful for this week? I’m grateful the work week is halfway over and we’re coming up on a long weekend. I’m grateful I have a job and I enjoy it, and that my family is happy and healthy and strong together. 

And as I was saying

Here's where I should start midsentence as if I haven't taken weeks since my last post, right? I'm sitting in an airport, and I just walked 4000 steps (that's three lengths of concourse A & C) in 3" wedges so that I could eat dinner and WHAT HAS BECOME OF ME? To be fair, I would have eaten dinner either way,  but I had sushi for lunch and a glass of wine while I did two hours of work at the airport bar and man, I should probably move some, right? 

Yesterday I started using My Fitness Pal. I am not much of a calorie counter, but I thought that I should probably start being more accountable to myself about what I'm actually putting in my body. It's a little addicting - it's amazing what is in their database (alas, no blackened mahi salad from Shula's, so I'm going to have to do some guesswork for my airport dinner). Trader Joe's ahoy! Most of my food comes from Trader Joe's these days, if I'm being completly honest. My wine too. Yum. 

Also yesterday I did some major weeding and potting and trimming back of the ginger that has taken over my back flower beds. I  faced a major fear of mine and hoisted up the chain saw to cut out some sprouting palms in the front yard (we have a giant multi-trunk palm tree in the front yard, and the middle was getting overrun with new sprouts). I'm scared to death of any instrument of cutting/pain infliction that runs on power other than arm power. So guns, chainsaws -- eek. Knives, I'm not so concerned (even though I've cut myself eight million times on knives, only little injuries! I swear!). It's my power driving the knife. I feel like I have more control over what will happen and am therefore less likely to seriously injure myself. 

You see where this is going, right? 

Well, okay, I didn't "seriously" injure myself, but I did accidentally cut into the power cord while trimming palm stems, sending sparks flying and nearly harming myself, the tree, and possibly our electrical whatevers. I stopped in time and C spliced the cord back together making it possible for me to finish the trimming uneventfully. Somehow in all of that I also bruised my ring finger, and it's now a little swollen. I had to twist my engagement ring off as it's tighter than my wedding ring and was starting to get painful. Hopefully that gets better tomorrow.

And here comes my food! Hurray and bon a petit to me!

Books I read: April

reread:

24. Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Spear

25. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

26. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

27. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

28. Lost & Found - Chris Van Hakes

29. Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy (I have to say, his recent autobiography REALLY turned me off to his books. I suggest if you love Conroy's books, don't read Death of Santini. It will ruin it for you)

30. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

31. Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor

new:

18. Wounded - Lindsay Buroker There was nothing special about this book, which disappointed me because Lindsay is one of my favorite authors. However, she has such a gift for banter between the sexes - I wish I were that witty in real life.

19. Bitter Kingdom - Rae Carson I put this off because I had such a hard time remembering the storyline and I shouldn't have - I think it's the best in the series. Simply fabulous. And I'm so glad they stopped belaboring the point of her size. It stops mattering at some point, yes? (that was my only complaint about the first two books, and now I want to immediately reread them all)

20. Shadow Cats - Rae Carson This was a novella in the same world as Bitter Kingdom. It was good, but Bitter Kingdom was better.

21. Balanced on the Blade's Edge - Lindsay Buroker Again, she's so good with banter. This was back to the fantasy that she's so fantastic at. Not quite as good as the EE books, but a very promising start to a new series.

22. The Witch's Daughter - Paula Brackston Once I got past the diary style of this, I thought it was very good and very well written. Good.

23. Republic - Lindsay Buroker Now this was what I was waiting for. I'll read about these characters gladly for the rest of my life.

24. Bread & Wine - Shauna Niequist Not what I was expecting; it was a little more religious than I'm comfortable with reading, and I'm not such for essays, but it was excellent writing and I felt genuinely choked up several times. It was very good, and if a little preachy doesn't turn you off (it's not necessarily in a bad way, just more constant than I was expecting) I think you would really really enjoy this book.

Odds and Ends

- My very favorite shoes have a hole in the toe and it’s causing me great distress. They are not the type of shoes that can be resoled, so I think I might have to get rid of them and man, I hate that. They are so very perfect. Michelle D, red patent leather flats with white stitching and white rubber soles. I wear them endlessly … until now. It’s a very sad day.

- Maybe it’s because of my anguish, but I cut my bangs last night. Why on earth I am so scared to find a new stylist since mine moved I don’t know, and furthermore I don’t know why I think I could do a better job on my bangs than a real stylist no matter WHAT their abilities. But it’s done, and I have bangs again. They aren’t super even but not scary choppy so I’ll leave them. When they grow out a little maybe I’ll go for a real cut (shudder).

- I love when I give myself the time to pack breakfast for myself. Yesterday I scavenged at my desk and had some roasted coconut chips and dried mandarin oranges and yeah, not great. Both of those things: fabulous for snacking. Not so much for an actual meal. Today I have hot tea, strawberries, the last of my homemade banana bread and a string cheese. It’s so much more relaxing to have a quick bit in the morning with my tea and type this up real quick and then move on to a very busy workday.

- Last week I bought something from a Facebook sponsored post. As a matter of fact I bought two – two bracelets, one for me and one for my mom. I felt like a chump but I liked them, and they came in yesterday and I really like mine:

My mom’s is slightly different, and I think it suits her as well. It’s her mother’s day present so it’s waiting at my house for when she watches the boys over that weekend. She’ll cry. I know her – she’ll cry.

- The Daughter of Smoke and Bone books came in from the ebook library, so I know what I’m doing for every spare second of the next few days.

- I ran ONE TIME last week. I’m shooting for twice this week.

Of monkeys, throat crud and bubbles

It’s Friday and I think I’m coming down with the crud, but I can’t seem to do anything about that except suck on orangemints and drink hot tea, so you’ve got me. Except I don’t know what to write about, only that I want to write. What do you want to know?

A while back when we went to the carnival, Henry won a monkey beanie baby that he has since been obsessed with. Monkey goes everywhere, does everything. One day it came home from daycare with some weird white stuff on it that I couldn’t get off. I tried lint brushes and vacuums, picking pieces off individually – nothing worked. So finally, even though the tag said “spot clean”, I threw the sucker in the washer. On delicate.

Big mistake. Huge.

So since then monkey has been falling apart and the little plastic beads have been dropping out at an alarming rate. I sewed up one hole I found it its neck and then there was another on his back. It just seemed a losing battle, so finally we ordered a new one. It came Thursday, and was not a big hit. His words still caught in his throat when he talked about old monkey. ‘Where is monkey?’ ‘This monkey is different. His tail is different.’ (same exact monkey except new, mind you) ‘What do you mean this is monkey’s brother?’ ‘did you put MONKEY IN THE GARBAGE????’ (mild hysteria followed; monkey has not been thrown away, he is in the top of my closet in case the changeover ultimately doesn’t work.)

I spent the evening encouraging new monkey snuggles, and at night he took him to bed with him. I didn’t see how he felt about him this morning but I hope that new monkey will replace old monkey in his heart. I hate to see him so heartbroken. I might be spending tonight trying to fix up old monkey.

Also, there were bubbles yesterday.

(I love this one because you can also see Henry's reflection in the bubble next to him)