What I'm doing right now would absolutely put Calvin to sleep, but it doesn't seem to be working on me. I'm sitting on the couch, and after a futile attempt at finding something watchable on TV, I am now listening to Symphony No. 36 in C Major by Amadeus on Sirius' classical music channel. I've brewed a cup of tea, which is cooling to a drinkable temperature next to me. The window beside me is open, and the sprinklers just went off in the back yard. I guess Calvin forgot to turn them off last night like he was going to - we got quite a bit of rain. It smells wonderful coming in on a slight movement of air.

We went to bed near to 1:00, after watching "Birth" with Nicole Kidman (which was quite the strange movie). I tossed and "doy"-ed until after 3:00, then moved to the living room so I could quit bothering Calvin. Marie has finally moved back up to her bedroom - she went on a cleaning fit yesterday from the time she got up until after dinner. She brought down a bag of clothes she no longer wears, for donation. She cleared out a bunch of pack-ratty items that she no longer uses. She dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned her bathroom. Her closet looks like it belongs to Imelda Marcos - she's got the only walk-in closet in the house, and her 27 pairs of shoes ("that I wear, there are more!") are lined up like soldiers across the entire floor.

Wow. Symphony No. 36 is really long.

We got a lot of stuff done yesterday - I got all the laundry folded, this week's and last week's. We wiped down and dusted the whole house, and swept the floors. I took the area rugs outside and scrubbed them down with carpet cleaner. I cleaned off the patio furniture out back. Calvin cleaned our entire bedroom (like father like daughter?). I washed almost all of the bedding.

Today we've got a dump run, mopping the floors, detailing the kitchen, and making the beds for the kids' visit. Calvin wanted to do the back yard, but I think the grass is going to be too wet for it. Yeah, like his heart will break. We'll probably do some straightening up in the garage - we bought a storage shed (by Arrow, the same brand that Home Depot sells, for $200 less) so we could put away the overflow stuff that wouldn't fit into the Cabinets From Hell. And we've got to do a major grocery shopping trip. Really major.

Hey Heather! Don't let me forget to take the movies back!

Huge congratulations to Sherry and George, who are expecting a little someone to be a companion to Hayley! Amanda, I bet this is going to make it so much harder for you to move.

Finally. Symphony No. 36 is over, and we're on to Fantasia para un Gentilhombre by Joaquin Rodrigo. Pretty tame, if this is supposed to be a musical representation of a gentleman's fantasy. I do love acoustic guitar, though.

It's 5:30, and it's starting to get light outside. It looks like the vines on the back yard wall survived all the wind from last night. The Charlie Brown vine has more flowers on it than leaves. Our first attempt at maintaining and growing a rose bush doesn't seem to be too successful at this point, though. Such a sad, droopy little plant. I shall name it Eeyore. Because we have to name all the underdog plants in the yard. I would name it Marvin, but nobody in the house would get it.

Man, the birds are singing fit to be tied this morning. Must be some good worms out there. I expect to hear the regular morning visit of the metalpecker on our chimney any moment, now. Sounds like a damned machine gun going off in our All Tile All The Time house.

Why are all these classical songs so long?

My neck is KILLING me. It hurts to look in any direction other than straight ahead - which is one of the reasons that I couldn't sleep. I am so. tired. of my back and neck and shoulders hurting all the time. ALL the time. It never stops. I still see my massage therapist on occasion, but she's moved to California and only comes back to AZ one weekend a month for her clients (she rocks, she's so nice). I think the only way to cure me would be to have a session with her three times a week for the next year.

I have been absolutely not hungry for weeks and weeks. I think it's the meds. I'll eat yogurt for breakfast, three bites of a sandwich for lunch, and still not feel like dinner at night. This is taking a toll on my metabolism, I know. And providing for a decided lack of energy, which means I'm not motivated to work out. Which also draws my energy down. No movement = lack of hunger. It's a vicious circle. The upside, of course, is a bit of weight loss, which isn't breaking my heart one little bit. But I'm still disinclined to wear sleeveless shirts - there's no tone to my arms at all.

And now to completely flip-flop on my above statement, I think I'm going to go make some peanut butter toast. And put something on the TV other than Overture to a Picaresque Comedy. Who odes to any comedy, Picaresque or otherwise, I ask you? Well, apparently Arnold Bax does.

According to dictionary.com:

pic·a·resque adj

1. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers.
2. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.

Huh. You learn something new every day.

Posted by Laura at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Comments

• Fold laundry from last week
  
• Do laundry from this week
  
• Dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, de-cluttering
  
• Wash all the bedding and re-make three beds
  
• Grocery shopping. A lot of grocery shopping. For (in no particular order):
  
  
  
  • Meatloaf
    
  • Garlic chicken
    
  • Stuffed shells
    
  • Hamburgers
    
  • Steak
    
  • Chicken and potato skillet
    
  • Chicken and noodles with gravy
    
  • Shrimp scampi
    
  • Roast for home made chimis
    
  • Some other stuff I can't think of right now and am too lazy to go check on the kitchen calendar
    
  
  
• Home Depot run
  
• Help Calvin in the back yard
  
• Homework
  

The kids get here late tomorrow, and Calvin and I are taking Monday off. Marie can't wait to babysit, and Michael and Lilly can't wait to have a night out on the town with us, so that works out pretty well.

Our new kitchen table gets here on Monday. Then Calvin has to put it together.

We've almost convinced ourselves to get another puppy. We looked at ads for Boston Terrier/Pug mixes, and Beagle/Pug (Puggle!) mixes.

The sun is shining, it's in the low 80's, and I'm going outside to take pictures.

Posted by Laura at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments

My company recently went public (with full-force advertising) with a major product introduction that I played a key part in developing. It seems weird to see it lauded on TV and in tech journals. And kind of cool.

Of course, I didn't get any recognition at all for it at work, but I'm used to that. In fact, I expect it. At least it keeps me humble.

Posted by Laura at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

The kids "plus guest" are supposed to arrive this weekend, bearing grandbabies. At least, that's the plan for the moment, as it's changed several times in the past week.

So, I guess Michael and Lilly and the babies will occupy Michael's old room, and I'll put a mattress down in the weight room for their friend, who is coming with them. Somehow I need to convince Marie that she needs to start sleeping in her room again, instead of (still) the hide-a-bed in the living room.

My next entry will probably be quite picture heavy, as I need to share how bloomy the back yard is, what a great fruit salad Calvin made the other night, and how big the babies have grown.

Oh! And in the interest of making Calvin stop snarking about how I will post all about his mix CD track list (see April 11th entry), but nothing of the instances in which I have caused my own chagrin, I will now tell you the sordid tale of a big mistake I made recently.

I bid on an iPod in an on-line auction at Overstock.com. I won, and paid $250 for a 40GB (retail $399). I was completely geeked and promptly downloaded iTunes on my laptop to begin the loading of the music (see entries on April 1st and 5th).

A couple of days after the auction, I went back to the seller's site to check on something. To my dismay, I found that they had been "disabled". Seems other bidders had complained that they sent the money to the seller, who never sent the item to the winner of the auction for said item.

Me included. So I'm out $250 because I sent a personal check. Which is the part that Calvin wants me to especially point out to you. I didn't think it was a big deal - private sellers often don't have PayPal or credit card setups. But he thought this was an incredibly stupid move on my part, and upon reflection, I know now that won't do that again.

But I did this time. So there it is. I paid well for a hard-won lesson, and can now never, ever mention how badly I want an iPod, ever again.

Scammers are mean.

Posted by Laura at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments

Calvin - "Did the Dow do any better now that they've elected a new Pope?"
Laura - "They elected a new pope?"
Calvin - "Yeah, some Italian guy, I think."
Laura - "They're all Italian guys."
Calvin - "Well, the last one was Polish."
Marie - "Wait, I thought the Pope has to be Catholic?"

Posted by Laura at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

See this here page? I did some tweaking to the font type and size to see if I could make it more readable. Now what I want to be able to do is have the text span the width of the text area of the page, instead of staying off to the right, once the reader scrolls down past the bottom of the text in the sidebar. Like what I was able to do at Colloquial - although you can't tell on the page that's displayed over there right now - you'd have to look at an archived entry to see longer text whose margins widen down past the sidebar.

I looked through Colloquial's template code, and couldn't tell what was added to enable it to do that. Does anybody out there know?

Am I making any sense at all?

Posted by Laura at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ah, my dear, darling, wonderful, wacky husband. On Saturday (or was it Friday?) night, in a fit of (buzzed) boredom, he decided to make a mix CD. I sat on the bed, loading music CD's into my iTunes library on my laptop, singing along and (sometimes) laughing at his song choices. Mind you, I think it's a cool mix, if rather nostalgic. Long time readers will recall that I have nothing whatsoever against nostalgia. So, for your entertainment, I bring you:

Calvin's Mix of Nostalgic Buzzy Goodness

• Track 1: Sunrise (trance version) Orig. Simply Red, remix Arctic Trance
  
• Track 2: Little Miss Dangerous - Ted Nugent
  
• Track 3: Heartbeat - Don Johnson (I kid you not, he's still getting way razzed for this one.)
  
• Track 4: She's Like the Wind (trance version) Orig. Patrick Swayze, remix Phonkillaz
  
• Track 5: You Spin Me Right Round (trance version) Dead or Alive
  
• Track 6: Baby I Love Your Way - Big Mountain
  
• Track 7: She's Like the Wind - original Patrick Swayze from "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack
  
• Track 8: Out of Touch - Hall and Oates
  
• Track 9: I Can't Go For That - Simply Red
  
• Track 10: You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - The Righteous Brothers (we saw Top Gun again (for the zillionth time) recently)
  
• Track 11: Method of Modern Love - Hall and Oates
  
• Track 12: Adult Education - Hall and Oates
  
• Track 13: Just Remember I Love You - Firefall
  
• Track 14: Dance With Me - Orleans
  
• Track 15: Strange Way - Firefall
  
• Track 16: Dance With Me again, see above, "buzzed" (razz).
  
• Track 17: Last I've Seen of my Heart - Firefall
  
• Track 18: Dirty Diana - Michael Jackson
  

I'm thinking Firefall and Hall and Oates take him back to Jr. High School dances.

As for iTunes, I highly recommend it as a music organization tool. It works directly with the iPod, so that's why I downloaded it and started loading up the CD's, in anticipation of receiving my new toy (some day). It tells me that, as of right this second, I have 1.5 days of listening pleasure stored on my laptop, which translates to 527 songs and 2.05 GB.

Wicked.

I especially enjoy the "Party Shuffle" feature, which chooses random songs from all of my playlists and plays them in no particular order. Once I've listened to one song, it's taken off the list, to be replaced with another random song. So, even just listening on my laptop with my headphones, sans iPod, it's still a pretty handy program.

Some albums I've loaded so far (not exhaustive):

Aerosmith - Big Ones
Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
Bee Gees - Greatest Hits
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Boston - Greatest Hits
Bryan Adams - So Far So Good
Cake - Comfort Eagle
Collective Soul - Collective Soul -and- Disciplined Breakdown
Def Leppard - Hysteria
Psychadelic Furs - World Outside
Varsity Blues Soundtrack
50 Cent - The Massacre
Journey - Essential Journey
LL Cool J - The Definition
Van Halen - Best Of
K.C. and the Sunshine Band - Best Of
Simon and Garfunkel - Live in Central Park
Phil Collins - Serious Hits Live -and- Dance into the Light
Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
Robert Plant - Now and Zen -and- Manic Nirvana
Pink - Mizzunderstood
Metallica - Load
INXS - Live Baby Live
George Michael - Ladies and Gentlemen...
U2 - Joshua Tree
The Police - Every Breath You Take
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Lenny Kravitz - 5

I haven't even scratched the surface. As Simon wrote on his bedroom door in "Love, Actually", "Music is my life!" Well, a pretty big part of it, anyway.

Posted by Laura at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

It's a beautiful day here. Low 70's, breezy, not a cloud in the sky. The lawn is greening up beautifully, and I often pause in my surfing/typing to stare out the window.

We threw all the doors and windows open to the weather, which mandated that we lock the cat up so he doesn't escape (every time I say or type "escape", I think of Finding Nemo - 'eh-scah-pay'). I opened up the large sliding window in the weight room, which is Oz's favorite perch when we let him in there. As soon as he heard me unlocking the door (which we lock because he can open any door, at any time) he came running. No chasing him around this day. I let him slip in and closed the door. For about three minutes I think he felt like he got away with something. Then he noticed that the door was shut... and further, that it was locked.

Commence with the yowling.

Solution: turn up the stereo and ignore him.

Calvin and I struggled with "Chuck" - formerly the little "Charlie Brown tree", for a bit. The designation of "Charlie Brown" has now passed to one of the bower vines that's slower to grow than the rest. All the vines along the wall have reached one another and have started twining together, like they're holding hands. Just little Charlie Brown remains to connect with his brethren. When he does, though, and the tendrils thicken, the back wall is going to look "bad ass", to quote Michael.

Anyway, Chuck. He was originally slow to start growing (hence "Charlie Brown tree", referring to the little lonely Christmas tree Charlie Brown saved in the Christmas special), but he's now going along like gangbusters. Except for the whole growing off to the side thing, instead of straight up. So we looped a wire with one of those rubber thingies that prevents harm to the tree, high up and pulled to the side, to try to convince him to grow straight. I climbed up on one of the bar stools and literally hugged the tree, while Calvin pulled from below to get the wires to reach the stake in the ground. "Pull it toward me! Lean!" "I am leaning!" And thusly the tree was duly straightened.

I took care of two unsavory chores that I've been putting off forever - I won't get into it, but let's just say that they're the effects of owning a cat, and of having long hair.

And now Calvin's at the computer and I'm on the bed with my laptop. Calvin's on the phone with Michael, who is also having an uneventful day. Marie is out getting her truck washed, and we're having homemade grilled gourmet hamburgers (the word "burgers" just doesn't do justice here) for dinner. The cat has finally shut the hell up, since I let him out of the weight room and fed him. Except now he's running around like a hellion - I have no idea what gets a burr up his ass sometimes.

Such is our Saturday so far.

Posted by Laura at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments

Three wonderful words describe my favorite time of the day. Twilight is of the Dutch "tweelicht" and the German "zwielicht," which translates as "half" light, and "a holding together, or junction." Evening is a turn on the Old English word "æfen," which referred to the "day before a saint's day or festival." It evolved from its original meaning to the use it enjoys today. Gloaming is formerly "glomung", a Proto-Germanic word combining "glom", meaning "twilight," and also related to "glowan", which means "to glow."

All three words conjure peace and coolth, crickets and fireflies. A slowing and relaxing. Transition from life as we have to conduct it, to life as we want to live it.

Don't you just love language?

I love the long, cool evenings that Arizona supplies at this time of year. I am at present lounging on a lounge (gasp!) chair on the patio. I am near the open door to the bedroom, in order to be within proximity of Calvin (who is on the computer); and also to be able to hear the 80's music coming from Sirius. Calvin just turned the bedroom light off, and suddenly I am in near-darkness. If someone looked over the back wall, it would probably look like I was a bodyless head, hovering over the chair, visible only by the glow of my monitor, body lost in shadow.

Calvin and I just got back from TGI Friday's patio, where we sat next to one another, my feet in Calvin's lap, sipping beer and watching the world drive by (the patio is near the plaza entrance from a main road). I love watching the changing light on Calvin's face, whether he's animatedly chatting, smiling with his eyes into mine, or sitting pensive and quiet. White and stark against his skin at first, the light softens slightly to yellow, changing more perceptively to gold and then moments later to rose, gentling into coral, and finally fading into sepia before the final darkening.

As I often do, I watched Calvin this evening. He'd catch me watching and duck his head, or stare back and say, "What?" It doesn't disturb him as much as it used to in the beginning, when he didn't know quite what to do with my habit of sitting, chin in hand, just watching the play of character across his face. Tonight, his eyes alternated between distant and lost in thought, or glowing green and loving as he engaged my eyes, talking and listening.

The sharpness of his features smoothed as the light changed, drawing my attention from face to voice. To his hand tucked up under the cuff of my jeans, massaging for the skin-on-skin contact. To his voice drawing nearer and sending chills up the nape of my neck as he leaned in for a kiss. To the smell of his cologne mixed with the scent that is all his own.

This time of year reminds me of when he and I first started seeing each other. Which is why I wax poetic. Eight years and I'm still madly in love with him. He still gives me butterflies. I love to gift him with the more traditional "three little words" a thousand times a day.

Calvin, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you.

Posted by Laura at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments

Thanks to the generosity of the worldwide readers and supporters and strangers who just wanted to help, Rob, Julie, and Schuyler have met their goal, and now have the amount needed for Schuyler's "Big Box 'O Words".

(The link is to his "current" entry, so if you happen to click on it beyond the 8th, the entry is for April 7th.)

This is just the neatest thing I've ever seen. In four weeks, over ten thousand dollars was raised. Wicked.

Posted by Laura at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments

In my morning meeting, it was announced that my Very Loud Neighbor is moving to Colorado. To which I responded with, "Really! Oh, that's such... very sad, unfortunate news."

My manager replied, "Yeah, well, we'll still be able to hear her from there."

Really. She honestly is THAT loud.

Posted by Laura at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments

To quote CNN's article: Shuttle rollout to launch pad on hold - Apr 6, 2005:

"A crack in the space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank could delay today's scheduled rollout of the shuttle to the launch pad. Mission managers are trying to decide whether to fix the crack before moving the shuttle to the pad. Discovery is scheduled for launch no earlier than May 15."

Why is it they're always finding major things - like a CRACK IN THE FUEL TANK - right before conducting something major? Like moving the shuttle to the launch pad? Or, you know, launching it? How is it that for the weeks and months preceeding these major events, these things go unnoticed?

I ask you.

Also, I'm sure it wasn't intended thusly, but it seems to me that this comment and the statement that follows are in poor taste:

"Discovery's launch will be NASA's first manned space flight since Columbia.

"We understand from an engineer's standpoint that [the shuttle] is a developmental vehicle and will be until the last flight," said LeRoy Cain, the NASA flight director who oversaw Columbia's abortive re-entry."

Last flight of a "developmental" shuttle, because its final mission includes blowing up?!? Can we please exit from the "development" stage before launch? Thank you.

"Since then, Discovery has had 286 modifications, including 41 recommended by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board..."

286 modifications that I'm sure they fully investigated, tested, documented, and proofed before implementing.

Also causing concern is this:

"Discovery will even perform a pirouette in view of the international space station to inspect its delicate underbelly. As a last resort, a second shuttle will stand by on the ground in a rescue mission is needed."

Brr. Really, they should never, ever use the words "last resort" and "rescue mission" when talking about the shuttle program. Yeah, I'm sure they have everyone's safety and security in mind as their first priority:

"The CAIB said NASA's intolerance for dissent, relaxed safety standards, tightened budget and slipshod management all contributed to the [Columbia] disaster."

Excellent. I mean, I'm a big fan of the space program and think that it has benefited the world in many ways, not the least of which are really, really cool pictures of galaxies. But this article does not resound with confidence and reassurance.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Posted by Laura at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments

Here's the first complaint I have about my new digs at work. One of my cubicle neighbors is REALLY REALLY LOUD WHEN SHE'S ON THE PHONE. Like, obnoxiously loud. Unbelievably loud. I can't believe she doesn't know just how very, very loud she is.

Wow.

Posted by Laura at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

Another day at home, but I'm improved enough that I'm confident that I'll go to work tomorrow.

Still geeked about my iPod, which should be here at the beginning of next week. I'm a little trepidatious, though, what with all the quirks and weirdness they can have, which I've been reading about on various places around the net. Anybody out there have their own iPod experiences that they'd like to share with me?

Calvin says he's going to hook up our other (tired, sad, under-technologized) PC to use as a music storage receptacle. I don't want to store all my music on my laptop hard drive, but I do want to store it somewhere in case the iPod crashes. If I have to re-transfer hundreds of CD's because something wonky happened, I'm going to be pissed.

I bought Cake's "Comfort Eagle" CD in anticipation of iPoddy goodness. Mostly for "Short Skirt/Long Jacket", which is one of my favorite songs by them. I wish they'd come out with a Hits CD, since not all of their songs go over well with me. I have "Fashion Nugget", on which my favorites are "Going the Distance", and "I Will Survive". "Prolonging the Magic" has "Never There" and "Walk On By", so I'll probably buy the CD just for those two songs. I haven't heard anything off of their latest album (I don't think), "Pressure Chief", but I'll probably buy that, too. Maybe the rest of the material will grow on me - certainly I know it takes more than one listen, with Cake, which is not the case for all artists.

I got a Ben Folds Five CD, too - "Whatever and Ever, Amen." I bought "Rocking the Suburbs" ages ago and love it to death, so it's weird that it took me this long to get another one. Maybe I'm afraid it'll not be as good as "Suburbs", and will reduce the band in my eyes? Feh, silliness.

We're holding dinner tonight until a bit after 9:00, which is when Marie gets home from work. Then we will grill up some T-bones and taters, and watch "Sideways" and/or "Spanglish". Since Marie's ex-boyfriend strikes a terrifying resemblance to Adam Sandler, we may go with "Sideways". She hasn't gone out with anyone who looks like Thomas Haden Church, so I think we'll be safe.

Calvin is outside puttering in the rapidly-greening back yard, with the misters on, drinking a beer. It sounds like a very appealing idea, so I think I'll join him!

Posted by Laura at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments

Goodie. My annual "Feel Like Shit, Stay Home and Sleep All Day" illness has hit. I went to bed at around 11:00 last night, after watching Finding Neverland (yes, I bawled - if you saw it, you did too. if you haven't seen it, you will bawl. oh yes, you will). I woke up at around 6:30 this morning, stayed conscious long enough to e-mail my boss, and passed out again until 11:30. I called Calvin, sat outside for a few minutes to try to clear my head, failed miserably, came back inside and slept again until after 5:00.

I hate it when this happens. It completely screws up my internal clock. Like dealing with the first day of Daylight Savings Time, on the "fall forward" end. In Maine, when that happens, the sun comes up at 7:30 and goes down at 4:00. The first day of that kind of schedule sucks. I don't know how folks in Alaska deal with entire months of darkness.

The wind is whipping like a mutha, and the pollen count is off the charts here in AZ today, which is probably why I feel so miserable. Allegra is not strong enough in the face of a full-blown desert spring. The pollen is, I don't know, meaner than back east. It sticks harder, or something. It figures, even spring in this place has a hostile element.

I was actually a little sorry to miss work - I'm still enthused about it, and I want to enjoy that feeling while it lasts. I must have missed something today, because I found as I was checking my e-mail this evening that one of the other newbies to the group sent out a message that simply said, "I'm so glad I took this job! I love you guys!" Now there's a guy who's in touch with his softer side.

Saturday and Sunday of last weekend were every bit as nice as Friday night was. Saturday we (all three of us, for once!) drove up to Scottsdale and had lunch at The Salty Senorita. Then we went to the mall and hung out at Kona Grill for a couple of drinks. Marie headed off with some friends (a good sign that she's recovering from her heartache), and Calvin and I held the couch down for the rest of the night and watched movies.

You know, I had my camera with me all weekend long and I completely forgot to use it. I want to get in the habit of photographing our adventures, but I can't exactly do that if it's in my purse.

Sunday, after a very late start (like, 2:00), we finally got ourselves out of the house and went to Rock Bottom for a late lunch/early dinner. After steaks, burgers, salads, and a massive beer "sampler" (sample my ass, that was enough for three people to get drunk on), the three of us went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for some domestic purchases. Then home again, where Calvin promptly fell asleep on the couch, and Marie and I hung out in my bedroom to gab while I folded clothes.

Another exciting weekend in the life that managed to make all of us perfectly happy and content.

We heard from Lilly on Saturday and Michael on Sunday. Michael had been away for a week-long training gig for urban warfare. Basically cops and robbers - Michael got to be one of the "bad guys". And then he came home so enthused and pumped up that he wanted to join the next deployment to Iraq. Because he had "so much fun". I hope he regains his senses in time to recall that training is vastly different from actual warfare.

Lilly and Michael are driving to Texas for Lilly's sister's high school graduation, and plan to stop in AZ for a quick visit. So we'll FINALLY have some updated pictures of the babies. It's insane that we haven't slapped eyes on Devlin since he was less than two months old. And Anthony is starting to talk, and his personality is developing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis. I hate that we're missing so much.

Sorry for the dull meta-ness of this entry. I blame it on the fact that I can't hear. I can't be witty and interesting with a congested head.

Posted by Laura at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

I'm still alive.

Calvin and I hung out at Daisy Duke's tonight. It's a place down in the college district that has two buildings - one that's "Daisy"-centric, girly with salads and light sandwiches and wine coolers; and one that's "Dukes"-centric, manly with comfy couches and sports, meatloaf sandwiches and tater tots. A large outside patio seating area encompasses all, and we sat and watched the college world go by, and sang along to 80's songs.

We had such a good time. Sitting and laughing and kissing and making fun of the college squids who think they're so grown up. I got "ma'am-ed", though, which is never fun.

I continue to be amazed that Calvin and I enjoy each other's company so much. Still. It never gets boring, sitting and sipping beer and conversing about everything. It's really cool to be married to your best friend. It's like a never-ending sleepover.

We bought some new CD's - Ben Folds and Cake and Kelly Clarkson and Judas Priest and 50 cent and LL Cool J. The checkout dude "ma'am-ed" me too, and I asked him, "Okay, how old do I look to you?" "Uh... uh... 28? 29?" Feh. Then we stopped at Applebee's on the way home, to hit the bathroom and scarf a shot each. Calvin had tequila, and nuts-and-berries for me (Chamboard and Bailey's).

At home, we put on the new CD's and blasted them until Marie came home from work, then we continued to blast them until we got tired of that and decided to watch movies. On the lineup is Finding Neverland, Closer, Shark's Tale, Bridget Jones II (ih, but why not), and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Which we've seen before, but Calvin wants to see what it looks like on the Big Mammoth TV.

I bid on and won a 40GB iPod on Overstock.com's auction area. Paid much less than retail, and I'm completely geeked about being able to store my entire CD collection on something that's smaller than a cigarette pack. Now to get an external hard drive, a cable to connect it to the stereo in the living room, and a car converter kit. Calvin is a leeeetle bit derisive, but I know he'll love it as soon as he realizes that we can take our entire CD collection with us on road trips, in this tiny thing.

The new job is going along swimmingly. Everyone is very kind and helpful, and I've been to one luncheon and two team building events in my first week, with another luncheon scheduled for next week. In the "mission" for the department, the first three words are "Develop our people...". That just knocked me on my ass, I was so astonished. My boss sent me home before 3:00 this afternoon, and when I asked why, he said, "We always go home early on Fridays."

Love. I actually look forward to going to work in the morning. And starting next month, I can telecommute on Fridays. I have a butt-load of training to do, but I'm actually enthusiastic about it. Who knew.

I got an A in my Business Law class, with my thirteen page report on Modern Piracy receiving good feedback from the professor. Next up is Human Resources Management, with a weekend intensive on the Indian culture in May. Some day, I will be done.

I managed to piss off a surprising number of the members of the TUS community lately. Of all things, I never expected it to be me who filled the role of shit-stirrer over there. From what the posts and personal messages I've received have to say, I'm very irritating and don't have very good communication skills. Oh! And I'm "clueless". Funny, I've been posting there for quite a long time, and I seem to have just become irritating over the past week. So. I'm taking a break until I'm less irritating and can converse clearly. I'm willing to believe that I could improve upon my on-line persona and clarity in expressing myself in writing. But. Still. I feel a little ganged-up-upon. You know me when it comes to confrontation. I'm just not good at it. A couple of very nice people have dropped some very nice, supportive notes to me, though. So that's nice.

Marie has been having a simply awful time over the past couple of weeks. She and her boyfriend broke up. He just doesn't "feel the same" about her anymore. Which pretty much made her feel unloved, unwanted, and completely terrible. She's cried over the past couple of weeks in a manner that I've never seen her cry before. She won't sleep in her bedroom - she wants to sleep on the hide-a-bed in the living room to be closer to "other living beings" in the house. This is the "first love" that she's going to recall for the rest of her life - she's wrapped her complete life and identity around this kid. This is the lesson that we all have to learn when we're young - love and excitement and loss and hurt and loneliness and recovery. I wish there had been an easier way to teach Marie these lessons. It's awful to see her so upset and not be able to do anything but reassure her that it will be better some day, her life isn't over at 16, and she will indeed find someone else to love again.

God. I wouldn't go back to being a teenager for anything in the world.

She's doing pretty good tonight, though - chatting with Calvin and singing along (now) to Journey. "Some day, love will find you!" So, I'm going to go spend some quality time with my favorite people. Have a good weekend, and thanks for hanging in there with me during my intermittent updates!

Posted by Laura at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments