Boo!

Happy Halloween everyone:-) I wore my awesome Fergie costume to work today...(kidding).

I have never been an enormous Halloween fan. I always like the candy, and I do like dressing up, but I always felt like costume parties were a little too much work than they were worth. I prefer to keep my dress-up to more private parties these days;-)

I have noticed that Munchkin has been a little less excited about Halloween this year, too. I guess that is a sign that she is growing up. In years past, I feel like the costume was conceptualized weeks in advance, and the whole evening required an enormous amount of planning. She is still fired up this year, but it wasn't an all-encompassing October event like maybe the last couple of years.

And I am amazed, as a lot of people in the blogosphere have written, at the sex-level of pre-teen girls' costumes. I don't mean to judge, but if you let your 12 year old girl leave the house in her underwear, you are not a very good parent, period. Luckily, Munchkin has no desire to dress like a hooker, and it will probably be pretty cold, so I had no costume issues. She and a couple of her friends are dressing up as pirates. Not exactly Pirates of the Caribbean, but close, or as she says "Pirates, but you know, like cute girl pirates."

Also, she is going out to a friend's house in another town (this one, for those who care:-)) and they are now old enough to go out on their own. So, yes, I am a little bummed that I don't get to go this year:-( They certainly wouldn't care if I went (I am, after all, the coolest Mom in the sixth grade) but I sorta wish they still needed me to go.

OK, forget I said that, it is way too sappy...

I doubt we will get any trick-or-treaters, although if we sit on the stairs outside the front door of our building, we probably would. But the kids that are around (and there aren't a ton around here) won't come into the building and ring everyone's buzzer. And I am meeting some friends for dinner and drinks, so I won't be sitting on the steps anyway:-P

Anyone have any good costumes this year?

And...What Humps?!?! You are skinnier than me!!!

My topic today is Fergie. I have "Big Girls Don't Cry" stuck in my head because I heard it this morning, so she is front-of-mind.

Digression...does everyone else always have a song stuck in their head? I do...the song varies (although Mr. Brightside is still the default choice if nothing else comes up) but I always, always, always have a song in my head.

Anyway, back to Fergie. I don't get it...I try, but I am just missing something. That song is not bad, but she has had a string of hits that are just...well, awful! My Humps, London Bridge, Glamorous, Fergilicious...each one is more gimmicky and dumber than the last one! And seriously, you can't make up a new word out of your name...that is even worse than referring to yourself in the third person!

OK, so some of those are Black Eyed Peas songs and not just her, but I am holding her responsible. And that makes me wonder, why is she a star? Who is it who likes the silly gimmicky stuff enough to buy her music? Obviously a lot of people like her a whole lot more than I do, so I must be missing something. I generally just want to change the station everytime one of those songs comes on.

Is she hotter than I think she is? She has a great body, but she is not that pretty, and I don't feel like she is hot enough to be a star just because she is hot. Kind of like my reaction to Britney's fantasticly retched VMA performance...she looks great for someone with two kids, but for someone who wants to be a singer but can't sing and comes to the table with only a great dancers body and some seductive dance moves? Well, by that standard, she looks terrible.

If I just want to check out absurdly hot chicks, I can just read any of the fifty Victoria's Secret Catalogs that I get every month. And while we are on that subject...do we think the Devil is enjoying Allesandra Ambrisio's soul? She clearly sold it to look like that.

Okay, so I got a little sidetracked here...back to Fergie...what am I missing? Do people really like her music? Or just find it stupid and catchy enough to enjoy for a minute at a time...?

Sorry about that:-)

I see that my post of last Friday may have implied something I didn't intend it to...so for anyone expecting me to get engaged, sorry about that;-) And let's please not encourage him too much! You won't have to wait too terribly long on that, but I wouldn't count on it being before Thanksgiving...

However, since it will not likely be a huge surprise, I already asked him to not do anything too elaborate...if he asks that we go away for a weekend after New Years, it will kinda give away what he is up to. So it will likely come about on a night like this weekend...not out of the blue in the grand sense, but surprising in the moment it happens. Moving on...

As for Aaron complaining that last Thursday's post was too...um...I believe the word was "gag"..., should I point you to your own blog and its never-ending stream of kissy-face pictures:-P Heck, there is a picture of the two of you making out underneath a waterfall!!! Glass houses, my man!!! I don't have a monopoly on "sentimental"...

I am feeling a little bit loopy today. I think I am over tired because I stayed up to watch the Red Sox last night (or because my brain is still scrambled from a total orgasm-fest yesterday afternoon:-D). They won...yay for them!!! Honestly, I thought people would be a little more nuts about it around here, but maybe they spent a lot of their emotion and energy when they won last time...or maybe all the fun is in the chase:-)

The brief warm spell is gone...Munchkin got to wear her new coat today...and gloves since it was downright cold. Man, I hate winter. She can also wear it to Chicago this weekend, because we are taking a little swing home to see friends and family. One of her old friends is having a birthday party, so it will be nice for her to get back and see all the kids she used to be so close with:-) I hope that isn't weird for her...things change fast...

Give 'em Hell Devils!

Sorry for being a lazy blogger yesterday...but few people read on weekends, so I don't feel terrible about missing one. I have no good excuse; it rained in the morning, so Munchkin's soccer game was cancelled and we did some cleaning and "seasonal clothes rotation" stuff (i.e., put away the summer stuff and take out the winter stuff).

We also skipped out on the fall festival thing because of the weather. It may have even been cancelled...I am not sure. She needed a new kinda-dressy coat, which allowed me to reach a valuable realization: we can totally share clothes:-) OK, so I am a little upset about the fact that she is already as tall as me and she is only 12 years old and I am simply searching for a silver lining.

Well we went shopping and found her a really cute wool coat at The Gap. And my first thought was "Hmm...kind of expensive for a coat she will not wear a ton," until I remembered that I will totally borrow it from her, and then it seemed completely reasonable! Also, this was after I saw three GORGEOUS things at Burberry that were like $1,000, so I guess everything would seem reasonable. Of course, it was way too warm for either of us to wear her new coat...this weather is weird.

I took her over to her friend's house in the late afternoon, and then it was date night:-) As mentioned, I was instructed to dress up a little bit, but not given any more details. Really there was no special occasion, just dinner at one of my very favorite restaurants. And he looked super cute all dressed up and brought flowers when he came to get me:-)

Sort of a funny run-in at the restaurant. On our way to our table, we passed a guy that I know through work...he is essentially one of our big investors. And I think he was kinda drunk, because he was like super friendly, and sent an almost-uncomfortably-expensive bottle of wine to our table. I don't really even know him that well, but I guess it was just well enough to not have it be too overly weird. He was with a much younger woman and a couple about his age...trying to impress a younger date maybe? Not sure, but I do know it meant we didn't have to buy drinks:-D

Dinner was excellent, and the company was perfect! We had a great, quiet table (one downside of that place...it gets kinda loud) and had a lovely talk about millions of things. From there we went here for a drink and to hang out for a bit. I can't go a night without dessert, but I was stuffed, so we stopped here to get chocolate things to go:-)

The Red Sox were on, and they won:-) In addition, there was a VERY important football game (at least from a personal bragging rights perspective). Me: happy. The Boy: Not:-D But he put out anyway:-P

Munchkin was super grumpy this morning when I went over to pick her up...lol. They stayed up to watch the whole baseball game, so they were very late getting to sleep. The fresh air on the walk home helped a bit, but she went right in to take a nap and is still sleeping. I will let her sleep for a while so she can stay up a little later tonight for the Red Sox game, and then we can go out and get some lunch just to get out of the house for a bit. Maybe some fantasy home shopping, too:-)

Kind of a regular Sunday. She has some homework to do and I have some work, too. Smoking Hot Roommate is coming back at about 3:00 (she has been away again this weekend), so we can get all of our stuff done early in the afternoon, and then I can sneak off to The Boy's later on while they are watching the Patriots game:-)

Another Birthday

I was out all morning, so you get a special Friday afternoon post today. This will likely serve as an excuse to not post tomorrow...just a warning.

I have been in kind of a weird mood this morning. It is almost like my old Fall depression was back in sort of a limited scope. I used to get horribly depressed at this time of year when the days started getting shorter, and that would last right up until about Christmas. It went away pretty much when I moved to Arizona...when it is always warm, it is hard to tell when winter is coming;-)

But I feel like that again today...where everything is kind of sad. Seeing leaves falling and feeling the unmistakeably crisp fall air just gets me thinking about how long and dark and horrible winter is. The sun seems really low in the sky (it gets worse...) and it just feels, I dunno...like everything is dying. Hopefully this goes away soon.

Not a terribly exciting weekend, but it should be relaxing. Soccer tomorrow, last game of the year but Munchkin still can't play:-( She might play goalie for a little bit just so she can get on the field a bit...she is sorta bummed about missing the last couple games. Or maybe she will just want to sit with me and drink hot chocolate instead:-)

We are going to go to a festival kinda thing in the afternoon. Pumpkins, hayrides, random stuff like that. A bunch of her friends are going and we are joining them. There is also a beer tent, which explains why there are so may parents anxious to go:-)

The Boy and I have a date tomorrow night, but he won't tell me where we are going:-) But I am supposed to dress up a bit, so I am definitely intrigued by the mystery. As far as I know, there is no special occasion, so I am curious. Munchkin is staying at a friends house, so we have no curfew, which should be nice!

And finally, Happy Birthday to my favorite soon-to-be pretend brother in law:-) The Rocket Scientist turns 25 today, and I am reminded how much I adore him and always have. She and Smoking Hot Roommate are two halves of the same person, and we can all only hope to find people that match us as well as they do. He is tremendously genuine, caring, funny, loving and kind person, and I am lucky to know him!

I will leave you with one little note about him (since you have all probably had too much of my gushing tributes around here). SHR travels for work a lot, and has as long as she has had the job she has now. So, when I first moved out here, she was gone a lot...and well, I am a big baby sometimes. Which means that I would get scared and not want to stay by myself. But I could always count on the Rocket Scientist to come over and stay in her room, even when she wasn't there, and he did an excellent job of scaring away boogeymen, burglars and people trying to steal me:-)

So that is about it...he is super nice, even when it involves humoring crazy girl:-) Happy Birthday, buddy!!!

I did what?!?!

Only tepid response on the random politics questions, so I will leave them out there for another day or two and see if anyone else cares to chime in. Then I will move on to the next section of the discussion...unless no one cares, in which case I will drop it:-) So far there have been only a couple of comments and two private emails.

Munchkin went to the Red Sox game last night...are you all jealous? She went with a friend and her friend's father and uncle and I think I may have seen her on TV. Thankfully it was not a close game at all, so they were able to leave really early (they left after it was 13-1 in the fifth inning). If it had been closer, they would have stayed until the end and she would have been a very sleepy and grumpy kid today;-).

I should confess that I had a chance to go to the game tonight, but I am not going to. I know that sounds awful, but it is gonna be cold and I would have to find a sitter as well. I would rather have chicken fingers, then put on my jammies and watch from home:-) I will leave the ticket for someone who counts as a real, actual fan, and not just someone who lives with two of them.

Plus, I have to get going really early tomorrow for work stuff, so I would like to get to bed kind of early, too...sitting at the baseball park until 12:30 would not really fit in with that plan... I am sure I will get bombarded with curse words from the Red Sox fans that read here, but I am prepared for that...lol. I don't profess to be that big a fan:-) And before you ask, no, I can not give it to you...lol. I was invited, but it is not my ticket.

On that note, the warm weather is totally gone. It is really kind of raw today, and is going to get even colder tonight...shit, I hate fall:-( I think I should start planning warm winter getaways...that will cheer me up. Any ideas?

Munchkin and I (and hopefully The Boy, still up in the air) are going to Chicago next weekend. I haven't been out there in a LONG time...since before my father's family came out to visit last summer. I miss my little sister:-) I guess that sounds kind of odd since I really barely even know her, but I definitely miss her.

It will also be good to catch up with friends and family, too...I am feeling a bit out of touch with them all. BFFb has a new girl in the picture, which means I need to go out and pass judgement on her...lol (I get veto power, after all:-)). I am sure she is lovely, he generally associates himself with only the finest girls:-D

Chicken fingers tonight, and we will either go late so we can watch some of the game there, or go early so we can be home in time for Munchkin to do her homework before it starts. I think it will just be the two of us, tonight:-) Aren't we cute?

Look, I can be serious!!!

I am gonna totally switch gears here today, because that is the kind of mood that I am in (could be because I slept soundly after some seriously awesome, bed-rattling sex...OK, now I am really switching gears, promise).

The race for President in 2008 is beginning to heat up, and I want to poll the peanut gallery for some early thoughts. Truth be told, I am sort of a politics geek (I was a poli-sci major, after all, before I was corrupted by the evil, faceless Finance industry). Mostly, I like the sport of running for elections more than the power struggle amongst elected officials. Which means that a presidential election is kind of like a Super Bowl for me:-D

So...my thoughts.

First, there are like a trillion people running. The lack of an incumbent President or sitting Vice President in the race makes it more wide open than it has been since the early part of last century. CNN lists 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats currently running, and that doesn't include a couple that have already dropped out, and some others that may jump in. No matter how you cut it, that is a LOT of candidates.

On each side there are 3 or 4 people that are the really legit contenders, and maybe a couple other realistic long shots. So, even throwing out the complete crazies (like Tom "I think we should halt all immigration, legal and illegal, until such time as we no longer have to press 1 for English" Tancredo) there are probably 8 or 9 people that count as really, legitimate candidates.

The second great unknown factor in this campaign is the time frame. Many of the candidates declared at the beginning of 2007...a full 13 months before the first Primary, and 23 months before the election. Nobody in America has any experience running, funding, organizing, plotting or winning a campaign of that length, because it has never happened before. Is a lead in the polls now insurmountable? Maybe. Or maybe everything that the candidates do, say or spend before January 1 of 2008 is totally wasted because that is when voters begin paying attention. No one will know until the actual votes start to get tallied.

Third is the absolutely incredible amount of money that this will cost as compared to prior elections. In 1996, Bill Clinton shattered all kinds of fundraising records and drove the cost of the election to nearly $500 million. In 2000, George Bush completely reversed the fundraising gap and the cost went up even more. By 2004, the Democrats had caught up and the cost ran to about $1 billion. This election will be much more than that. Until the mid 1990's, $100 million was the total cost, front to back, of a winning presidential run. This year, several candidates will have raised that much by the end of 2007!

Again, maybe money equals votes...but maybe there is a diminishing return, and once you get past a certain point, all of the extra money doesn't do any good. We will all have to wait and see.

Another question is: what will be the really key issues of this election? Iraq will be one, although maybe not as big as some people think. Maybe if someone had any real interesting ideas worth discussing, but until then, it will remain a source of soundbites and little else.

"The economy" is always the overarching issue, although the discussion varies from year to year. It is not clear what it will look like this time around, although we can be sure that it will be ill-informed and full of half-truths. That, after all, is what politicians do best...thrive on the semi-understanding of issues.

Health care will be a huge issue, and hopefully there are some significant ideas on that. I was a little disappointed at the initial passes from the major candidates...there is little of substance. Especially the three leading Democrats...Clinton, Edwards and Obama...I would hope that one of them would offer a universal, single payer plan. I think it is a bad idea, but it has to be in the discussion. What they have offered is just more subsidies to prop up the same broken system.

And I am sure Social Security will come up, with every candidate tripping over themselves to give more and more free money to the elderly at the expense of the youth. To the people my own age, I say: this is what happens when you don't vote. If people between 18 and 27 voted in the numbers that senior citizens did and with the same regard for their personal interests, college would be free, the budget would be balanced and prescription drug makers wouldn't be getting whatever they wanted to provide an endless supply of arthritis drugs.

So where does that leave us? For the time being, I will withhold my opinions on my likes and dislikes of specific people in the race, other than to say that the people I like most are not really the front runners at this point. You can all feel free to tell us who you like and dislike, but mostly what I want to get at this point is;

1) What do you look for in a President? What traits, experience and characteristics do you value highly?
2) What issues are you basing your vote on next year? Or, if you can't vote, what issues would you? What is important to you or unimportant to you, and why?

A little clarification

It has come to my attention that one of the most important people in my life (and therefore "characters" in my blog) is somewhat misunderstood. So, I am going to take today to re-introduce you to Big Sis. My favorite older sister that I never had:-)

Sometimes I forget that people kind of join up along the way and don't get the entire back story all the time. And then I write things that should mean one thing but kind of mean another. It seems maybe this is one of those cases...there is a lot in those 319 posts I wrote in year 1, and I forget that few people have read them all. (Has anyone?)

So, I wrote this about her on her birthday last year, and I like it:-) That should help, and explains her credentials as a "muse", too...

For those of you that have joined sort of recently, here are the basics (and for my regular readers, sorry for the redundancy). First, she is not actually my sister. I have two half-sisters (Munchkin and Tinkerbelle) but she is not one of them. I know her because she is Smoking Hot Roommate's older sister (and therefore Papa Bear's oldest daughter). She and SHR are my "pretend sisters" and she has been known to introduce both Munchkin and I as her sisters.

Second, the name "Big Sis" has nothing to do with her physical appearance, it is entirely a reference to her being the sometimes protector and guardian of her one real and two pretend younger sisters. This is something that never dawned on me, but I have sent a few people some pictures and a couple of them have said that they expected her to be either a) heavier, or b) more "matronly". [She is gonna kill me for that...!]

The truth is that she is really very attractive, quite stylish, and somewhat small. Both she and her sister have the same blond hair, green/brown eyes and adorable little nose. Big Sis is in the neighborhood of about 5' 4" and she is a size 2 or 4...so she isn't tiny like me, but she is smallish:-) I would guess her weight, but if I am off by like 3 pounds, I will hear about it for years:-P She also has a minor shopping problem (its OK, she has a lot of closets!) which ensures her constantly flawless appearance

And finally, she is not at all "old". I think maybe some of you got the impression that she was the boring, responsible one of the crew, and that is pretty far from the truth. She has a more active social life than I do, and is always up for a good party, or will just bring one with her if she can' find one. Regardless of where we go, she seems to know everyone, or at least enough of the people that matter:-) I am especially amazed by this since she spent like seven of the last nine years in London...

Beyond that, I think I did pretty well in describing her...I think I accurately described how smart she is, and how she can be pretty intimidating when she chooses to be. And how she swears a lot:-) In fairness, her language is much more refined around Munchkin, although the stray F-bomb still finds its way into conversation...:-)

Earmuffs, kiddo...earmuffs...

Global Warming is Awesome

Many thanks for the kind Blog-iversary wishes:-) Sorry if it seemed like a goodbye, it most definitely is not! I enjoy this way too much to stop.

I think my favorite commenter this week is Ys, because she uses funny British words and phrases like "have a wank" and "squiffy". Seriously, what the fuck does squiffy mean? I can't even guess...lol.

I had a fun weekend...lots of Munchkin time:-) The weather was freaking ridiculous all weekend (it is supposed to be 80 today) so we ended up walking around a lot. Which is good...walking is good for her foot. We also went to her soccer game, even though she couldn't play. And then we did some shopping and had some lunch and just basically enjoyed the warm day.

She went over to a friends house to watch the Red Sox, and The Boy and I had a nice low key dinner, visited with his sister, her wife and the baby for a bit, watched some of the game and laid low. We went to get her at like 10:00, but the game was still going on and there were a couple of other parents there, so we ended up hanging out there for a bit, too. The Boy is really a trooper about that stuff...Saturday nights could be better spent than hanging out with school parents:-)

The Red Sox won, and then won again last night, so they are on to the World Series. Yay for them:-) Everyone around here is pretty excited about the whole thing...

I made breakfast for both The Boy and Munchkin on Sunday, and I didn't poison anyone:-) I think I am becoming a much better cook...a little practice was all I needed. The Boy went home for a bit and me and the little one did some more walking around. As we often do, we dropped into an open house in a newly renovated building. You know, $4 million just doesn't buy what it used to. There were four units in the building, the smallest cost like $2.5... yikes [On a side note, I can't believe they will really get anything close to that...I know they are beautiful places in a great location, but TWO BEDROOMS!!! Boston is expensive, but it ain't Manhattan...]

Smoking Hot Roommate was away all weekend with The Rocket Scientist, which meant that I didn't get my usual Sunday afternoon bedroom romp while she and Munchkin watched football. However, Munchkin had to go to a friend's house to work on a school project for a couple hours, which means I managed:-)

Came about as close as I ever have to the agonizingly elusive simultaneous orgasm... it was close enough that I would call them "overlapping". I have begun to feel somewhat like a dedicated explorer, devoting my life to the search for the ever-so-close wild creature that has long been rumored but never confirmed. Theoretically, we all know it exists...but cornering and trapping the mighty beast remains just beyond our grasp... I suppose all I can do is prep for another expedition as soon as possible...

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

A Wonderful Year

So today is the big day...alright, I am lying...it is Friday night, which means that tomorrow is really the big day, but there is a good chance I don't finish this until after midnight, which means I will have my days right after all. I guess this is appropriate since my first post was on a Friday night when Munchkin was sleeping and I was home alone...and tonight she is sleeping, Smoking Hot Roommate is away for a quick vacation with The Rocket Scientist and The Boy is at his parents house for the night.

That leaves me at home with my pajamas and some time to be thoughtful. Munchkin and I went over to meet The Boy at the hospital work and see everyone before the three of us took off to get dinner. Munchkin wanted sushi, which is fine by both of us! The poor thing is still hobbled a bit, so she didn't want to go out with her friends tonight...and that means that she and I had some girl time, and now I am blogging before I go curl up next to her in bed:-) Aren't we cute?

So...down to business. It has been one big fat year since I started blogging. In that time, I have written 322 posts and published 319 of them. I have doled out myriad nifty nicknames for all kinds of people (Munchkin, SHR, Big Sis, Papa Bear, Tinkerbelle, The Boy, The Rocket Scientist, The Brain Surgeon, BFFb and BFFg, Boss Foxy, The Body, The Mouth etc.)

I moved (two blocks, and I am moving back soon!). I got promoted and got a fat raise:-) I survived Munchkin's first boyfriend, first date, first kiss and first breakup (and the second, third and fourth or some of those things.) I went to a family wedding for a family that I am only technically not a part of. I thought I had cancer for a bit but didn't. I thought I may have lost The Boy for a bit but I didn't.

My father died, and I don't miss him. I feel bad for my aunts and uncles, who I adore, that they lost hold of their brother a long time ago. But he never had a place in my life, and he doesn't have a place in my heart now.

I did, however, gain a sister, which counts as the biggest event of the year, by far. Out of the blue, right before Christmas, I met my seven year old half-sister that I never knew about. I wish I saw her more. I am glad that I get to see her as much as I do, and I can't wait to see her again soon. I am glad that she and her Mom have found their new family, and honestly, I am glad that my Father is no longer around to fuck it up. They fit in great without him.

So, if I think back to the Friday night one year ago, what was I hoping to get out of this? And how am I different and how am I the same? I am not really sure what I wanted out of this, other than I thought it would be fun, and I thought it would be a good way to write my thoughts down. And that has been very true...this is a great running diary, and it really is fun. I went back and read a bunch of the early posts in preparation for writing this, and I found myself crying a lot. I can't really explain why, but it just made me kind of emotional.

The thing I didn't expect is all of the fun people I have "met" via this forum. Ally, e.b., Brandy, Ella, Aaron, Brookem, Nicole D., Claire, Billy, OC, Not Bubbly, Jordan, K.D., Still Just Me, Vix, Airam, Ys, Princess Extraordinaire, Kristin, Scotty, Trixie, The Copasetic Fish, Life Uncommon, Desiree, Kate, Megan... And some of the new ones like Jessie, ClearlyKels, Christi, Lowly Peasant Errand Girl and Maria.

And, let us all observe a moment of silence for the totally-disappeared GreenLineBoy, SoCalSweetie and some others. Some I know only through blogs, some have sent wonderful and thoughtful emails, and there are some who keep me entertained via IM at work:-)

I find myself legitimately caring about your happiness and wishing for things to go well for you. I feel involved in your lives, at least passively, and I love that you can observe mine and offer sometimes objective advice. Blogs are such a weird little window into the lives of others and a means to meet types of people I would never otherwise spend a lot of time with. When I look back, I think there are things I expected to write about already that I haven't and now maybe I won't. I wonder if this is because I feel less anonymous than I thought...I feel like I know some of you (of course, those that I do "know" know most of my secrets...:-D)

I think the easy thing to do is to highlight all the differences since this time last year...but in reality, I think I am very much the same. I am a year older, maybe a little wiser and a little more grown up, but I am still in the same place and feel like things are in a blissful state of...I dunno..."life". And that is good.

Really for the last two years not a whole lot has changed, and for that I feel pretty good...Munchkin's moving out here, for all of its obvious effects just, well, doesn't seem like that big a deal. She is just our much younger roommate...and I have to go to parent-teacher conferences...lol. She is happy, she is doing great in school and great socially and for that I am proud and grateful.

So, its been a year. An almost unanimously good year. I would happily take a whole bunch more years just like this one!

As for the coming year, there will be some bigger changes, but you will have to tune in to find out what!

Baby Genes

Me and Little Miss Hobble-a lot went over to see the new baby last night, which was really fun. The baby is as adorable as all other babies are, and everyone is super excited about it. Twin Sister had a pretty routine birth, no C-section and came out of it in really good shape. She took a little nap in the afternoon, but by evening she was already getting a little stir crazy and can't wait to get out of the hospital Saturday.

OK...I have a confession to make...I am nut sure I have the baby gene. I feel like women are hard-wired to fawn all over newborns and completely lose all sense of anything when they are around them. Women have a natural desire to want to hold and rock and kiss babies and coo at them and just want so much to have their own.

But I don't. I think they are really cute, but seeing a newborn doesn't necessarily make me want to have one. Never once have I thought "I just can't wait to have my own." Not that I don't want them (well, one), but I just don't feel like I have the same emotional reaction to newborns that a lot of women have. I have heard a couple of women say that once your friends start having them you immediately get the baby bug...seeing a friend with one makes you want one.

No dice. In fact, seeing the total and complete abuse that it puts your body through makes me fear the whole process even more. Am I totally abnormal in this? For my female readers, did you always get goofy when you saw babies? Or does it grow on you?

Just for the record, this is not something I am all that worried about. I don't really consider my sole purpose on earth to spit out children...I have all kinds of other goals that I aspire to in addition to one day hoping to have my own children (child). But still, I am 25 and I feel like there should at least be some part of me that can't wait to have kids...

I dunno...maybe I have already fed some of my natural parenting tendencies. Maybe I feel like I owe myself some time with none of that kind of responsibility. Or maybe I know I am too selfish to lovingly get up three times a night to feed a crying baby.

There is, however, something that does make me want to have a baby: The Boy. He has said on a number of occasions that he is really, really looking forward to being a Dad someday...in fact, I think if I told him tomorrow that I was pregnant he would be unconditionally overjoyed. He will make a fantastic father, too...I think he has the perfect temperament, is much more selfless than I am (sometimes) and is just a generally loving and caring person.

And his enthusiasm is somewhat infectious. I guess knowing how much it means to him makes me want to have kids someday even more than my own instincts do.

OK, I rambled a lot today...just so there is no confusion, there are NO BABIES in the immediate future. This is all in the context of a 5-7 year time frame. But this was just kind of top-of-mind this morning. And it's Friday and I had nothing better to say:-)

Tomorrow is my one year blogiversary...I guess I need to work on something special for that!

Go Red Sox:-)

It's a Girl

The Boy's sister is a new Mom this morning:-) She had a 6 lb, 12 oz baby girl last night, 10 fingers, 10 toes, mother and baby both doing very well:-)

The Boy is over-the-roof excited. This is niece/nephew #5 for him, but this one is special because he is so close to his sister (OK, I wasn't around when the others were born, so I don't really know, but I think...) His other brother and sister are older, and they didn't live near each other when any of those kids were born. This, however, he has been very close to since Day 1 (especially since he knew before she did!)

And they gave her his name as a middle name. Unfortunately, he doesn't really have a gender-neutral name like "Chris" or "Terry", so they couldn't just name her after him outright. Imagine a little girl with a name like Doug or Kirk or something like that... So she has a boy's name for a middle name, but she will grow to like it when she gets older:-) I don't even have a middle name, so I would gladly take a boy's name.

I am going to go over with Munchkin after work and before chicken fingers to see them in the hospital. I'd like to give her a little chance to rest before dropping in.

Nothing much else new...it is supposed to be really warm this weekend. Hopefully the Red Sox can win tonight so that they can have a game here on Saturday to take advantage of it, but it doesn't look real good! Chicken fingers tonight, and maybe some ice cream or a canoli if it really is warm and we wanna walk around a bit.

Other than that, hope everyone enjoys their Thursday and sends good wishes to the newest little member of my universe...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner...

Munchkin's foot is a very silly looking shade of purple right now, but she is diligently icing it and doing all of the stretches that the doctor told her to. She needs the crutches for another day at least, and her foot is still too swollen to fit into a lot of her shoes, but she is in pretty good spirits, as always:-) Kids are funny with injuries...I think they like the attention. She appreciated that the boys at school were all excited to carry her books for her from one classroom to the others...

Surprisingly, most everyone has some advice based on spraining an ankle and not letting it heal properly...I had no idea it was such an epidemic! It is still weak for a long time after it feels 100% better, which means I may have some trouble keeping her from overdoing it. It takes almost 6 months to be fully and completely back to its original strength...ahh well, I will just have to make sure she wears a support brace during basketball.

The Boy didn't get a chance to see her on Monday, so he brought flowers over for her last night and a super sweet card for me for absolutely no occasion:-) I guess he had a nice weekend, too!

OK, back to last week's contest...

There were some good entries, although not many that I would count as purely x-rated. And maybe there is a lesson in that, that the content of the message is less important than the people sending the messages. I think the key takeaway may be that good text messaging is really contextual. It can be a great way to start the foreplay well before you even get together...and a way to have private jokes that make you feel just a little bit dirty in all the right ways.

But we need to pick a winner, so here goes. Smoking Hot Roommate is disqualified because I forced her to enter and even reminded her of something we both knew. Jordan had one that was straight and to the point and just dirty enough;-) She can't win, though, or else every Red Sox fan I know would kill me for rewarding a Yankees fan. Both Princess Extraordinaire and Still Just Me get special mention for making use of technology to keep a lengthy marriage spicy...I hope that someday, when I have been married for 10 or more years and have little nuggets running around, that my sex life still has some excitement to it.

But the official winner is going to be Ys, for creativity's sake. Circumstance requires some sneaking around, and they seem to use the texts as an important part of that. Oh, and she used the phrase "encourages him to have a wank and tell me all about it". Have a wank...lol...that is brilliant.

Feel free to keep sending suggestions, though...this is fun! And, I was reminded yesterday during an IM discussion of the value of pictures, too. Like, I know that The Boy thinks I have a really cute stomach, so when he was out of town once, I sent him a cell phone picture of about three inches of skin, including my belly button. I think he liked that:-) I am not talking about outright porn, just slightly suggestive pictures that maybe the other person is the only one who would really understand anyway.

Glowing

I trust that no one missed me too much yesterday. A little bit of crying is acceptable, but anything more than that is gonna be kind of awkward for all of us.

The weekend was absolutely perfect and full of complete awesomeness:-) We got a good, early start on Friday, hit no traffic once we got out of the city and made it up there in pretty quick time. This was aided by swapping cars with Big Sis for the weekend...vroom vroom!!! She and Munchkin had some stuff to do that required the bigger car. (For reference, she has one of these, and I have one of these.)

We had a bunch of rain on Thursday night, but the storms all moved out to sea on Friday, so there was this really cool, dark grey sky when the sun came out. The sun on the dark, dark storm clouds made for tons and tons of really neat colors. If the camera hadn't been in the trunk, I would have taken pictures (pictures that we all know I never would have posted, so maybe it is not a huge loss.)

We got to the hotel and they let us check in early because they were super nice and thought we were super cute:-) That was kind of a theme of the whole weekend...the hotel people were really nice. It is kind of a smallish place and like half of the staff is the owner and her family. After we checked in, we were greeted by name for most of the time. Plus, it was really cute and had some spectacular views of the mountains, which look amazing at this time of year.

We went into the town and had lunch and bummed around the stores a little bit and before we knew it, the afternoon was gone. Most everyone else arrived late afternoon in time for the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner. The Red Sox won and things got a little skippy, but nothing got too far out of control:-) We turned in a little bit on the early side for two reasons...1) 9:00 am spa appointments, and 2) I had on a pair of pants that look really hot on me, and well, he is only human:-D

The spa was awesome!!! Since this is the first time I got him to agree to go, I made sure we did the full treatment...we both got massages and facials, but he drew the line at the mani/pedi. Baby steps. I am not sure he enjoyed the facial enough to get another one, but he didn't hate it, and he definitely enjoyed the massage. Mostly he just probably liked me walking around in that super short little spa robe:-P

The wedding was beautiful...not real big, but loads of fun! I had a really funny/kinda weird conversation with the Bride's Mother. Since I didn't make this real clear last week...The Boy dated the bride for almost two years during and immediately after college. They broke up, and about a year later she started dating one of his very best friends (it was not a terribly traumatic breakup, as you may be guessing). The upshot is that The Boy knows all of her family and met them all as "the serious boyfriend" a while ago.

And her mother LOVES him...she apparently took the breakup much harder than her daughter did. So we were chatting a bit and she told me how much she loved him and was crushed when they broke up and yada yada yada. And like 97% of it was just "Oh, I like him so much, and I am glad you make him happy" but there was like a weird 3% of "I am still holding out hope that he ditches you and breaks up her marriage"...I dunno, maybe I am making that up:-) [For the record, she adores the groom as well, as does the rest of her family].

The wedding ran pretty late and was a ton of fun (although the Red Sox lost a really LONG game). I danced enough to make my feet hurt, drank only moderately too much, and had like four pieces of cake. The Boy helped give the toast because the groom's brother was super nervous and didn't want to do it himself. Several of his friend suggested he start with "Anyone besides me and the groom seen her naked? I am just taking inventory..." but thankfully he is much too polite to do that:-)

We had a big, giant tub in our room and took a very hot, very bubbly bath when we got back. I am not like a super romantic person, but the bath, a couple of candles, a bottle of wine and a killer footrub definitely counts as pretty special in my book:-) I think it was almost 4:00 by the time we went to sleep, which, combined with three orgasms, the super soft sheets and a wonderfully cozy bed, meant a very, very good night's sleep!!!

Sunday started with brunch for everyone at the wedding, but by about 1:00, everyone was gone and we were on our own. We asked the owner of the hotel if there was a good place to go for a low-stress hike nearby that might lead to some neat views. She gave us directions to a little road nearby, and then when we came back down on our way out, she had packed us a little picnic basket:-) So we drove a little ways, parked the car and hiked up the mountain a little ways. "Hike" is a bit misleading, it was really about a 45 minute, uphill walk. But that is ok, I feel no reason to climb any mountains, and he was carrying a picnic on his back;-)

So we walk for a bit until we reached a little clearing with some GORGEOUS views...I feel like you could see for fifty miles, out over the mountains and down to a big lake. It was a beautiful, sunny day and you could see vibrant reds, yellows and oranges forever. It was just incredibly peaceful and quiet...I am far from a nature nut, but even I can appreciate the feeling of total and complete aloneness. We sat there for maybe an hour or so...not too long. We ate a little of the cheese and crackers and fruit that she packed. And drank most of the bottle of wine:-D

From there we found a little bar in town to watch the Patriots game (they won). We made friends with a bunch of the locals and ate some really good, really heavy food for dinner at the end of the game (I had chicken pot pie that was freakin' awesome). Then back to the hotel for another bath, which was just as much fun as the first one:-) This one was maybe a little but less sweet and a little bit more dirty, but you probably don't need the specifics on that...hee hee. Or maybe you do, all you gotta do is ask...

Technically we had to check out at 10:00 on Monday, but they told us we could stay all day if we wanted, so we went into town for the day. We did a little shopping, although we didn't really buy much (just a couple little things for his sister and her forthcoming baby). Then we took a ride in a horse-drawn carriage which seemed like it would be fun. And it kinda was...we went out over two covered bridges near pretty little waterfalls.

We ended up putzing around in town until mid-afternoon and didn't get home until after dinner. Smoking Hot Roommate was nice enough to get Munchkin to school yesterday and to pick her up after school, so she gets one more mention as the super awesomest best friend around.

And that was extra hard because Munchkin is on crutches:-( She sprained her ankle playing soccer on Saturday, so she had to go to the doctor for an x-ray to make sure it's not broken, then she got crutches and was given instructions on some exercises to do. No soccer for two weeks, and she will need the crutches for another day or two. Thankfully Big Sis served as an adequate caretaker, so she is just fine:-)

One last thing...when I got home, SHR asked me how the weekend was. And after I answered, she said "You sure nothing else happened? You are glowing," so I guess that is a pretty good statement about the super awesomeness of the whole trip!

Contest Time!!!

Hmm...Jordan asked a good question that I am gonna take a couple days to think about. I have to make sure I have a good answer, so I will get to it on Tuesday. Which means you can all feel free to ask anything else you want, and I will try and get to that on Tuesday, too.

In the meantime, I am going on vacation, bitches:-) Given the amount of vacation time I take (hee hee!) this should hardly seem like an earth-shattering event, but I am really super excited. The Boy and I have never really taken a vacation, just the two of us, of any real substance before. We have gone away with friends, or with family (heck, we go away to the beach most weekends in the summer), but never alone. Not that this is a huge vacation (really just an extra day) but it will fun to be alone with him in a new place.

I also have an interesting contest, as suggested by a fellow blogger (who shall remain anonymous unless choosing to self-identify). I am on record as being a huge fan of the X-rated text message. I just think it is really hot to drop someone a random message in the middle of the day that says "I know we are both busy, but I am still thinking about you" or "I just can't get you out of my head" and doing it in much less...um..."refined" language.

So, the contest is this...who can come up with the hottest, sexiest, best text message idea? This can be something you have actually sent, or received, or would like to send, or just plain think is really hot. Feel free to provide the context of the message if it was a real one (i.e., something may be hotter if you have been married for 30 years than it would be if you started dating three weeks ago...so the background may help.)

There are no real rules, other than it has to be the approximate length of a text. You can submit via comment, or via email or IM. If you are too shy and want to submit by anonymous comment, you can feel free to do that, too, but send me an email to let me know who it is, if you wouldn't mind.

I reserve the right to be the final judge, but I will absolutely solicit input from readers to pick favorites. Depending on how many of you take me up on this, I may have more than one winner...the rules are somewhat flexible;-)

I guess this means we will also need prizes. I haven't quite worked that out yet, but be assured...it will be awesome! At a minimum, you shall receive the people's ovation and fame forever!!! On the downside, I wouldn't count on a large cash payout...

So that's about it...anything submitted before tomorrow morning will get published right away, otherwise it may have to wait until I get back. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Go Red Sox!

You want answers?!?!

I may be boring, but you people aren't helping...your questions weren't terribly exciting either:-P But I promised, so answers:

Scotty said...
Favorite/not so favorite things about fall where you live. :)

This is easy...the good parts are the pretty colors and the seasonal food...apples, pumpkin pie, etc. And, of course, soccer games on Saturday mornings:-) The bad part is that it means that summer is over and winter is coming...

ella said...
I'm still waiting for a photo!

That's not a question!!!

Still just me said...
What is your favorite song "of all time", and why?

Easy...Mr. Brightside by The Killers. Because it fucking rocks!!!

nicole d. said...
Yes, to follow up on Ella's comment, we are still waiting for a pic of the beach house, and some of the wedding, cropped of course ;). Or you could talk about your favorite teacher in school, most embarrassing moment in junior high school, dream vacation...I will save my other topics for my own blog I think!

I think we all need to just admit that I am never going to post any pictures here...lol. I don't know how, and plan to lean on my ignorance as an excuse in perpetuity. I have, however, sent some via email to people, so you can get some if you ask nicely that way:-) Maybe...

Favorite teacher wasn't really a teacher, it was a college counselor in High School. Mrs. Willsey...she got mentioned in part one of the big Sam story here. Most embarrassing moment in Junior High is not something I care to go into here...lol (But that is actually a really good question!!!). Dream vacation: taking Tinkerbelle to Disney World:-)

Scotty said...
Did someone say photo? Please post pic.

Sorry, one question per person, you are over your limit:-P

So, if anyone has any better questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, we will move on...

The Boy is in for a day of totally effeminate pampering on Saturday before the wedding...I talked him into getting a facial:-) He has never done so, and thinks it is totally gay, but he agreed to try it so long as it was in concert with a massage as well. He also said something about a giant-breasted Scandinavian masseuse, but we are still in negotiations over that;-)

Other than that, we will have quite a bit of time to just bum around. All day Friday, and most of Sunday and Monday are totally unscheduled...maybe some shopping, or some hiking if the weather is nice. Or maybe we will just find a bar, drink all kinds of fall beers, watch football and hang with the locals, that might work, too:-)

Brothers and Sisters

I forgot to mention this little note...while driving to the farm on Saturday, a song came on the radio, causing Munchkin to turn the radio up and pronounce it her favorite song. The song? "Jessica", by the Allman Brothers (different one here).

First, I have no complaints with the selection, it is as good a song as anyone has ever made. But how on earth did it become her favorite song? Its 30 years old, has no words, and is way too long to ever get played on the radio. She didn't really have an answer, couldn't tell me where she first heard it or why she has such an attachment to it. I guess I should applaud her refined and way-past-her-age taste in music, but seriously...I am stumped by this.

Did they really say it was 83 degrees in New York last night? How is that possible...it is like 150 miles from here, but it was 30 degrees warmer. Weirdness. I did hear this morning that the Yankees lost, which is cause for celebration in these parts. One weird addition to my Red Sox notes from last week is that people here not only love the Red Sox, but they love the Yankees losing, almost more so. I don't quite get that...I still have so much to learn!!!

I don't feel like the New Yorkers I know have the same animosity towards the Red Sox, but that may be because for most of history, the Yankees won and the Red Sox lost. I work with a guy who once said "Until 2004, the rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees was a lot like the rivalry between a dog and a fire hydrant." I thought that was funny, although I needed a brief lesson in baseball history to know why...:-)

Anyway, I guess this means we need to send some consoling thoughts to Jordan, who at least hopefully got a date out of this:-D

Um...that's about it. I feel like this is a really boring post, and I don't think I have a whole lot better for tomorrow...just wanna give you fair warning;-) Anyone have anything they want me to write about? Any questions? Fire away...

As American as Apple Pie. And Oral Sex.

Two weeks until my first blog-iversary...are we all excited? I should plan something...any ideas?

Other than Munchkin crying a bit over the Cubs losing, the weekend was a pretty darn good one! Smoking Hot Roommate, The Rocket Scientist, The Boy and I took Munchkin out to watch the Red Sox on Friday night, which I had promised her ahead of time. She's funny...she loves "going out" in the same way that a lot of people twice her age like going out. She likes to sit in a restaurant and eat pub grub, people-watch, chat about nonsense and watch sports. Other than her martini glass being filled with 7up and Cranberry Juice instead of something stiffer, she could be my age.

The game was really long, especially the first couple of innings, so by the time we left at 10:00, it was only like the third inning. The boys had a weekend-long bachelor party to catch up with, so they left us after they walked us home. Munchkin was really beat, so she went pretty much straight to bed. We decided that what we really needed was to put on our bathing suits, grab a bottle of wine and watch the rest of the game in the hot tub:-) Yes...she absolutely put a television in sight of the jacuzzi in her bathroom so she could watch TV in the tub...I told you she is wicked smart:-)

Saturday was downright hot...which is really bizarre for October, but I love it. Soccer was a good time, although I feel kind of odd about the games being so warm. I usually think about them as being on really crisp, chilly fall mornings. It is rare that soccer is played on iced coffee days!!!

We ate lunch and then went to a farm not terribly far from here for obligatory fall stuff. I don't think she enjoys pumpkin and apple picking as much as I do, but she humors me:-) She made fun of me a little bit for being way too excited by the whole thing (I named the three pumpkins I bought...Percy Pumpkin, Peter Pumpkin and Patty Pumpkin) but didn't complain about me making her go...lol. She did, however, jump at the chance to hang out at her friend's pool in the afternoon. Seriously...it is New England, you shouldn't be able to go swimming in October!

She ended up bringing five friends over to hang out, and of course to watch her beloved Cubs. I baked two apple pies, one of which the kids immediately ate...lol. Must have been good! Seriously, soccer, pumpkin and apple picking, baking and babysitting...that is pretty motherly of me.

I felt really bad for Munchkin when the Cubs lost. Fortunately her friends were all gone, because she definitely cried when the game was over. She was pretty sad:-( I guess I do appreciate that she can get hung up on trivial things like that...she has seen entirely too much real heartache, I am glad that she can fret over kids stuff once in a while. That makes me feel better:-)

Sunday was not quite so warm;-) The cooler weather arrived in a hurry! The Boy was kinda beat up from the weekend (maybe it is time to realize that you can't drink non-stop for two straight days anymore...you are gonna be 30 soon, you know:-P) and was just getting out of bed when the football games were starting. SHR and Munchkin had some guys from their Fantasy Football league over to watch the games, and I slipped away for the afternoon. The Boy was in pretty rough shape, but I brought lunch lunch over, and then gave him a back rub and a blow job and he was all better:-D Well, still hungover, but in much better spirits;-)

Seriously, who is a better girlfriend than me? (Wait, don't answer that...) He did return one of the favors, but he still owes me a back rub:-P

On that note...hope everyone had a good weekend and isn't suffering Monday too much:-) It's raining here:-(

It is still 80 degrees outside

I had an awesome night last night! First, the chicken fingers, which are always brilliant:-) Big crew...Papa Bear and his lady friend came, as did Big Sis and the Brain Surgeon. They didn't actually eat the chicken fingers (they were all having dinner someplace fancy afterwards...food snobs!!!) but they had a drink and visited. Smoking Hot Roommate has no such food pretensions, so she and the Rocket Scientist ate with us, as did he roommate. A couple other friends visited for a snack on their way home from work, too. Seems like a lot, but we were done by like 7:00.

Munchkin had to finish her school project, but fortunately she had most of it done (because her big sister insisted she get it done ahead of time:-)). Even more fortunately for me, SHR was kind enough to take her home and help her finish it off, and give me the chance to take off to The Boy's place for a bit. His sister and her wife were over visiting, so I got to hang with them for a bit. After they left we hung out for a bit (am I really getting so old that I gloss over the evening with "we hung out"? Yikes...I am getting boring...) and then he walked me home at about 11:00.

That was just in time for Munchkin to wake up from a quick nap to watch the Cubs game:-) I stayed awake for this one, and once again, Munchkin was none to happy that they lost. She seemed less mad about this one than Wednesday's, and more resigned than angry. Me thinks things look not so good for the Cubs now (if they lose one more game they lose the series).

Red Sox tonight and I promised her that we could go out to watch. The game starts at 8:37, so I doubt we will make it all the way until the end, but you never know. She has soccer in the morning, so I have to make sure she gets to bed at a reasonable hour. After soccer we are going apple and pumpkin picking, which is totally one of my favorite things. Then I am gonna make apple pie:-)

The weather is supposed to be gorgeous all weekend, so we are going golfing on Sunday morning one last time before the season ends! I only played three times this summer and I hope to play more next...I want to not suck quite so much so I can play more. After that it is regular Sunday football watching:-D Should be a fun weekend!

Next weekend is going to be a long one. The Boy and I are going to a wedding for two really good friends of his, one of which is a long-term ex girlfriend, in New Hampshire (yes, he will be in a tuxedo...grrr). We were originally going to drive up Friday afternoon for the rehearsal and come back Sunday morning after the wedding.

However, in light of the semi-recent events, and the fact that The Boy and I almost never go away together, I think it would be fun to expand that. So I convinced him to take the following Monday off, and all of Friday to make a longer weekend of it. So now we are leaving Friday morning and staying until Monday night...a badly needed mini-vacation:-) Smoking Hot Roommate and the Rocket Scientist are gonna be away as well, but Big Sis is without the Brain Surgeon all weekend, so she and Munchkin are gonna get some quality time together:-)

And I have to get to Chicago at some point soon, too...I will work on that next week. Anyway, that is all...hope everyone has a great weekend:-)

You win some, You lose some

Definitely dealing with one unhappy Munchkin this morning! She was real good and went in to take a nap right after dinner (around 5:45) so she could stay up and watch the Cubs game. I was supposed to wake her up for the start of the Red Sox game at 6:30, but figured she would be better off sleeping a little longer than that. So we woke her up at about 7:15 or so, sometime in the second inning.

The Red Sox won, which everyone was most excited about. David Ortiz hit a home run...he is my favorite player (who remembers the "There's a cookie?" ads on the radio last year? He is like a giant Dominican teddy bear.) The Cubs, however, did not win, and Munchkin was not happy about it. Smoking Hot Roommate and she both agreed that there was some inappropriate coaching, but I don't really know the details.

I missed most of that game, because I busted out a pillow and fell asleep with me head at Munchkin's end of the sofa and my feet at SHR's:-) Pretty nice spot to take a nap!!! They stayed up and watched the whole game.

Fortunately, it was a pretty quick game (it didn't start until 10:30!!! but was over at 1:00) and with the previous nap, Munchkin didn't have any trouble getting out of bed this morning. She was, however, really irritated that they lost...

OC asked yesterday what would happen if the Cubs play the Red Sox in the World Series, and the answer is frightening...I think her head may explode with the conflicting emotions:-) Seriously, she would root for the Cubs, although she may keep that quiet around school...lol. She likes the Red Sox, but the Cubs are a longer-term relationship for her, and one that she is more devoted too.

If I put on my psycho-analysts hat, I think the love of the Cubs is a link she feels like she still has to her father. He was a huge fan, and took her to a couple of games when she was really little She was 7 when he died, and I think that on some level she associates the Cubs with him a little bit. Plus, she really likes baseball:-)

If I change the subject for a moment...the weather is fucking awesome around here! It is warm and very summery and has been for a couple weeks now. The weekend is supposed to be more of the same. How awesome is this?!?!?

Tonight will be another tough one...the game starts at 10:00. There is no Red Sox game, though, so she has plenty of time to rest up before that game. And hopefully she isn't too tired today for chicken fingers! It is Thursday after all:-) I would love to be able to take her out to watch the game, but that is just way too late for her to be out...she is better off on the couch. Maybe I will even stay up tonight...unless The Boy stays over, in which case I will probably cry 'exhaustion' and go to bed early:-D

Play Ball!

Special thanks to Smoking Hot Roommate, who contributed mightily to this post. It required someone with her Library-of-Congress sized knowledge of sports trivia minutia. That's right boys, she is tall, gorgeous, rich, smart and knows more about sports than you. And she is a better golfer...

If you have never been to Boston at this time of year, you can't really understand the city's most obvious civic oddity: a complete and total obsession with the Red Sox. Now, I know there are a lot of places where people go nuts over sports...heck, I grew up in a place where you are hardwired to love the Bears at birth...

But this is different. This is a little more broad...it really reaches every demographic segment. There seem to be scores of little old ladies who can keep score at games, teenage girls can wear pink Red Sox hats as a key part of their outfit, and people who seem to be non-sports fans don't want a Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz shirt because it is "too obvious". You need to demonstrate you are a great fan by celebrating a player who is a little less obvious...Mike Lowell or Dustin Pedroia are good choices. Shirts with the names of random players from 10 years ago are especially cool (like Rich Garces, a massively overweight Venezuelan relief pitcher affectionately nicknamed "El Guapo"...or "The Handsome One").

During the summer, Fenway Park is very much the social center of the city. It attracts the largest volume of attractive young women, which in turn attracts everyone else;-) The bars behind the stadium are all jammed on game nights, and flip flops and t-shirts are totally acceptable attire. Come back the next night, however, when the team is out of town, and jeans and sneakers are cause for refusal at the door. Baseball hats? Don't even think about it...

Today, the playoffs start. The Red Sox are at home against the Anaheim Angels, the same team they faced in the first round in 2004 during their World Series run. Confidence among the masses is high...most people seem to be expecting a relatively easy win (never mind that the two teams had almost identical records this season.) Meanwhile, the Yankees are preparing to meet the Cleveland Indians, which means that, looming over all of this is the alternately horrifying and thrilling prospect of another Red Sox-Yankees series to decide the American League. They met in both 2003 and 2004, each time involving a catastrophically improbable ending to the series...one in favor of New York, one in favor of Boston.

That, however, is still a ways off. For now, the entire are will simply leave work a little bit early today so as to make sure that it is in front of its collective TV at 6:30 for the first pitch. The game will be a roller coaster of emotions, changing pitch by pitch and batter by batter. And by tomorrow, it will be the greatest team ever, or the sky will have fallen. Until game #2 on Friday, when we do it all over again.

I, however, have another problem. My adorable little baseball fan has not one, but TWO beloved playoff teams. Her recently adopted Boston Red Sox play at 6:30, while her lifelong interest, the Chicago Cubs, play t 10:30. No way am I getting her to fall asleep before that game is over, which means I have to somehow get her to take a nap this afternoon... buckle up, it is gonna be a long couple of weeks...

Dr. Paingiver, DDS

I got home last night and there was a message reminding me that Munchkin and I had dentist appointments this morning. Shit. Totally forgot. Ahh well, not that big a deal, I just had to leave a message that she would be late for school, and let work know I would be a little late. But it was just for cleanings at 7:45, so I figured it wouldn't take that long.

Remind me to floss more often.

Turns out I had a cavity, and rather than come back, I decided to just have them fill it right then. So now my lip is so numb that it looks like I am having a stroke. I liked it better when I didn't know I had a tooth problem. Oh, and Munchkin is gonna need braces soon, how cute will that be:-)

She got mad at me last night, which is a really rare occasion, and hopefully not a trend. A couple friends were going out to watch the Patriots game last night and invited us to meet up with them. Smoking Hot Roommate told Munchkin we could go, thinking it would be OK for her to go and see at least the first little bit of the game. Really, that is fine...she knows her well enough that they don't need to check with me on everything they want to do.

The issue, however, is that Munchkin has a project due for school on Friday, and I don't want her being up all night on Thursday finishing it. And, I don't want to have to cancel our regular Thursday date so she can do it, either. So I wanted her to do at least some of it last night and then if it was early enough, we could go out for a little bit. Well, she didn't like that one bit... She did what I asked her to, but there was definitely a little bit of attitude alongside it. Hopefully she will thank me when there is not a ton to do on Thursday...

We did end up going out for a bit, but the game started late, so we only stayed for a little bit. Enough time for a couple of chicken wings, and for her to feel like a big kid:-) She is, however, off the wall over the Cubs making the playoffs...that started tomorrow, I think.

Football is back:-)

Let's see...where did I leave off...

Saturday night was fun...we went to a party at a girl's place that is a real good friend of Big Sis. It was actually kind of a mellow evening, The Boy didn't feel great and was none-too upset about leaving at 11:00 to go and get Munchkin at her friend's house. He rallied a little bit after we got home though;-)

And Sunday? Ahhh...Sunday...my kinda day. We woke up kinda late and we all went to breakfast. The Boy had to go home for a bit and we just kinda puttered around. Then Smoking Hot Roommate took Munchkin over to watch the games with all the guys in their Fantasy Football league. The Boy came back over, and we all know what that means...

It was actually a really nice afternoon:-) Just a pretty lazy, fun day... basically alternating batches of sex, chicken wings and football...romantic, huh? Munchkin and SHR stopped at the store and got back at maybe 5:00 to make us all dinner. And chocolate chip cookies:-)

The Boy got promoted on Friday, so many, many congratulations go out to him for that:-) I haven't given you all the details, but he has made some large professional sacrifices for me as well as just generally putting up with me, and I am both happy for him and extremely proud of him for this. He works really hard and cares deeply about his job, and I love to see him rewarded like this.

So everyone offer a hearty congratulations for a well-earned big new job! I love you and I am proud of you:-)