Oh, hey...

I haven't blogged in...well, about a year. And even that was a "I'm still alive" post, so I haven't actually really blogged in much longer than that. Frankly, I can't tell you why I am blogging now or whether or not I will write anything  tomorrow or ever again, but for some reason I just feel like blogging. OK, true story, I was suddenly driven to want to comment on two different blogs, and realized that it would be really awkward to do so after having been silent for a full year!

That probably implies that I really, really have something to say...which, alas, would be false.  I suppose that's good, since most people would come back like this only if they had some traumatic life experience. In that sense, I guess I am happy that nothing bad has happened:-)

Let's see, then...the girls will be five next month. FIVE! They start Kindergarten in the fall, although their school remains TBD, since we haven't figured that out yet. There is a chance they will go to public school if they get assigned to one that we like (don't even ask about the City's school assignment process...fucking ridiculous), but most likely they will be in private school. I'd rather not spend that kind of money on elementary school, but that's the price of urban living, I guess.

Speaking of that, we haven't moved and probably won't any time soon. The good news is that it's been a good couple of years for the real estate market and our condo is worth an awful lot. The bad news is that anything we would like to buy is also worth an awful lot. An awful lot more...so, we'll probably stay put for another year or two and then just suck it up and write a really, really, really big check to get something bigger. Lord help us...

The Boy is awesome. As always:-)

Munchkin will be, gulp, twenty in two weeks! Don't even ask how we got to that point, I am already feeling old enough as it is. She is currently in the Turks and Caicos for spring break. I am currently in a raging fit of jealously. There is no boyfriend, although there are always boys...and there is still always Frenchie. They're not "together", but to hell if I could explain it. They're definitely not "not together", either...

Smoking Hot Roommate is the proud Mama of an adorable baby boy, born just before Thanksgiving. And, like everything else, she is totally rocking motherhood and making noise about having another one in a little bit:-). Big Sis still has the two and no more in the works. They and both of their spouses are happy and healthy.

I'll spare you any massive political diatribes this soon after my lengthy hiatus (other than, can we all please just calm down? Not everything anyone says is The. Worst. Thing. Ever. Washington has become a contest to accuse people of treason as often as possible...) I will also spare you complaints about the snow, which you certainly would have heard if I had been blogging regularly because, holy hell, did it snow a lot!!!

And...um...the Patriots won the Super Bowl, so that was a thing. I've become obsessed with Alaska-based reality television, so that's a thing, too. And, um, I'm not any taller. :-D

I remember back when I was a blogger...

Have I ever mentioned how much I love stuffing? Were I single, and were it legal and feasible, I would absolutely marry it, and enjoy no other food for the rest of my life.

Now that I have that out of the way...

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as nice as mine! Lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun! We had Thanksgiving at The Boy's sister's place, which was nice and didn't require me to do anything other than show up and eat. The Boy was on mashed potato duty again, and he acquitted himself nicely...

Munchkin had a couple of guests for the weekend...Frenchie and her roommate. They were both pretty well impressed at the true depth of American genius: a two-day holiday devoted to nothing but eating! Things between her and Frenchie seemed pretty good, and I think that, without knowing better, a normal observer would have assumed that they were together. He's just a super nice kid, and while they are struggling with being Freshman in college in a long-distance relationship, they just really, really like to be around each other. So, I dunno...I hope they work something out.

Saturday was the now-traditional Thanksgiving Redux at Big Sis' house. For those keeping track, that means that we now have Practice Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, and the Thanksgiving Redux every year. Because it's worth having three of them! No turkey at this one (or stuffing, sadly), but there are lobsters and other things that sort of remind me of summer, so that's all good:-)

And now...what the fuck...it's Christmas?!?!? Well, that certainly got on us in a hurry. We're gonna get a tree next weekend and do some decorating, and the onslaught of Christmas parties begins this week. That means I have to figure out which ones to go to, which ones to skip, and which ones we may need a sitter for. December takes an awful lot of planning...

Do you know what I really want for Christmas? I want So Midwestern to finally sign up for Match:-). I also want a Maserati, and frankly that seems more likely...feel free to badger her at will, we can break her down eventually!

Things that Entertain Me

Last night was the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge in Boston...a massive (like 12,000 people) race from Boston Common, through the Back Bay and back.

I didn't run, but a handful of guys from our company did (also, The Boy did, so I stayed home with the girls instead of walking, which I could have done).

Two relevant facts about the guys I work with... First, they are hyper-competitive. It is totally normal for lunch to turn into a sandwich-eating contest, and they can turn almost any activity into some kind of a game. Also, they can wager on it...

Second, they are largely ex-athletes, with a focus on the "ex". None of them are quite in the shape that they were 10 or so years ago...but their desire to beat each other remains very strong.

The result? I would describe the office today as looking something like a scene out of The Walking Dead, only the zombies are all wearing suits... And there is a lot of groaning and grimacing...

I assume that my job, obviously, is to think of reasons why they will need to carry things, bend over and pick them up, or reach onto shelves to take this down or put them away...I appreciate any ideas you may have!

Unraveling

The plan, as usual, was for a great long weekend at the beach, leaving as early as possible today. enjoying Saturday and Sunday and then waiting as long a possible on Monday to come home. In my little world, that is pretty much an ideal weekend.

Oh, how quickly things can unravel. First, the weather didn't cooperate. Today, tomorrow and Sunday, all projected to have high temperatures somewhere in the high 50's, and plenty of rain. Not exactly beach weather...and not the kind of weather that makes me want to lug two toddlers all the way to the house to sit inside for.

Then, work decided to throw cold water on my already dieing fire...I have to go to New York for a couple days next week, which means leaving either Monday night or super-early Tuesday morning. Neither of those lends itself to stretching out the last day of the long weekend (which, also, is the only one that may have some actual sunshine.)

And then Munchkin decided that she was bagging the weekend because of the weather, too. She has a couple of parties to go to (obviously:-)) that she was going to skip, but doesn't want to if the weather sucks. The net result is the very sad decision to scrap the beach trip this weekend.

There is good news in this...first, I will probably get a new car tomorrow:-). And second, there are lots of beach weekends ahead! But still, I love Memorial Day, and I am very, very angry at this Nature bitch for ruining it!!!

The Longest Season

We have officially entered "The Worst Time of The Year"...the dreadful, drawn-out end of winter. February is almost over, which should mean that the worst of winter is behind us and that spring is right around the corner. That, of course, is not applicable to this lovely little corner of the country up here...

At least the first half of March is very much still deep winter. The days are longer, which is nice, but it isn't any warmer, and we can still get heavy snowfall at any moment. By the second half of March, we are pretty much past the bitter, bitter cold weather, but snow is still possible/likely, and we are still MONTH away from flip-flops.

Frankly, April is usually a miserable month, broken up by just a couple of splendid days. We always get a little tease of spring, but basically it is cold and rainy and not terribly pleasant. May is better, but it is still likely to be rainy, and often very cold. And you want the real truth? The first half of June is no real prize, either...I have never, ever, been to a June wedding when it didn't rain (that is probably not true...I'm sure I've been to at least one).

So here we are, at a time of year when things should be looking up, and when our Southern neighbors are very, very much at the end of Winter...and we are looking at a minimum of two more months of really crappy weather before we start to see anything approximating consistent improvement.

Let's count the damage. First, everyone's skin is a mess. It is too cold and dry for too long to manage good skin. There is only so much lotion that one people can apply to their collective skin:-). And since we are all terribly pale, and a little heavier from hiding under winter clothes for four months, everyone is pasty and a little doughy. It's a good look.

Second, the roads are appalling...the snow, temperature change, salt and plows really do a number on them, and they won't get fixed until April or May. Third, everything is dirty. EVERYTHING. Shoes, coats, pants, windows, cars, sidewalks, carpets, floors...so much snow and salt and sand gets tracked around that everything gets a horrible coat of dull grey/brown on it. This will all wash off when it rains in April. ALL of April. And May. And half of June.

There is good news, though...our summers are lovely, and not as oppressively hot as many places, and fall is truly spectacular. So, it's not a total loss.

But, at times like this, I am reminded that the Pilgrims were aiming for Virginia.

In my next life, I wanna be able to wear a field hockey uniform in public

I feel like I owe you a lot of catch-up, since I have blogged only once or twice since before we left on our college-hunting trip. A number of you have asked about further information regarding Frenchie's college plans, which I think I have limited to "He is probably coming to the States." So, yes...he is almost certainly coming here for college, which is a pretty big leap for an 18 year old, but both he and his parents are gung-ho about it. I think they have always been proponents of the idea, and it is just slightly possible that his feelings for a particularly charming New England girl have brought him around to their way of thinking.

His father works, after a fashion, in the defense and aerospace industry, and as such he spends considerable time in Washington, DC (like...I'd say two or three trips a year, at least.) Because of that, being close to DC has a certain appeal to it, and I have long suspected that he may end up at a certain esteemed institution that you might assume derives its name from the first name of our first (and greatest...yea, I said it!) President, but is in fact named after an area that likely takes its name from either an 18th century tobacco merchant or a King of England.

I still think that this is the most likely place he will end up, and it was on our tour last week. Frankly, Munchkin really loved the school, and I did, too. Not enough to leave Boston for, but it may well have been her favorite non-local school. Funny thing, though...I think she would have liked it more if he wasn't going to go there. She seems to not like the idea that she might be picking a place because that is where he is going. Again, I am not totally sure how her thought process would work if she was really thinking about these schools, but that was my gut feeling.

Speaking of Frenchie...he has been here for a week and is headed back home tonight. They were here for a couple of days, then headed to the beach for a bit, and have been back since Saturday afternoon. There are some differences in the relationship that I don't want to go into here, but they had another great visit and will probably start counting down the days until the next one soon (probably Christmas?)

And speaking of "counting down the days"... one week 'til Tinkerbelle! I feel like I haven't seen her in forever (it was New Year's) and since she never got out here either of the last two summers, this will be her first trip to the beach in three years. I am pretty sure she is taller than me;-) and almost certainly has bigger boobs, too. She is, after all, 13...and most 13 year old girls can yes to both of those.

I think I will take some time off, although I don't know whether it will be the whole week or not. I may work like two days, give her some time to herself, and then plan on spending the rest of the time at the beach with her. Chances of me getting a single picture with both sisters and both daughters? Hmm...maybe a possibility...

All of this, and I haven't even gotten to either an Olympic round-up (I love the Olympics, I think we all know that) or a discussion of Mitt Romney picking a VP candidate...maybe I will blog more than once this week!

O. L. D.

I hope you are all diligently baking my birthday cakes for me...you only have three days left, and they will have to be big enough to fit an awful lot of candles on them...

No major crises about turning over another decade...I am pretty much OK with it. I hate getting older, but whining and crying about it won't help (which won't stop me from whining and crying, but will make me get over it:-P). I guess I am pretty content, and am not going to feel all that much different on Sunday morning than I do on Saturday night...at least I hope not.

It helps that The Boy is older than me, as are all of his friends. Same with Big Sis...and most of my friends are around my age, so many of them are ticking of 30 this year as well. All except for the youngster of the group...Smoking Hot Roommate has plenty of time left.

No beach this weekend for a couple of minor reasons. The girls are headed to The Boy's parents for the night on Saturday, which is quite the birthday gift:-) We don't have any big plans...dinner, hanging with some friends and then enjoying the peace and quiet. I'm giving myself an extraordinarily awesome birthday present, too, because I totally deserve an extraordinarily awesome present, right?

Other than that, pretty low key birthday. SHR and I are going out with some girlfriends tonight, but it won't be a late night...The Boy has a golf tournament to play in on Sunday, so I will have the girls all to myself when they get back from his parents. I think we will undertake one of their favorite new hobbies...walking around looking for geese, or "Hunting Gooses!" as they call it...

And both Big Sis and Twin Sister's wife are on "Baby Any Minute" alert:-) Big Sis especially, but Twin Sister's wife is only a couple weeks behind. Could be any minute!

Destiny

One of The Boy's good friends got engaged over the weekend, to a girl that he met and started dating about two years ago. Their meeting is one of my favorite dating stories...

Simply, they were stranded on a train. They happened to be standing next to each other when a subway train got stuck for about an hour (they were in a train stuck behind another one that broke down.) They must have been feeling randomly chatty, because they somehow struck up a conversation during that time, exchanged numbers and, now they are gonna end up married.

I can't really say that I believe in "soul mates", at least in the sense that there is one and only one person you are destined to end up with. Nor can I see that I really believe in destiny...but really, if I think about the chances of those two both being on that train? And standing next to each other? And who talks to people next to them on the train? I dunno...just seems like there was something else at work.

(Also, they are adorable...)

It also gets me thinking about how people meet...and surely some of you must have good stories of meeting your husbands or wives or girlfriends or whatever. I got set up with mine, which is boring, but I am sure someone can do better than that.

Three Things Before the Fourth

I was going to write about health care and the Supreme Court, but I can't bring myself to be that serious (short version, the ruling seems really confusing...not that the law was upheld, but that it was upheld in the way that it was). Maybe next week, although frankly there will probably be a bigger news story by then. So, on to my three things...

First of all, Magic Mike is awesome...just thought you needed to know that. It's not a terrible movie, really, and there is just so much campy man candy that it can't be counted as anything other than fantastic.

Second, I am pretty sure that Munchkin got maybe a little bit drunk at the wedding she went to on Saturday, but she won't cop to it. She stayed with another friend of hers, so I didn't see her until Sunday, and she had the good sense to not claim a hangover...but she was definitely dragging a little bit.

Third...headed to the beach for the next five days, and looking forward to it very much! Weather should be good, there should be tons of people around and everyone should be in a great mood. There will hopefully also be fireworks!

And that's all for now...class dismissed!

Are you hiring for "Queen"?

I could write about divine weekend that resulted from The Boy's parents taking the girls to their house Saturday night...and the overwhelming amount of sluttiness that said visit inspired...but instead, I am going to skip that entirely and ask a question.

I know I have some British readers...can anyone tell me what on earth Jubilee is? And more importantly, how do I get one?

Randoms

So...suddenly it is mid-May? Can someone explain to me when that happened, and how it happened without my noticing? Munchkin finishes school next week...NEXT WEEK!!! She is headed to Paris for a little over a week, and then settling in full-time at the beach. In what we now regularly refer to as "her" beach house, since she is the person who spends the most time there...

Memorial Day will likely be our first trip to the beach, which I am looking forward to greatly. As I have mentioned about 1,000 times previously, that is my most favorite place in the whole world, and I love ever single minute I get to spend there. I really start to look forward to going there just after the New Year, and run kind of a mental countdown pretty shortly thereafter. T minus 9 days:-)

I think I spoke a little bit too soon on the baby girls potty training...no further developments on that front. It has been a pretty hectic couple of weeks, and the girls have been out of their routine a lot, which probably doesn't help...hopefully things will settle down and we can get back to that. They are, however, doing a little better with the sleeping again, which is nice.

Mother's Day was wonderfully low key:-) We went to The Boy's parents' house to see his Mom and had dinner with them and his sister and her family. Nothing special, but it was really, really nice. I got adorable homemade cards from the girls (well, really from their teachers at school, since I don't think the girls did their own spelling and card construction:-)). Munchkin wrote me a card that made me cry like she does every year...little secret, I have all of them saved from the last seven years, and I read them periodically. And they ALWAYS make me cry:-)

I am sorry to have no take on this spring's trashy TV. I haven't watched any Dancing With the Stars or American Idol or The Voice or anything else that I usually write about. I am a week behind on Game of Thrones, which I am hopelessly hooked on...and I don't even know if there are seasons of Top Chef or Runway on any time soon. I seriously have to get some more time for terrible television...

Scattershot...how many topics can I cover in one post?

The more I talk (and blog) about it, the more I realize that I am hyper-ventilating over nothing as it relates to Frenchie and his college plans. Still, I am not going to let that stop my from hyper-ventilating:-) The good news is that I likely have nothing to worry about...I am pretty sure that his parents feel kind of the same way, and they obviously do get a vote. Frankly, it makes more sense for them to be worried, as they are the ones who would worry about him making a major life decision for the wrong reason.

So, for now, my plan is to ignore it and hope that it works out how I hope...good plan, right? I think so...

Let's move on and talk about the abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous weather around here. It is MARCH, and today it is going to be in the mid 80's. Those are temperatures that we usually don't see until at least mid-May, and sometimes later. The whole week has been spectacular, and the next few days are supposed to be sort of the same. We will get back to something more seasonable next week, but by then it will be basically April, and we can pretty much kiss winter good-bye (you know, unless we get a massive snow storm)...

The weather has given me a really strong urge to buy a lot of new clothes:-) That, combined with my having taken very little vacation so far this year, has led me to the extremely important decision to play hooky this afternoon with Smoking Hot Roommate...lunch, maybe some cocktails, shopping and enjoying the weather. Sounds like an awfully nice idea to me...no?

Moving on yet again...it has been kind of a whole new experience having Munchkin gone for the week. Not totally new, obviously, because she has been away pretty recently...but for some reason I have never before enjoyed her being away from the perspective of having a brief fling as a "normal" family. And by that, I mean only the un-publishable things that can go on after the children go to sleep:-P

(Do we see how much more demure I have gotten? Three years ago, I'd have written that like it was a scene from a romance novel! Age and motherhood have taken my rough edges off:-P)

Odds and Ends

Three weeks in a row now, Modern Family has totally killed me...it's like they are pulling plot lines out of my old diaries (that I never wrote, but still).
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We actually got a little bit of snow yesterday, which should be a non-story, but it stands as the only snow we have seen here since...oh, October? And even that was questionable (at least around here, further west it was a real storm.) The snow is gone, which leaves us today with just a really cold, rainy day, reminding us that our pleasant winter still has a LONG way to go.
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Tuesday election recap: good night for Romney, obviously. I know there have been stories about Democrats voting for Santorum, but I always question how much things like that really impact an election. However, it is a good thing that Santorum didn't win by less than 1% or else there would have been a revolt. Now we look forward to next Tuesday...although right now it doesn't look like that is going to solve anything definitively. Romney will win a couple, Santorum will win a couple, Gingrich will win Georgia (maybe Tennessee?) and they will all probably live to fight another day...except maybe Newt, this may be it for him.

Watch Ohio, which is a big delegate prize (other than Georgia, which is Newt's home state), and a tremendously important November state. It is also unclear who is going to win, I think Romney is up in some polls, but it is really close...and Santorum's brand of conservatism (I love Jesus and I love labor unions!) may resonate with the GOP voters there.

Also, I get to vote Tuesday...I can almost promise you that I will vote for someone else in November...but I am still voting now. Would anyone care to take a guess...? I will tell you Tuesday if you care...
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Spring break is in a couple of weeks, and Munchkin is headed to Paris. Poor kid, huh? She and a friend are headed to visit Frenchie, which I am once again jealous of. If I stop and think about it, the whole thing remains as completely absurd as ever...but I stopped worrying about that years ago.
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Poor LK got sick while she was asleep last night and didn't really even wake up:-( She threw up just a little bit, but it was only on her blanket, so I didn't have to change her. But a little bit got in her hair, and my efforts to clean it without waking her up didn't quite prevent it from kinda smelling this morning.
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Seems like very little shows up in my Reader these days...do I need some new blogs to put in the rotation? Or is this just a temporary slowdown?
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Holy shit, when did March happen?!?!?

Moving, maybe?

First of all, many, many congratulations to one of my oldest blog-friends, Ally, on the birth of her little baby boy (and by "oldest" I mean "longest time", not like, actually the oldest...I am not real sure who my oldest reader is, unless Jenn's Grandpa Otto reads...speaking of which, he is adorable:-))

Moving on...sorry if you tried to read sometime yesterday and found the site locked...I am not real sure what happened, but my privacy settings got flipped. Also, I seem to have gotten like five different invitations to join new blogs that clearly were not intended for me. Google, what the hell is going on?!?!?

Not a whole lot more to report...we had chicken fingers last night for the first time in a while. You are probably assuming that I have less time for that, but you would be wrong...more often than not, it is Munchkin who has other commitments and can't make it. Busy girl! But she had no basketball games, theater practices, group projects or other things to do last night, so we went out right after the girls went to bed around 8:15 or so. I will admit that it is nice to have an older kid who don't have to be in bed before me and can stay out a little later:-)

Speaking of teenage daughters, Modern Family was killing me again this week...that may be my new favorite show.

We have sort of started house hunting again, which is actually sort of frustrating. While I seem to have heard a lot about a housing recession, and falling home prices...that appears to be something of an urban legend, at least as judged by things for sale in the places that I want to live. Really, I am hoping to have this discussion with someone from Manhattan, or maybe London, just so that I can feel like things are reasonably priced...

Case in point... here we have a lovely three bedroom condo (which could be four) that seems right up our alley. Well finished, great location, good size, parking, etc.

The one problem, of course, is that is is listed for $3 million. That's right THREE. MILLION. DOLLARS. Dollars aren't worth what they used to be, but that is still 2.3 million Euros and 1.9 million pounds. Or, in the universal currency...a shitload of money. In the even more universal currency, that is "more than I have".

So, long story short, I am not sure how much luck we will have in moving. I would love to expand a bit, and a fourth bedroom would be really nice (we have 1,600 and something square feet, plus a deck and some storage space, and three bedrooms now) but it is just gonna cost us a fortune to make any kind of a substantial upgrade. But we will keep looking...

Oh yea...blog

Yeah, so I kinda disappeared for a week there, huh? Sorry about that (humor me...pretend you noticed).

Anyway, nothing fantastic to report, I just got really busy with the first week of school, getting into a new routine, etc. That was moderately complicated by The Boy being away for a couple of days at a conference. Good news is that we should be past all of that nonsense, and hopefully settled into something of a routine for the next couple of months. So you have that to look forward to;-)

And...um...with that, I have nothing to say right now. But hopefully I will later on!

I get it...lay off the seriousness during summer

So, no one liked my serious Friday post, eh? Yea, I get it...summer Fridays are no time for sovereign debt discussions...(although, it was well-timed, as it turns out). So I will lay off of the Federal Budget talk for a while. Just be warned, that is the tool that the old people are using to rob you blind...indifference!!!

Anyway, some nonsense...Project Runway is back on, which makes me all giddy inside. I don't know who I like or don't like yet, so I will hold off on that for a few more episodes. I did hear that there is a Project Runway All-Stars coming on, although it has no Heidi and no Michael Kors. In other words...it is TOTAL BS!!! A hostess that uses contractions? Blasphemy! And Isaac Misrahi is fine, but he is a poor substitute for Kors...too over the top, tries too hard. No way he will be able to use "80's power bitch" in a sentence nearly as often as MK can...

I am OK with the cats, although what I would really love is to see all of the best non-winners together. Mondo and Rami are both on, which is good, but Daniel from Season 2, Emilio from a couple seasons ago and Jillian from the Christian Siriano season would all have to be there to make it a really great season. All of those people were better than some of the winners, and all just sort of ran up against better designers.

Changing gears...last week (really the last two weekends) was the annual "Mrs. Mama Bear's Family Beach Bonanza" where they all invade the beach house. As usual, it was a really good time with TONS of people (the family keeps getting bigger:-))...and Munchkin played hostess for the whole time. Because, as we all know, it is really her house.

She is away at soccer camp this week, then back to the beach for her final week of work, then off to France:-) Tough life that kid leads, eh? On the downside...at the moment it looks like no babies on the France trip, but more on that tomorrow. I think The Boy has talked me out of it, but I still sort of like the idea, so we'll see.

Anyway, until then...call your Congressman and tell him to stop borrowing money on your behalf!

Awkward

After work yesterday, I met a couple of friends for a drink, which involved riding the Green Line about four stops. Normally I would have walked, but it was really hot and I didn't feel like getting all sweaty and gross. And of, course, the T was a mess...the train was late, one was taken out of service so there were a million people waiting to get on, so a couple in a row were packed and everyone was late and in a foul mood.

I was reading, and therefore not paying much attention, but out of nowhere, a girl reached over and tapped another girl (who was sitting, was big-chested and was wearing a very cleavage-intensive shirt) on the arm, motioned to a guy standing next to her and said:

"Excuse me, just thought you should know that this guy has been staring down your shirt since he got on the train."

AWK-WARD!!!

Back from Vacation

Other than the miserable weather, vacation was actually quite nice:-) I did...let's see...absolutely nothing, and it was glorious!

That is not entirely true...I read, I napped, I cooked (and ate) and hung out with the lovebirds a lot. I think I have stopped really wondering about their future. They seem to have, remarkably, settled into a really happy and healthy relationship where they only get to see each other a couple of times a year. I am still not entirely sure how that works when you are their age, but they care very deeply about each other...enough to make it work, I guess.

Interestingly, she didn't cry when he left last night. I think maybe having done this several times now, she knows how fast the time between visits passes, and she doesn't get as sad when he leaves. Smoking Hot Roommate, Big Sis and I have a dinner date with her tonight, which was largely intended to cheer her up, but I am not even sure that the cheering up is needed. Which means we can use the time to try an embarrass her, and to badger her with the 1,000 questions that we all have before she heads back to the beach tomorrow:-)

Changing subjects...while I was relaxing at the beach, The Boy was busy being a single Dad of two little girls (well, except for the night his Mom stayed over). And since I was gone the weekend prior, that made for him having them by himself for most of a week (I was home for two days last week). I need to acknowledge that he is much better at that than I am...he has more patience and gets much less flustered than I do.

But, even with his Daddy talents, they are a handful, and by the time he got them fed, packed up and in the car on Friday night and drove all the way here (which includes a ferry), he was absolutely exhausted. I happen to find the ease with which he handles parenting absolutely adorable, so I put him directly to bed and rewarded him with two of his favorite things...(hint: they both start with "b", have seven letters and one of them is a backrub...;-))

The weekend was nice...pretty low key, weather was kinda blech. Just hung out at the house, played with the girls, ate and drank too much and laughed a lot. Pretty good, if you ask me:-)

Being a Bad Blogger

Has it really been over a week since I blogged? (Don't answer that, I already know...)

Since we last spoke, LK has started walking, and MA is pretty much there. About a week ago, she just stood up and toddled across the room, and was super proud of herself! As she should be:-) MA seems to be determined to catch up, and actually likes walking around a lot more, even though she needs to hold onto something. We went to the Arboretum with The Boy's parents on Sunday and LK was perfectly content to ride around in the stroller all day, but MA just wanted to hold on to someone's hand and walk. And giggle:-)

While I appreciate the ambition, she can't quite keep up much of a pace. Still, I have to feel like she is a day or two away from walking on her own without holding anything, and that will be really big news!

Mother's Day was nice, definitely low key. I got a couple of cards and The Boy made me breakfast (but he makes me breakfast most days, so that isn't a huge difference:-)). Munchkin bought me flowers and wrote me a card that made me cry...also nothing new there;-). Then, The Boy's Mom and Dad came down and we went to the aforementioned Arboretum for the Lilac festival. It was really hopping on Sunday, and such a pretty place:-) If you are ever in Boston...

Munchkin has like two weeks of school left...JEALOUS!!!

Sick!!!

Super sick...totally LK's fault...she has been sick for a few days before me.

Monday night, I was so cold that I spent the whole evening underneath three blankets and wrapped in a giant sweatshirt, but I still couldn't warm up. Yesterday, I was a freaking mess...headache, sore throat, stomach ache. Even my back hurt!!! So, I stayed home from work and laid on the couch all day, drifting in and out of naps. I also watched the Swedish language "The Girl Who Played With Fire", which was pretty good.

Feeling moderately better today, but not much. At least I am not feeling remotely as light-headed and dizzy as yesterday, which is obviously good! But just to be safe, I have a babysitter coming over after she gets out of school (hopefully 2:30 or so) to help me out. And maybe let me nap a little bit:-)

I guess that's about it...pretty exciting, eh?