It's Official

She's finally gotten into the garbage.  And I couldn't be more pleased.

Perspective

As you might have guessed from my last post, I am feeling a bit of the midwinter blues, and it's not really even midwinter yet. This has left me in a general state of dissatisfaction, but with little energy to do anything to change anything.

It was in this state that something I read reminded me of an old friend of mine from college, so I Googled her. I found that she is currently the CEO of a financial management firm that she founded several years ago (at age 27), that caters to "professional athletes, entertainers, and other high-wealth individuals". She still looks as good, if not better, than she did in college, which is saying something.

I know enough about her life (at least until age 25 or so) that I don't truly envy her, although the last I had heard about her she had been able to overcome some pretty bad parts of her life to find some personal happiness. But I have to admit that I envy her career, her intelligence (she earned a law degree and M.B.A. simultaneously, while going out nearly as much as I did -- and I didn't graduate), and frankly, I envy that she is 5'10" tall and weighs as much as my right thigh.

I went downstairs to get ready for bed, and check on Peanut (you can see where this is going, can't you?). She was awake, which I was kind of hoping for (when I stayed at home with her, I prayed and prayed that she would go to bed early and stay asleep late, but now I can't stand putting her to bed--one more reason working is probably the best choice for our me). She said "Mama!" and proceeded to chatter away, telling me about Pooh and Lumpy and Baby (her little Panda). She talked about Sophie and barked and panted to show me what Sophie says. She took my face in her hands and named all the parts she knew, and then started pointing to parts she doesn't know, for me to name them (apparently we hadn't gone over "neck" and "upper lip" before). She started playing with the straps of my tank top while telling me about Boppa and Dada and Kee and every other possible thing she could think of to keep me from leaving the room. Then she started saying, "Hoppy, hoppy", which I think is Hop, because she's started say "Uppy" for up, and we were talking about Rabbit and Piglet and Tee-er. So I say, Yes, Rabbit hops, but she repeats it. And then she started making the sign. "Are you saying you're happy, Peanut?" She smiled hugely and nods, Yes.

Yes, Peanut, Happy.

I Hate Jingle Bells

I am telling you, I do not play piano well but I will be more than happy to travel to Sesame Street and teach Elmo how to play a different goddamn song on the piano RIGHT NOW.

Work has been kicking my ass, along with assorted chores that being a responsible parent, homeowner, friend, and petowner/foster parent require. I haven't been able to do anything but collapse into bed each evening pretty much for the last few weeks. So I am behind on emails, blogreading, forum reading, you name it. The good news is that I have some cute pics of Peanut (since that's all anyone comes here for, after all), the bad news is that I have to scan them and that would necessitate staying coherent past seven pm. I have had a lot of lovely people comment on my blog lately, and I would like to respond to you, so please be patient if I haven't, or if you've emailed me and I haven't responded. I suck, I know.

Nikki, if you see this, your present is going to be late because it has to be delivered to my house instead of yours, for some damn reason.

I'm PMS'ing, with my period due on Christmas Eve, so yes, I'm a bit cranky.

Why I Love Where I Live, Part 2

The man angrily snatches the blue and white ticket from underneath his windshield wiper, and peels out into the street. Though his meter has been expired since 9 a.m. and it is nearly six hours later, he drives past Kip Rosenthal and flips him the bird.

Just another day for Rosenthal, the city of Madison's parking enforcement officer. But he interprets the gesture a bit differently than the average person.

"I think he just had the need to exorcise out some negativity, and that's awesome," he says. "Maybe he won't participate in road rage somewhere down the line."

Let Me Just Wipe This Chicken Blood Off My Chin

From the December 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.

O'REILLY: All right, well, listen, Jackson, we respect your opinion, but you're dead wrong on this one. Now --

BAIN: Well, maybe.

O'REILLY: -- in the South, Richmond Times[-Dispatch], for example.

BAIN: Right.

O'REILLY: Now, this is a conservative city, Richmond. I mean, this is not Madison, Wisconsin, where you expect those people to be communing with Satan up there in the Madison, Wisconsin, media.

Randomness

• How come on Little Bear, the toad can't talk but the frog sounds like a professor of diction?
• Does anyone else hate Baby Bear on Sesame Street as much as I do? I would rather listen to Barney all day than ten minutes of that creature.
  
• So a few weeks ago, I ran into the woman who first suggested that I was "lucky" that Peanut wasn't walking yet. We chatted, asking about each other's kids. I told her that no, she isn't walking, but her speech is coming along, and she can even count now, and recognize her numbers. "Oh really? Wow. B-- can't count yet..." (B is 3 months older than Peanut). The feelings I had were wrong, just wrong, I know.
• Did I mention that Peanut not only can count ("On, Ooo, Tee), but she can point to the number and say it? She confuses 7 for 2 and 9 for 6 sometimes, but still. And you should see her try and figure out how to hold up three fingers when she counts to three.
• Don't worry, I haven't gotten a Harvard application yet. She still doesn't realize that she can control where she goes on her scooter, so when she wants to get something across the room (and she can't get there by going backwards--she's big on going backwards) she asks to go "up!" instead or wants me to get it for her.
• I can't find my digital camera, so that's why there are no pictures of her on the scooter posted. The question you should be asking isn't, "How can she misplace an expensive piece of electronics like that?", it is "How did she manage to keep track of something smaller than her head for more than an hour in her house, considering the condition it is in?"
• So we went to Houston last weekend for Big Daddy's big birthday (he's just old, we don't need to use actual numbers anymore). We saw Jennifer and family (Big Daddy was best man in their wedding), which was wonderful. Man, those kids are cute, aren't they?
• On the way home from Houston, we flew from Minneapolis to Madison with Al Franken. He flew coach, carried his own luggage, was gracious signing autographs, and was sweet to Peanut. I was a fan before, but even more so now.
  
• It's really freaking cold here. Well, really cold, anyway. But Big Daddy finally cleaned out the garage, so I can park my car in it. Woohoo!
• Did you realize that my post on the bad sci-fi book got more comments than anything else I've ever posted?
• The state's sex offender website now has addresses (it used to be just a listing by zip code). I knew that across the street and down the block there was some kind of halfway-house/transitional housing, but that didn't really bother me, as they are all over Madison, helping substance abusers, the disabled, etc. Of course, now I see that they are housing a man convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a child. One that the state tried to obtain a sex-offender commitment on after his sentence was complete, as a "sexually violent person", which isn't all that common to do (the petition was denied). We won't be walking over there anymore.
  
• I now have three kittens and a possibly pregnant mama cat in my spare room right now. This is in addition to the three cats and dog already roaming the house. I don't think this officially makes me a crazy cat lady, but it certainly makes me eligible. Anyone looking for a kitten?
• Why is it that I can write wonderful posts (trust me) in my head all day long, but as soon as I sit in front of the computer, they fly right out of my head?