OH! and the big girl learned how to ride a bike!

Due entirely to the ministrations/generosity of the QBGF and without training wheels! My Big Girl Boo is a rockstar!

Turned 40! Got Fired!

It's a mixed bag really.I mean the birthday part is nice. Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me! I'm REALLY happy to be 40 -- i love feeling like i finally get to play in the big leagues. Plus, my GF and CP and Big Girl all conspired to whisk me away to a birthday breakfast this morning which was beyond sweet and I got THE BEST B-Day card EVER from the Big Girl after which i pretty much lounged around all day so.... all really very nice and none of which would have been possible had i still been at THAT place but still. Sucks to get fired even if you know it's coming. Also sucks to have not quite as much of a "buffer" cash-wise as you'd like but c'est la vie. I got to leave when i wanted instead of waiting for those idiots to decide I was no longer of any use to them and I got to have the world's best birthday nap and I just got an e-mail from my dissertation committee wondering if I'm available to have my final proposal hearing "this week or next" so.... again, can't really argue with the timing. Or with how good it feels to not have to drive two hours both ways just to get picked on for dumb stuff. Or with how shocked/concerned/mad everyone seemed to be -- ending with me getting lots of references and recommendations and stuff. Upshot = I think this thing accomplished what it could (got me employed again/through the holidays/more contacts "in the biz"/a coupla fat bonuses) but I still have to say it feels really good to be done with that place.

And when you think 40ieth B-Day presents for your ole pal Chick...

Think this.

useless...

You know what? Sometimes i have NO idea why my GalPal puts up with me. Did she not leave early this morning in order to get some work done so that she might be more able to do me a HUGE favor vis a vis my truck not getting towed and did I not mentally ruminate upon that very fact at the exact same time I was locking the door behind me/realizing I'd left the keys to both the house and her car (which she was sweet enough to lend me) inside! And, yes, i did have to then call her and beg her to come all the way hoem from work to let me and the now freezing 4.5 year old which i am still (for some random reason) being allowed to parent inside to retrieve aforementioned keys. And yes she did come all the way home. And no, she didn't even look at me weird. {sigh} nice that i have the world's best GF -- sad that she cannot say the same.....

in other news, I turned in the little kid's school application to start Kindergarten this morning (yay!). on time and everything (Due entirely to the reminding/prompting of the Daddy Bee, I might add....) I actually turned it in at the #2 site (the #1 choice being the site where the Big Bee girl currently goes) and i just have to say, it seems like Oak-town gets a bad "schools" rap but i actually didn't have all that much trouble finding 5 public schools that I think i'd be more than happy with for a variety of reasons. #2 is like a smaller version of #1 but with a kid-generated and tended garden and the kick-assest principal I've met in awhile. #3 is Dual language Eng./Spanish with an extended before and aftercare program and a "doing instead of reading" about approach to community involvement for the kids. #4 is also a fantabulous school (which actually scored higher on the various school assessment websites that litter the internet) which also sports the added draw of hosting the BBQ's Miss Rose -- it is, however farther away than my other choices so it got some "prioritization points" knocked off, not only because of the added commute time but because of the reduced liklihood that the folks from the current graduating kidcare class would turn up in Spark's K class. (not impossible but still unlikely.) Last and certainly least I put some random school that is fine in most respects (not great or filled with people Spark already knows but good academically and reasonable in terms of class size and API scores) which is science intensive, and which was recommended by some chick who gets coffee at the same time i do at my local coffee place (she's the intake coordinator, I think) and which goes through 8th grade so if we liked it we'd be set through Middle School which is nice to think about.... so. basically, i'm thinking we'll be set no matter where we go. Assuming we get one of our choices. if not, I'll just head on down to the district office with the rest of the pissed-off/entitled parents and kick up the hugest stink this planet has ever seen! ;-)

Well there you go!

So, this just in: the lovely and venerated BBQ will be toasting her bunny-bun-buns down in the Mexico for the next several weeks! Reaction #1: Sah-weet! Reaction #2: um.... why wasn't I invited???

K. I will table the jealousy for the sake of the children and wish her the best. All the best BBQ/J-mo! Hope your vacay is Fantabulous!!!!!!

right. moving on. The mom came. She got hurt. She left. Why, (Why!) am i incapable of hosting the primary parental unit without sending her home in pieces????? Ah well. Prolly her bad for continuing to keep trying to come out here.

{sigh} the parts where she wasn't actually in the ER were nice though. Din-din with the QBGF and her mom, sloshing through the rain, opening late X-mas/early b-day gifts, trying not to react in horror as the puppy essentially forgot every single element of his "training" and proceeded to bury himself up to his wiggling hindquarters into my mom's lap as she smiled gamely/attempted to prevent his razor sharp claws from drawing blood.....

anyway. "the accident" didn't occur until the final day and was (in my opinion) handled quite dexterously by the folks at the San Leandro ER so -- one short knee brace and 5mgs of morphine later and she was good-to-go for her plane ride home! :-)

God. Have i mentioned lately how very extremely tired i am....?

happy New year!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to make the New Year's eve shindig at Chez Magnet/QBGF such a rousing success. I love you all and am delighted that (for whatever reason) I can still convince such quality people to hang around me and drink!

It's been a very long while since the last post so i feel like i should be doing some major updating... thing is -- i'm tired. So. instead i will follow the advice of my ernstwhile Freshman college prof and "utilize bullets more" (which, now that i've written it, doesn't exactly illustrate any outstanding grasp of the ways in which one might go about constructing a superior example of a grammatically correct sentence but whatever. At least he had cool hair.) Right, without further ado and in no particular order, the news:

1) I'm tired right now because i was having sex last night. really nice sex. with my GF. in the bed we're sharing. Every part of that is making me pretty sillily happy right about now.

2) My mom is coming to visit tonight. She'll be staying through Sunday. I think it'll be nice.

3) My little girl is getting a tour of Pixar right now. her kidsitter knows someone who knows someone so... she is proverbially "in like Flynn."

4) I'm completely (sort of) moved out of the old place and into the new. Feels good to be (sort of) done. like i can focus ont he new house/helping the QBGF move the rest of her stuff now.

5) Work still sucks but I've got two potentials I'm following up on so that's encouraging.

6) {blah} really, quite tired. i think i'm gonna wrap this up. more later when i've had some sleep. :-)

Really...?? Again with he bullet dodging????

{sigh} So, again at work, the big (ex-)boss who hates me decides he wants AGAIN to get rid of me and AGAIN the really awfully nice folks who oversee my direct manager (who is USELESS, BTW) step in/run interference -- meaning that AGAIN, i'm switching departments which, I guess is a good thing in that the department i'm going to be in is headed up by someone who is actually reasonable/clear in her expectations and/or directives but still.... Sucks to hear from people how close you keep coming to having a crazy person decide your work fate. Blah. Thankful, that the exceptional Magnet luck continues to hold and that there are folks looking out. still though....

missing everyone

It's weird. it's like the last three of four week-ends I think i've seen everyone in my regular line-up of buddies and yet, it still feels like i haven't had a chance to actually hang out with anyone in forever. Just hanging out. talking to each other and stuff. sheesh. I miss you guys. all of you. {sniff}

K. Sat. attended the QBGF holiday shin-dig instead of going to my own and, my GOD, sooooo the right choice! Not only was the QBGF event mucho fun what with everyone all fancy-pants-ed out and the uber-special dessert, great food, dancing, getting to (finally) meet cute co-workers, etc., etc. but from what I've been gathering from the peeps who dare not speak their names here at work, our HP SUCKED! To begin... no open bar. k. nuff said. So, happy that i got to get fancy and get out with the woman. thanks (again) to the Bees for facilitating. I owe you plenty but, you know this. (Loving the uber-cool new red floor BTW...!) then yesterday (after spending waaaaaaay too much time cleaning, sorting,hauling crap out of the old place) off to get one of the nicest trees I think i've ever seen -- just so wonderfully cute -- with the childrens and the GF and finally back home to decorate/stare at it. sigh. I heart X-mas. I really do!

My puppy is kicking my a**...!

{sigh} O.K. I'm TRYING to understand that we're all in a new house and that Bisquichito is a young dog and that everyone needs a moment or two to adjust to new surroundings but MY god! ALLLLLLLLL night with the whiney little yelp-ey barks because he's by himself in a room for the first time. Sheesh. seriously. Anyone know anyone who wants a dog???? jk. (sort of.)

In other news:

Witness the following conversation had with the Big Girl this morning who was bullied yesterday at some school assembly (!!)

Boo: You know, you're much more supportive of your child when she's been bullied than other parents.
Me: What do you mean?
Boo: Well, I think other parents would have just said "Did you tell a teacher?" and let it go at that.
Me: Ah.....

Note: My actual response was "What???! Do you know what class she's in? See if you can find out and also if she does it again tell her I'm going to come out there, tie her up in a telephone cord and leave her in some field for the crows to eat!"

Guess we can chalk it up to "Different parenting styles", right? heh, heh. heh... eh hem.

Nothing says "Happy Hanukkah" like moving!

First, a much belated HH to all my ethnically Jewish/practicing Jewish/just plain interested in/coupled with Jewish-peeps friends -- BBQ, J., Little A-Rose, Miss Tail... Mazeltov, my angels. Salud! (And yes, I do realize that in the grand scheme of major Jewish festivities this is a relatively minor one, still, i'm finding the ranks of my Jewish-holiday celebrating friends and their loved-ones increasing so I'm trying to get a bit more "up" on the occassions to wish luck, prosperity and overall happy times to folks!)

Next a HUGE thank you to the peeps who assisted with the move this past week-end. First and foremost, Mistah L-L, you are a rockstar sent directly from heaven to remind me of all that is wonderful! Thanks you sooooooo much for your assistance with the Van, the peeps, the gas... just pretty much all of it. (Especially the final mental postcard of you on the bus with the Baby Bratz in one hand and a juice cup in your pocket! Tee hee!) I could NOT have survived the week-end without you. (Also a shout-out to Jesus and Fernando who actually did most of the heavy lifting. Again with the rock-stars. Again with the huge sweeping thanks so very much!) In terms of kid coverage so moving could happen without large heavy things getting inadvertantly placed on top of small, innocent people -- Bees, you again completely rock with the Spark watch-age; I do NOT know what i'd do without you! Much thanks also to the Boo Best Friend's peeps for providing some quality big girl care and tons of gratitude to the eternally adored Miss Tail for providing a little respite at the final hour yesterday eve. You are all wonderful and amazing and i owe you all BIG!

(I should also add in here that without the unerring attention/insane amounts of stamina/just plain perfection-incarnateness of my QBGF, i truly would not be here right now writing to you people. I know i'm lucky but, my gosh, there were so many individual moments this week-end when I think the full compliment of how incredibly lucky i am washed over me and... well... let's just say, if i didn't already have this girl for my very own, i'd be doing everytihing in my power to GET her!)

So, move = mostly done. All the big/mostly necessary stuff has been transferred to the new digs and although there is still a significant amount of smaller crap to sort through and/or dispose of (plus the two houses still waiting to be dismantled) I'm feeling good about what we managed to accomplish....

Sad.

No new job for me. Well, no new job for anyone else there either apparently. The nice folks at the place i wanted to become intimate with just (JUST) realized that they are, in fact hemorrhaging money and will not be filling positions any time soon. And, while i'm tempted to think this is all just a grandiose excuse to let me down gently, they sounded pretty sincere vis a vis apologies (lots of "we love you! Everyone here LOVES you....") and asked that i please "check back" in February or whatever when they get their next round of funding. Still.... much blah, blah, blah, with the final upshot being me still stuck in Paly. Ah well. At least I still have a job to hate while i continue to look. ;-)

In other news, me and the kid have been having a very interesting hemline debate lately. She (4.5 y.o.) loves short, tight skirts. LOVES them. Tight shorts too. and unitards with the legs rolled up with sleeveless shirts. Are we sensing a theme here? My kid is waaaaay into maximum extremity exposure at all times. Which is fine in the summer. It is not summer. It is winter. Meaning that i am in a position of saying "oh no, not in that you don't! You are not leaving the house until you put some clothes on young lady and I mean it!" Does anyone else see the colossal irony in these particular words coming out of MY mouth??? anyone?

Then finally the week-end = great. The Bees once again stepped up with some quality kidcare sos me and the little lady could go out and celebrate the greatness that is Mrs. L-L, aka K. with the rest of the pretty people and that was super nice. Also nice to get to spend some "quality" time with the GalPal who I haven't exactly been allowed to touch due to sickness/scheduling/etc. for weeks...! Which is just sad but which was more than made up for {heh, heh, wink, wink}! And, of course, the added bonus with the subsequent kid pick-up being that i was then fortunate enough to catch the tail end of a phone convo with the always charming Travelin' Man who is spending some quality time extremely close to one of the poles. (not sure which. I was never much good at geography.) Other than that, lots of painting/house preparation/curtain purchasing got done. Little Big Girl was GREAT throughout and I think we may actually be in a position to really start moving stuff on Sat.!! (I know. crazy talk but I gotta dream!)

k. i think that's it for now. My big Big Girl comes home from NYC tonight so I'm looking forward to that in a pretty big way. Also looking forward to sleeping but I'm not gonna get all hopeful over that one. I mean, i may still be trapped in a job I can't stand but at least i'm not delusional! ;-]

I win!

Sorry, that title was meant for an extremely limited population of the readership/in code but for those three or four of you who do understand it -- you know I RULE! K. sorry. where were we... ah yes. HAPPY THANKSGIVING past!

I am Thankful for:

1) my kids. they rule. i would not be one tenth as happy on this planet without them.
2) my girlfriend. Thank you for saving me from a life of self-inflicted me-centeredness. I thank you. My children thank you. Hell, even the puppy is sort of delighted you've arrived.
3) my friends. Bees, BBQ, Miss Tail, Mistah-LL/K -- without you people to keep me honest/sane there would be no me. there would only be a shivering mass of gelatinous crazy-minded silliness. PLEASE do NOT EVER leave me to my own devices. EVER.
4) my family. Who has the best brothers ever???? That's gonna be me. The mom and pops ain't so bad either. At least the combined genepool rocks. ;-)
5) my stuff. Loving the new house, delighted with the books, the piles of crap/treasures, the cars and ultimately the wherewithal to be able to continue adding to the collection without having to choose between the newest Lovett CD and more noodles.
6) my health -- such as it is. Sure I'm always sort of almost about to get sick but here's to the sheer number of times the actual full-blown illness hasn't actually come to pass [knock on wood.]
7) the extraordinary diligence by the angels in charge of looking out for me and mine. Great job, Guys. You are collectively doing one hell of a job and i, for one, am endlessly grateful for the attention.

Oh my freaking God!

{sigh}I. am. exhausted.
I mean,i feel wierd saying that because I'm so completely getting every single thing i want in life but sheesh. Life is work sometimes, knawattamean???

So, the new house continues to be fab. We were there twice today first in the morning to supervise the gas hook-up so i could have hot water/dry a batch of clothes (Did i mention the on-site clothes washer/clothes dryer???? Heaven...) then we took a little walk to one of sweetest parks I've seen in Oakland (b-ball court, tennis courts,afterschool science enrichment club free for for kids 6+, play structure, grassy knoll...) and by little i mean only 4 blocks away! Lunch and massive interior paint ordering happened after that then home for a minute to drop off newly dried clothing, back to pick up newly mixed paint then off to ice skate. We swung by the house one last time to drop off the paint (the sh** is waaaaay to expensive to leave in my truck! Damn low VOCs....) and to have another look at the hood at night and well, gosh, I'm just really liking that place. Plus the back yard is filled with dry yellow leaves that me, the kids and the rockstar who was staying over had a freaking FIELD DAY scampering through!

so, all in all gotta say, sucks that I'm tired/the things i still have to figure out are taking so much figuring out but seriously, me = NOT really complainin'!

Yippee!

We got the house we were looking at over on 41st! Yay. So, much space so little time! k. so i won't ask you all to come help paint but i may be hitting you up for any available paint supplies/ladders/kidcare.... Just remember, you luuuuuvvvvvv meeeeee ;-)

Moving on up!

So, here's this snapshot from the DB who went to the Mavericks/Warriors game last night with his little skate crew and got all posh in the Owner's box....



Food. Drinks. In-suite masseuse (Ha, kidding about that last one! But still...) -- Oh, and I think the Mavericks won, if anyone cares. :-)

broad strokes

Me: [to the Big Girl who has just finished gleefully singing an incredibly violent song about a hawk dismembering a snake] um....
Boo: Hmmm?
Me: So, is that what you're learning in school? About hawks ripping out snake intestines?
Boo: No, silly, BBB (Best Buddy Becky) taught me that!
Me: Ah!
Boo: She also taught me about "broad strokes"
Me: Broad strokes?
Boo: yeah, like how sometimes things are big and clear
Boo: and sometimes they're little and take alot of looking
Me: Really?? BBB taught you that?
Boo: Well, I already knew it but she thinks she taught me so i let her think that.
Me: Ah....
Me: I love you.
Boo: i know.

I LOVE Krafty Kitten (aka The RockStar's Parent)

and not just because she made a Spark Adventure movie!

Smart!

K. so whose 4.5 year old wrote her Mommy's name on a peice of paper on the way to school today? Mine that's who! Oh, sure the letters weren't exactly in order -- i believe we ended with C-N-Y-T-I-A-H but you know what???? Who cares?! Plus she wrote her own name as well in order with all the letters facing the right way (which, considering the "S" as well as the multiple vowels involved, is also pretty huge!) My Spark just rocks so hard.

First let me just say...

HELLO end of Daylight Savings Time -- How much do I love thee?? Let me count the ways!!!!!!

God! i feel like i've been let out of some sort of time-prison... o.k. sorry. I'm just really, really happy things are back to normal with the time thing/I don't have to move to Arizona. Seriously, it's not even like farmers are farming anymore what with all the government subsidies. One would think we could just stop the DST madness already. (i think i may need to write a letter....)

k. So. had a great week-end! Got to see the Girl for extended playtime on Sat. eve/Sunday morn which was really nice PLUS got the bonus hang-out with the BBQ and her trusty Gal-Pal, J. Really. I need to figure out how to make more BBQ hang-age a reality. That girl = quality!

Then, on Sunday proper, me and the babies went ice skating! Fun! (at least until the little one started with the squalling. I'm chalking it up to lack o' sleep, pushed nap-time, hunger issues but I'm also getting a little concerned/prolly gonna look into advanced assessments pretty soon. Not that she's not PERFECT but i just really need to know if there's something i'm missing/should be doing here becasue she is really not happy once the screamy-ness starts. Notwithstanding all of that, she was actually going really good the first few times around the rink. Balanced and everything.) We're planning on making it a regular Sundee things (minus the yelling, i hope) so if anyone wants to come along, yer more than welcome...

And finally, capped the evening off with a late-night/early morning visit from the DB who, almost in spite of myself, I actually may have missed (a tiny, little miniscule amount) so... while i'm not thrilled with the timing of the call, (seriously, Dude, could you at least shoot for something a little bit closer to when normal people are awake??!) i guess i do have to say I'm glad you're back on this continent. Oh and really liking the bike. See! Isn't it fun to have a real job so you can buy new stuff/explore new ways to try to kill yourself? ;-]

Is it too much to ask for a little "fate" to step in???

Gosh. I have got a LOT going on right now. Or potentially going on i guess. I don't want to list everything because I'm afraid of jinxing it but suffice to say pretty much every area in my life is ripe for major shaking up and yet (and still) no one is calling me back! k. sorry. Just needed to put that out there.

in other news, Hallows-een was FAB! I don't think i've seen cuter kids and that was just the batch that were with us! I especially like how the adult to child ratio seems to be holding at appx. 2 grown-ups per... what is it about having adorable little people that makes us adults want to hang around them so much. I mean, sure i get that there's prolly some evolutionary component to it but still! K. next time we're going to need the Bee children along to try to even this out a bit. Seriously. It's ridiculous.

Alrighty, because I am proving too lazy to write/call individual people, here are some public notes:

Craft-Kitten (aka Rockstar's parental unit) - if you find a random clarinet atthe house it's ours. I'm a loser/forgot it the other night. I'll call you to arrange pick-up. Thanks!

Bees - thank you soooo much for watching the Little-little one whilst me and the Chick-friend are getting our going out on! (I love you more than any other couple on the planet! Really...)

DB - Sorry, going with you guys to see Warriors vs. Dallas sounds GREAT but 1) I already have plans that night and 2) I'm not really interested in watching a bunch of padded men trying to hurl things through a goalpost or past a goalie or wahtever.... (yes, I know it's basketball. Still couldn't care less.) Thanks anyway!

BBQ - What're you doing tomorrow night? Call me!

Abby-tail - you. are. hilarious. And yes, you should stop it.

K. I guess that's it. kisses to you all. much love. peace out!