Month: July 2006

Cassidy is completely infatuated with Hans. Completely. She spent most of the day making him beds, decorating his “room”, chasing him around the house with toys, BEING chased around the house with toys, etc… Finally at bedtime I carried him in the room and put him up in the bed with her hoping that he’d fall back asleep. No such luck.

About 10 minutes later:

Cassidy: Moooooom, Hans won’t let me sleep!!

He had followed her out of the room to the computer room. By “followed” I mean he ran, full throttle, through the room with a red yarn ball toy in his mouth and a pink scarf following behind him that seemed to be stuck to his back claw.

Me: Well, he’s playing now so when he’s worn out I’m sure that he’ll come back in and fall asleep.
Cassidy: With me?
Me: I don’t know, baby. I can’t make him sleep somewhere but I’m locking him out of my room now that you are home so I bet he’ll come down and sleep with you.
Cassidy: Okay.
Me: Gimme kisses.

She went back to bed.

10 mintues later:

Cassidy: *hardly able to talk she’s crying so hard* Moooooooom, I can’t sleep without Hans!
Me: Good. Lord.
Cassidy: *climds into my lap.*
Me: Baby, he’s gonna drive you NUTS right now. I lock him out of our room when he starts playing like that because I can’t get any sleep!
Cassidy: But I want him to want to sleep with me.
Me: Are you sad that you had to leave Daddy’s today?
Cassidy: No! I want Hans to sleep with meeeeeeeee.
Me: Okay. As soon as I see him lay down and start to get sleepy I’ll bring him back in and see if he will stay. And I told you before, I’m locking him out of my room tonight and he doesn’t like to sleep alone so I’m sure he’ll come sleep with you. But I can’t PROMISE you where he’ll end up sleeping.
Cassidy: Okay.
Me: Can you get back into bed now? You are going to do a lot of playing tomorrow and I don’t want you to be all cranky.
Cassidy: Not yet. *grabs on to my neck*

After she finally got back into bed I went and checked on her about 5 minutes later and she was out cold. It was a long day for her. She was up at 3AM for the trip home and was trying like hell to stay awake to catch the end of BB7 so I’m sure it was a combo of being tired, having to leave her dad, and Hans running through the house like a rabid animal. But damn, it feels good to be the booboo kisser again. The wiper of the tears. The fixer of the problems. The one she wants to cuddle with. So.. So.. Good.

And now I’m off to cuddle with Ben who’s had a headache for two days. Hopefully I can cuddle away his pain too. 🙁

All is now well with the world.

.
And becuase it’s just too cute not to post… she made a “room” for Hans. I’m SO GLAD that he decided to crawl into that bed all on his own or she might have been heart broken!! 😉

I thought this was a cute meme and since I said that Julie and Kristen would be the most likely to reply I figured I better let them know the need to so I’m posting it here too.

1. First name? Anna
2. Were you named after anyone? Not that I know of
3. What is your favorite piece of jewelry? A ring w/matching earrings Ben gave me for Valentines Day two years ago.
4. What is your favorite lunch meat? Turkey
5. When did you last cry? Yesterday watching the Brady Wedding on TV. Totally embarrassing!!
6. Kids? One, Princess Cassidy.
7. If you were another person would you be friends with you? Yeah!
8. Do you keep a journal? http://www.aflux.net
9. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Of course not (<- Get it!?!) 10. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes, they are huge. Every new doctor I go to reminds me of how gigantic they are. And I'm KEEPING THEM! 11. Would you bungee jump? For sure. 12. What is you favorite cereal? Captain Crunch w/crunch berries. 13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Nope. 14. Do you think you are strong? Sometimes. 15. What is your favorite ice cream? Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fugde Brownie. 16. What is the first thing you notice about people? Smile 17. Red or Pink? Pink 18. What is the least favorite thing about yourself? Right now? Weakness when it comes to saying NO to good food (See: food that contains wheat). 19. Who do you miss the most? Cassidy. 🙁 But she comes home this weekend. 20. Do you want everyone to send this back? YES 21. What color pants and shoes are you wearing now? Brown cords, black flip flops. Totally don't match. 22. The last thing you ate? A big plate of watermelon and cantaloupe. 23. What are you listening to right now? NPR on WNYC 24. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Slate Blue 25. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Ben 26. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, she's a Lotus Sisterâ„¢!!! 27. Favorite Drink? Ice cold Diet Pepsi 28. Favorite Food? Indian 29. Favorite sport to watch? Anything from the summer Olympics. 30. Eye color? Hazel.= 31. Scary movie or happy endings? Happy Ending 32. Last movie you watched? Iron Eagle's. hahaha Corny 33. What color shirt are you wearing? white 34. Summer or winter? Summer 35. Hugs or kisses? hugger 36. Favorite dessert? Creme Brulee!! 37. Most likely to respond? Julie, Kristen 38. Least likely to respond? ? Not sure? 39. What book are you reading? Body for Life/vegetarian cookbooks to find things I can eat AND enjoy. 40. What's on your mouse pad? A picture of my collogues! 🙂 41. What did you watch last on TV? A TiVo's episode of Big Brother All Stars. 42. Favorite sound? Cassidy laughing. 43. The furthest you have been from home? Canada 44. Do you have a special talent? I can take any sewing pattern you put in front of me and SCREW IT UP. 😀 45. When were you born? 09/10/78 46 Where were you born? Armpit of Hell, CA. DIRECTIONS..New ones..I like these! Here's what you do, don't spoil the fun....Hit reply,(or any other smart way you know of on computer) delete my answers and type in your own answers. Then send it to a whole bunch of people you know INCLUDING the one who sent it to you, so we can learn a lot of little known facts about those you know, (like what color shirt you are wearing right now!)

I know that we have been spared so far. You have hit two block south, and just a few blocks East. Then you decided to fluctuate for 30 seconds earlier and even though it’s was 98 fucking degrees outside I felt the cool chill of death slide over me as I started to melt into a puddle in my computer chair.

Then, mercifully, you came back on. Thank you. Please, stay on. For the sake of the hot hot kitties. And my fever blister. If it gets any bigger I’m going to start dressing it and name it Sue.

-Me

Ben and I have determined the President is gay. In a completely non-heterosexual kind of way.

In other news, as much as I love MSNBC, this article has a completely over the top (and way way way too far to the left) headline:

Bush to stem cell community: Drop dead

President Bush’s embryonic stem cell policy began with lies and has now ended with one.

Bush reserved his first veto as president for one of the only valuable things this do-almost-nothing Congress has managed to actually get done.

With a flourish of a veto pen that has remained dormant no matter how dopey Congress has been, the Senate bill allowing public funding of embryonic stem cell research has been consigned to the legislative trash can.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

An administration that has shown itself over and over again to have trouble telling the truth is now telling Americans in wheelchairs, those with damaged hearts, babies who are diabetic and those left immobile by Parkinsonism not to worry. The president, whose grasp of science left him unable to identify creationism as a fundamentally religious idea, and his trusty sidekick Karl Rove, rarely seen in a white lab coat but who knows something about rats, having been in Washington for some time now, claim to know best which medical research is most likely to benefit diseased Americans in the future.

While the bolded line actually made me spit water with laughter, the entire point of the article was lost to Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.’s leftist diatribe. We lib’s are fighting the good fight, Art. You don’t need to hand them loaded guns!! Not that Fox News is any better when swinging the other way, but sheesh, that even made me wince.

Maybe I just needed something publicly acceptable to whine about…

I feel lately like there’s an invisible force holding my creativity hostage. Like there are 10,000 funny stories and comments and commentary fighting to get out and when I sit to let it out I just… I just sit. I think the problem is that I’ve been throttling what comes out of my mouth and when I feel like I have to do that it starts to effect me in multiple areas of my expressive self. Like here on the blog.

For the first time ever the thought of closing the site to disappear back into obscurity has occurred to me. Open up somewhere else and use an alias where I can be free to speak openly about the things I used to be able to here but can’t anymore because too many people out there don’t have skin thick enough to take me. It’s an internal battle I hate fighting. I have a very short path from brain to mouth. In real life that can get me into trouble. Here in the site however where there are backspace and delete keys I feel like the words that do come out are viewed as more calculated and sharp. Even though they really aren’t.

That path goes against every fiber of my being though. It’s not ME to hide my thoughts or, in this case, my words. I need to find an acceptable balance somehow.

No, I haven’t updated. I’m half way through the 300 pictures Cassidy took Saturday night. No, I don’t feel bad about it. Well, maybe a little. But not much.

I’m still trying to recover from the GODDAMN HOT HOT HEAT of Bakersfield. Ugh.

*hugs San Jose*

I miss her SO much. Two days. I keep telling myself that I’m doing this because I’m a good mom. Even though he doens’t call for six months, and hasn’t paid me child support in over two years, she should get to know her dad. She should. But goddamn I miss her.

Two more days…

Last Friday Ben’s motor went into limp mode just before the crest of turn 5 at Thunderhill (think, mini corkscrew-ish a la Laguna Seca). He made it back into the pits and a quick scan threw a code pointing to cylinder 3. After pulling the plug you could see that a valve was bent. After a few ignition bumps it was clear it was stuck open. Fuck.

We didn’t know if it was open far enough to be tapping the piston though. Well, after wrestling the vanos for two days, he and Ivan got it off. Piston 3 took damage. So. That sucks. We thought maybe we could get off with new valves, springs, etc but now at LEAST that piston is going to have to be pulled and that’s sending it close to the edge of the used/crate motor vs. rebuild of this one.

This means the end of track days for probably the rest of the season. I feel bad. Ben loves to drive. It’s a passion. It’s a release. The fact that he’s not going to get to do that for ahwile sucks. I’m sorry, honey.

I’ll be in Bakersfield this weekend for a big Reid Family Shindig. Weather.com is saying 104° for Saturday and 106° for Sunday. Ugh. Ben won’t go to B-town if it’s over 100° and I don’t blame him a bit. My dad and step-mom are driving in for the party then getting the heck outta there. SO! I’ll have some free time down there if anybody wanted to get together, say, Sunday afternoon.

I got 46 out of 50 before I had to cheat. Two were very regional. If you are on the West Coast with me you probably won’t get it. Anyway, it was fun. And I realized what a good job advertisements do with burning an image into our brains. There will be a few, I’m sure, where you go ‘I KNOW THAT! DAMMIT!! WHAT IS IT!?!?’

Lets see how you all do: Logo Quiz (requires excel)

For the answers CTRL+A or highlight from here: 1) Little Debbie, 2) Six Flags, 3) Cingular, 4) Good Year, 5) Chef Boyardee, 6) Amnesty International, 7) Earthlink, 8 ) WNBA, 9) Chiquita, 10) Castle Dental, 11) Fiesta, 12) Radio Shack, 13) Tommy Hilfiger, 14) Chase, 15) March of Dimes, 16) Infiniti, 17) Prudential, 18) Pet Smart, 19) Blue Bell, 20) Scholastic, 21) Napster, 22) Quiznos, 23) Lowes, 24) Chuys, 25) WB, 26) Cold Stone, 27) Charmin, 28) Black Cat Fireworks, 29) TGI Fridays, 30) Time Warner Cable, 31) Harley Davidson, 32) T-mobile, 33) Kellogg’s cornflakes, 34) Wilson, 35) Hundai, 36) HNL, 37) Chick-Fil-A, 38) Turner Classic Movies, 39) Sesame Street, 40) US Marine Corps, 41) ADDIDAS, 42) Black and Decker, 43) GEICO, 44) Starbucks, 45) Subaru, 46) John Deere, 47) Starkist, 48) TIVO, 49) Fruit of the Loom, 50) Sherwin Williams.

The ones I didn’t get right away: 6, 10, 11, 38

I should apologize for my total lack of blogging lately but I’m not going to because I’m not an “I’m sorry” kind of person. I’m more of a “meh” kinda girl. So, meh.

We are all well. Hans is tEh cute. KC is starting to warm up to him. She still hisses and acts all Queen Of The House-ish but it’s more playful now. She and Hans hunt each other. It’s funny. Especially when one is hunting and doesn’t realize the other one was already on the trail and they suddenly realize that OMG THAT CAT IS TRYING TO KILL ME. Funny in a shake the pictures off the walls kinda way.

Hope you all had a good 4th. Ours was very laid back. Had a few friends over, watched Germany get beat, watched a movie, ate lots of yummy food. Later that night we watched some fireworks for a few minutes from out bedroom window upstairs then realized that the show on about fireworks all over the work was much prettier, being in uberhighdef and all.

The rest of the weekend looks promising. But first I have to get rid of this headache. I think I’ll go try and hunt up some chocolate and do just that.

I went 6 days having pretty much no wheat. I’m sure there were a few offenders that made it in there because I’m still learning what does/does not have wheat or wheat byproduct in it. Like soy sauce, who’d think that SOY SAUCE can cause a reaction to people who are allergic to WHEAT. So that pretty much cuts out ALL chinese food. Because even if you tell them not to cook using it, they aren’t going to clean an entire grill just for you so you are going to get trace amounts. I’m not even really sure if I can have “trace amounts” yet.

Anyway, I went six days. Then on the way to get the GTI smogged Friday I was SO hungry. I knew that I’d have to smog, get to AAA, drop off the GTI and pick up the M3 from home, get to my mom’s ACROSS the city (@ 5:00PM on a Friday kicking off a four day weekend) in two hours so my only chance to grab something was before the smog. I considered stopping into Starbucks for a shaken iced tea but I was REALLY hungry and that would not have held me over. I ended up at Taco Bell instead. Looking back this was really, really, really, REALLY not the smartest move. Had I been thinking (SEE: Not giving into the craving of having something I KNOW I shouldn’t because I’d been SO GOOD for SIX DAYS and what was ONE little tiny burrito really gonna do anyway?) I’d have gone to McDonalds and picked up a salad. At 3:30PM I sat down in the waiting room at Speedy Smog and practically INHAILED the burrito. So. Hungry.

At exactly 5:35PM, on the way to Tandori Bites with my mom and Cameron I realized I was itching and looked down to see my ENTIRE left arm covered in 10,000 tiny little hives. I got some plain tandori chicken (dry clay baked with onions and green peppers) and by the time we left there (6:30ish?) the hives were all over both arms and starting to crawl up my legs. They hung around pretty much all weekend and today they are kinda there but I think it’s more mental leftover itching.

So. I can’t really say that it’s the burrito that caused the hives. They use monster tortillas there so… I dunno. This week I’ll avoid it alltogether again and maybe eat something SMALL with wheat this weekend and see how things go.

Every time I dwell on the fact that I can’t eat SO MANY THINGS I start to get depressed. I LOVE food. I grew up in a the kind of family that double cooks. You know, you’re expecting 10 people so you make enough food for 20. I love good food, exotic flavors, well prepared dishes. But now I’m realizing that depending on the severity of this allergy, I’m going to have to all but cut chinese, italian, mexican cuisine from my diet. I’m hoping that since I’ve never had a serious reaction (anaphylactic shock) that it’s going to be something I can eat in moderation. Maybe I can build up an immunity with shots or something? I dunno. I’m supposed to start taking some meds to treat the symptoms (they can treat the itch but not the hive itself) of the hives and make another appointment for next week and see how I’m doing.

Bleh. I’m being whiney.

The kitten is doing well. We bought a laser pointer Saturday and he is SO FUNNY with it. I’ve uploaded some new video’s at YouTube but I’m waiting for them to authorize. I’ll post them when they do because they are fully of kitty cuteness.