Nine for a little bit after Tuesday

I'm stealing the idea Boss stole since she's had a good two weeks to make good on the weekly post thing.

Here are my 10 not nearly as entertaining things for this week:

I'm so completely and utterly sick of politics right now, and so guess what?  I'm running a campaign for a spot in the AMA.  I will be printing campaign stickers, pins, cards... it's gonna be out of control.

Speaking of being out of control, my son is really excited about halloween.  Not to steal the Boss' thunder, but she has made some super cute costumes for our kids.  She was even specially nominated to be our ward witch for a party tonight (I'm still not sure whether coming immediately to mind for that special role is a compliment or not). 

Speaking of compliments, I aced my physics test this week.  Which is reassuring considering that I have NO idea what's going on in radiobiology.  I remember loving school SOOO much as a kid.  It was fun, social, and exciting.  Now, after 20+ years of school, it's getting a little stale.

Speaking of stale, I'm on the Atkins diet again.  I hate it.  But it works.  At least, it works for the first two weeks and if you actually follow the guidelines strictly.  I sorta shot myself in the foot with some snacks during the last couple weeks, but I've still lost ~17 pounds in a month.  Some would say this is dangerous.  I would agree.  Do not try this at home.

Speaking of danger, last night some of the areas around Buffalo got several inches of snow.  Why?  Why?  Summer is so beautiful.  Don't let it go!!!

Speaking of beautiful things, I got an ipod touch.  Well, in theory, anyway. I bought it on ebay but it still hasn't shown up.  Actually, this is going to take some explaining.  I convinced myself that if I could buy it with our cashback refund for using our credit card (free money, sort of) that it would be okay to splurge on something so extravagant.  AND I need something to listen to while I work out all my Atkins calories, right?  So, I found one on ebay and figured out that Microsoft is shelling out 30% cash back on ebay purchases under a particular promotion they've got going on.  After weaseling the price down to where I felt it would work, I bought the thing and then realized it was an older version.  So, then I sold it and bought a new one.  With another 30% cashback, I'm making good on the bottom line.  Now I just have to wait for what seems like forever, because hey, it's a random guy in a second floor apartment in Pennsylvania that sold it to me, and he's taking his time.

Speaking of taking time, I'm taking time off to vacation in Utah in Dec.  Go us!  It's not during Christmas, but getting 4 people across the country for $600 is a lot easier if you massage the details.

Speaking of massages, do you know that I get a free massage at work from massage therapy students who come to treat patients but get bored?  How great is my life?

Speaking of a great life, have you met my wife and kids? They are so great, it's unbelievable.  This a warm up for Thanksgiving.  When everything in my life is going wrong, there's one place that I know that I can escape to and be happy.  I love going home, and I know that counts for a lot in our world.  Oh yeah, I should probably include Malcom in that list of people/creatures I love, cuz he does read this blog religiously. Hi Malcom!

Speaking of dogs who can read...

I've got nothing.  I guess it'll just be nine for a-little-after-Tuesday.

10 for Tuesday

My friend Shelley does this "10 for Tuesday" thing on her blog, where she writes about 10 not-necessarily-related things currently going on in her life/head. I've been meaning to steal this idea for a while, cause I always have not-necessarily-related things going on in my life/head too.

Plus, I like the notion of committing myself to weekly* blog entries, as a way to both record the little daily details, and to get me off my parents' naughty list. I'm tired of all the good kids always showing me up with their weekly e-mails. I mean, I love hearing about what's going on, but it's really starting to make me look bad. I'm not saying I'm worried about losing standing as Mom and Dad's favorite kid. I'm just saying it's time for me to shape up a little bit.

1. Speaking of shaping up, after a celebratory slice cake on my birthday, Coach put himself on a diet. I decided I should probably join him, since it was my birthday cake and all. So we've been watching what we eat and exercising more, and now a couple weeks later we're each down a few pounds. I'm encouraged but ambivalent. On the plus side (ha ha) losing weight will make us both healthier. But meal time has become quite complicated; Coach is following the Atkins diet and I'm doing old-fashioned calorie counting. I've come up with a few meals we can all eat together, but between diet plans and picky eaters, we usually each have something different on our plates. The whole process is time consuming and expensive. And it makes me a little bit grumpy. And I'm not sure I wouldn't rather be fat and happy than less fat and grumpy.

2. Speaking of snacks, I noticed a couple days ago that Grace's car seat had become so encrusted with cheerios and cracker crumbs that it was attracting ants. So this morning I hauled out the power washer and sprayed the whole thing down. It was awesome. You know how those woven straps trap in the crud and get sticky and twisted, and really quite unpleasant to have to handle several times a day? Well, let me tell you, spraying the crud out of those things with the high pressure hose is really quite satisfying. When the car set was finished, I brought out Grace's booster seat. And then I realized I was soaked and freezing, so I went inside.

3. Speaking of stuff that's not dirty, Coach bought me a beautiful ring for my birthday. I've been wearing it a lot. Almost every day. (This is unusual for me. ) Like I'm married or something. It's so sparkly, I don't even miss getting hit on.

Here I am modeling it while practicing hand positions for a scary shadow puppet show. (OK, the truth is that although I took several shots with my hand in a much more natural positions, every single one of those was out of focus.)

And here it is as it was intended to be displayed: on an invisible hand in a studio with bright lights and a professional photographer. (Thanks Overstock! Copyright, schmopyright!)4. Speaking of copyright, initially I misspelled the word "copyright above." No worries, though, because Firefox alerted me. "Coyright" is not a word. "Schmopyright," however, is. Apparently.**

5. Speaking of words that aren't words, Grace has an adorable collection of them. Airplane sounds a lot like "ooooh!" Pretty is pronounced "pe-ay." Squirrel, cat, and bunny, are "goggie." Doggie is "goggie. To the untrained ear, these vocalizations might be unrecognizable. But no one could misunderstand Grace's requests for a cookie. That, she enunciates perfectly: "COOOOOOKIE!"

6. Speaking of cookies, I made some for Sam to take to his school bake sale today: round sugar cookies frosted orange and topped with gummy tarantulas. They weren't what I'd call delicious, but elementary students don't seem to be particularly discriminating when tarantula-shaped sugar is involved. Am I right?

7. Speaking of fundraisers, the bake sale was just the latest in a string of school fundraisers. Over the last few weeks, Sam has come home with practically every fund raising catalog ever printed. Should you find yourself in need of wrapping paper/chocolates/calendars/popcorn/candles/novelty items, you'd better check with some of the kids in your neighborhood or something. Because I threw all of Sam's catalogs away. Sorry.

8. Speaking of stuff I'm not really all that sorry about, Coach "accidentally" ran over one of Sam's orange cones this morning. He said it made a satisfying crunching sound, and that when he saw it shattered to bits in the driveway he couldn't help but laugh a little.

I doubt Sam would have seen the humor. But lucky for all of us, I cleaned up the carnage before Sam happened upon it. Now let's just hope he doesn't count his cones and realize he's down to just three.

9. Speaking of counting, if I've done mine right, I'm just about finished. And not a minute too soon, cause it's time for me to go pick up Sam at the bus stop. This is one of Grace's favorite parts of the day, because as we stand at the corner she gets to point out every bus ("buuuuh") and car ("uuuuh") and van ("uuuuh") that passes by. I admit, it's one of my favorite parts of the day too.

10. Speaking of favorite parts of the day, what's yours?



*Don't bother pointing out that today is not Tuesday, or that I've been working on this "weekly" post for a week and a half now. There are all kinds of irregularities in the space-time continuum. Let's just say this is one of those.

**FYI, eventually, Firefox did alert me to my misspelling of the word "schmopyright."