I don't know about you, but I'm getting fired up!

Was just at Jay Fisette's kick-off and had a blast. All sorts of people were there getting totally jazzed about the election. Creigh Deeds, Jody Wagner, Steve Shannon, and Jim Moran were there, along with Ken Plum and a host of other luminaries.

And, bloggy fangirl that I am, I am totally psyched that I met teacherken!

The whole crowd was truly buzzing with the energy generated by our great candidates. It's going to be a great campaign season, folks. I can feel it.

Can you?

Been a bit crazy around here

Seriously, and yet not much to write about.

Except this coming week is the last week of MM's first-grade year.

I'm all verklempt.

And the Democratic Party Nominees are...

Creigh Deeds and Jody Wagner!!!

Congratulations to the both of you!
As I said two posts ago, we had an excellent crop of candidates this year. I am really pleased that both our new nominees won so decisively - great momentum going into November!

I'm so excited to start knocking doors this weekend! MM's coming with me.

Virginia Primary Day - RIGHT NOW!

Polls opened at 0600. I voted at 0710. Was third person at my polling place to vote.

No yard signs, nobody handing out lit. Granted, our polling place is small, but still!

Candidates! Step it UP!

MM marked the ballot for me. Moran & Wagner. We both got stickers.

Now, it's your turn. If you're a Virginian, go vote!!!

Virginia Primary Day TOMORROW

I'm voting for Brian Moran for Governor and for Jody Wagner for Lt. Gov.

While I like all three candidates for Governor, Moran and I agree on more issues than the other guys and I.

And I've already told you about my lovely conversation with Jody.

Wednesday will see me happily packing the winners' lit into a bundle with ours* no matter who that is, but today I'm asking you to go tomorrow and vote for Brian and Jody. I think they are the best choices for the job.


*Look at the fun time we had at the Herndon Festival!!

UP

...Was delightful. I think I enjoyed it more than Muffin Man and DeepVoicedFirstGrader, but they liked it very much as well.

They are now down in the playroom plotting to use Lego to take over the world while I bake brownies in the hope of achieving world peace through tummy dominination.

Blogging the Lost

Anyone see my copy of HP7? We finished HP6 last night and I can't find it.

Maybe I loaned it to someone?

I guess I'll borrow it from the library if I can't find it.

Fluff

Bought some dresses on-line from JC Penney and they arrived yesterday. One was a YES! (though it needs a bit of hemming on the bottom and taking up the shoulders on the top), one was a NO! (truly a no-hoper), and one required a second opinion. It has now been agreed that the third one is a keeper with hemming and the inclusion of a button on the jacket to make it say, "tailored" instead of "potato sack".

This is truly helpful since I will be attending several summer events and don't want to show up in the same primrose dress for all of them.

In other news, we bought new Keen sandals (alas! no orange this year) for MM and, due to the fact that I had a LOT more money on a Nordstrom's card than I thought, they cost us a grand total of $1.24.

On re-reading Jeeves and Wooster

Has there ever been so nice and easily imposed upon a person as Bertie Wooster? Yes, he's not an intellectual powerhouse, but what he goes through for his friends!

Once again, Cecily nails it.

If I weren't already pro-choice, reading Cecily's blog would have made me so. Please go read what she has to say about Dr. Tiller.

Also, read this post on Daily Kos.

MM is a great little campaigner

At the Herndon Festival he handed out lit saying, "This is my dad!", he handed out balloons, he handed out stickers.

He was adorable and worked really hard. I rewarded him with fair ware. He's now the proud owner of a red sparkly handmade snake from the quilting booth and a helicopter from the vehicles-made-from-soda-cans booth.

He also had ice cream, lemonade, and funnel cake. All-in-all, a good festival.

Before I go out to the next thing...

I need to tell you all that Jody Wagner is terrific. She's smart. She's knowledgeable. She's sensible. She's a great listener. She knows a whole big bunch about how to properly run a state. Plus, she's nice and funny and still in good spirits after a long slog of a primary campaign.

Please vote for her June 9.

Where you can find me this weekend

• Tonight: Handing out lit at the Herndon Festival. Then sleeping.
• Tomorrow: At MM's skating lesson, then handing out lit at the Herndon Festival, then co-hosting a women-only event for Jody Wagner (if you're in my area and want to come and meet Jody, let me know!), then attending an event for the League of Conservation Voters. Then sleeping.
• Sunday: UU Services if I wake up in time, then handing out lit at the Herndon Festival (this is probably the best day to come by if you want to say hi!), then the FCDC JJ Dinner. Then sleeping.
  
  We will gladly accept help handing out lit at the Herndon Festival! Please let me know if you'd like to pitch in! Here's a picture of me doing something similar 2 years ago. Handing out lit is always a fun time.

Just finished reading chapter 27 of HP & HBP to MM

He bawled.

Venting

Yes, I probably DID lose some weight. Six days of non-stop diahhrea will do that. It's not a weight-loss method I recommend.

Stuff I am learning

• I have to take my antibiotics 4 times a day at precise times. Yesterday, I knew I'd be away from home at noon, so I took my pill with me in the morning. However, I was surprised to find myself still away from home at six so needed to rush back to take my medicine. (I was supervising clean-up at the old house)

Lesson learned: I have to take an extra pill with me even if I'm sure I'll be back in time.

• The cafeteria is a long way away from my desk at work (embedding was goofy). I work in the far-right-hand building. The cafeteria is in the big central one. It's a half-mile round-trip walk. And, while normally it's not a problem for me - I'm a pretty good walker! - right now it's exhausting. I have no idea how folks who are facing mobility problems do it.

Lesson learned: Bring my food from home for a while.

More lessons posted as I learn them.

Also! I am so proud!

Give this a listen.

If you are a bit confused, here is a hint (which is a better hint than the first one I put up).

Personal Carbon Footprint: Increased.

Hand washing technique, per doctor's intructions:

1. Wash with lots of soap under warm running water for at least 20 seconds (previously used cold and turned off water while scrubbing).
2. Use paper towel to dry hands and then turn off water with the paper towel (previously turned off water first, then dried hands on cloth towel)
3. Throw away paper towel.

The bacteria I had isn't killed by anything less than warm soapy water or bleach and can live on surfaces for a long time. If you turn off the water with your bare hands, then you might as well have not washed at all. So! Question for you folks: How do I reduce my footprint without sacrificing hygiene?

Towels, sheets, napkins, and placemats must all be washed in hot water, btw.

I'm home!

Hi there! Here's Self-Portrait In Gown (taken when I was already feeling much better):

My hair is pulled into an inside-out french braid courtesy of the elastics brought to me by my good friend, DeepVoicedFirstGrader'sMom who works at HospitalIWentTo (for those of you who live near me, it's the one near and named for LovelyTownCenterWithAnOutdoorIceSkatingRink)

The Last Supper. Excellent iced tea, pretty good meatloaf and green beans, and absolutely horrible mashed potatoes and soup. I don't know how they managed that.

Nectar of the Gods. Not even remotely kidding:
And best of all, MM learned to tie his shoes YESTERDAY at PoshPlace. He showed MS and me this morning. I'm so glad I didn't miss that. Here is his very first double-knot tied all by himself.

It is very good to be home.

Most likely getting out of here this evening

If the Hospitalist ever comes around to discharge me.

I can't wait to get home to be with my boys.

ETA: They're bringing me SOLID FOOD for dinner! WOOT!

Got no strings on me!

The IV is out. Am still in hospital but things are definitely moving in a positive direction.

Am still sick

Fever and other unpleasantness. No rash, no sniffles, no sneezing or coughing.

Am drinking lots of fluids (including juice and Powerade) and have hardly moved from bed except to (ahem) deal with unpleasantness. If I'm not better by morning, I will go to the doctor. I feel, aptly, drained.

MS and MM have gone to see Star Trek. I wish I could have gone with them.

How are you all doing?

Classic pose

I've spent a good portion of today like this:

and this:

Hmmmm...looks like there's a common theme:

The top picture is me in Cape Cod, age 5 or 6. I am reading All of a Kind Family.
Underneath that is me at age...I'm going to say 17...re-reading Poirot Loses a Client.
Underneath that is me in 5th Grade. I don't know what I was reading that day. But wasn't I fashion forward?
Under that is me at The Redcoats Return Inn in Woodstock, NY. Reading, as you can see, Deenie. I think this is 4th grade. My arms have not changed one whit.

No need to gimme fever

I've already got one. 100.7, and no accompanying sneezes or sniffles or rashes.

Feh.

Roller coaster

Emotions in order of having them today:

(still) Thrilled
Bored
Anxious
Furious
Seriously annoyed
Curious
Happy
Annoyed
Tired

SQUEEE!!!!

Kvelling

My son, who beat my assets at Uno last night, did the score keeping. He took his duties very seriously and did a great job of adding up 3 digit-numbers, carrying the one, and telling us that 29 plus 35 is the same as 20 plus 34 and that equals 54.

He told his Grandy that math is his favorite part of school.

It's so much fun watching him confidently do things that he just could NOT do a year, a month, or even a week ago.

I love that boy.

Lovely weekend, lovely mother's day

Yesterday was skating lessons, followed by a practice skating session followed by chores followed by leftovers for dinner.

Today was:

Homemade prezzies from MM and Godiva chocolate ("dark, so I won't be tempted to ask you to share!") from MS, a pajama breakfast and then hurrying into nice clothes.

UU services (the flower communion), lunch at Anita's in Leesburg, dessert at South Street Under (where we saw folks we know from UU), and then a trip to Wegman's where we saw 7 people we knew before we even walked in the door. And everywhere we went, we enjoyed the fact that it was a really truly Spring Day.

Dinner at home (roasted garlic chicken, mashed taters, and fiddlehead ferns) and a rousing game of Uno which I LOST (how DARE they beat me on MOTHER'S DAY!!!).

And that sums it up.

How was your Mother's Day? I hope it was a happy one.

That was enormous fun!

Mr. Spock went to one gala, while I attended another! We texted each other during. I got the better food and the more fun company, he got the brighter stars.

Talked for a while with an elected official from a nearby district, and to his friends. Turns out we were seated at the table of a former employer of mine!

Ended up not wearing the elbow-sleeved dress. Instead, I wore a yellow flowery dress that I got for Mr. Spock's sister's wedding.

I wish I could have bid on some of the items at the charity auction, because they were GLORIOUS. But waaaaaay too rich for my blood.

They never got their act together.

I scheduled for tomorrow, but I'm going to have to reschedule for next week because I have a thing to go to and a big ol' bandage and bruised arm won't go well with elbow sleeves.

The obnoxious thing is, that the blood donation center sent me an email on Wednesday asking me to come in today because they didn't have enough platelet donors scheduled and then, when I called to schedule my donation, it turns out that the center was CLOSED today for an O neg Only event.

Left-hand, meet Right-hand. Right-hand, Left.

On the agenda for today

• Donating platelets if the blood center gets its act together.
• Paying bills
• Playing Uno
• Oh! And work.

My life is so terribly, terribly exciting.

Recommendations from my weekend in Connecticut

MangeTout in New London is delicious. Please don't miss their Black & White Chocolate Macaroon Tart. Oh. My. God. That was amazing.

And The Westbrook Inn took really great care of us, they greeted us with fresh-baked oatmeal cookies and sherry. We stayed in the cottage, which has its own kitchen, living room (with gas fireplace), and very very very comfortable beds. Their breakfast was fabulous, and their coffee was plentiful and strong.

My dad, my sister, and I had the most wonderful weekend. Very refreshing!

Comments policies and why I like 'em.

There's a local politics blog 'round these parts that I've stopped reading the comments on because the commenters have gotten so nasty and - while the blogger steps in once in a while to shut them down - on the whole, the nastiness continues unfettered.

It's like school yard bullying. And it's one reason why this blog is semi-anonymous. I don't want those commenters coming here. But IF they come here, I will delete any and all nastiness they might care to spew.

I'm taking this opportunity to call attention to my comments policy which I posted awhile back in the side bar over there --->

It reads:

Rules for commenters
Here at Mystery Mommy, I'd like to welcome all commenters. Here are a few rules:

Anonymity: I allow anonymous commenting because I have friends in the interwebs who'd rather not be tracked from site to site. If you want to comment anonymously, that is fine with the following limitations: be kind; be respectful; no spam; and, when possible, shoot me a private e-mail letting me know who you are. Thanks.

Spam: I don't allow it. Spam gets deleted. If I want to sell something, I will sell it. If you want to sell something, get your own blog.

Mean-spiritedness / bullying / disrespect: Deleted. That is all.

So, welcome! I hope that you will come often and comment freely within these simple rules. Thanks so much.

I hope you come back.

I will miss your blog so much. Take good care.

Singing! Dancing! Knitting!

Brilliant!

I am here. Truly I am

But...

Overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I need to do and the lack of time to do it in.

So quick bulleted update:

• MM's teacher sent home a long-term project before Spring Break and due this Friday. Make something useful out of recycled materials. MM and I discussed it early on, and picked out an Old Dominion root beer box to cut down and turn into a Bakugon Brawlers storage crate.
• Naturally we only actually started working on it tonight.
• He printed out pictures of his favorite Brawlers on the backs of already used paper.
• I cut down the box and the bottle separators, and glued a scrap strip of cardboard over the gap on the bottom.
• Tomorrow, when the glue is dry, MM will paste the pictures all over it, write up how we did it and what it's for, load it up with his Bakugons and bring the whole thing into school.
• Which means we won't have time to go skating in the evening.
• Missing free-skate practice time AGAIN = FAIL. Especially since we have a free pass for MM.
• Oh well, we did one on Saturday.
• And we didn't wait until TOMORROW night to start it. So not an example of extreme procrastination, but close.
• And, y'know, yadayada laundry, bills, work, grocery shopping, etc etc etc.

Life, and lots of it.

Hello!

Greetings to GotAHandClaspAndASignedBook and to KeepingTheMovementGoing!

I value the two of you more than I can say. I'm so glad to call you my friends.

The weekend in a nutshell

Solo-parenting Friday night read Harry Potter fed the boy washed the boy read Harry Potter went to bed woke up fed the boy took him to skating lessons went home paid the bills got keys made went back for free-skate session went home left MM with the sitter so that I could drive 45 minutes to attend a really long rally for a great guy talked with another great guy and his aide drove an hour home paid the sitter played Uno fed the boy read Harry Potter went to bed woke up MS BACK! fed the boy played Uno talked to friends fed the boy did campaign stuff played Uno talked to friends fed the boy read Harry Potter...

Deep breath

How was your weekend?

Yeah, I actually CAN believe they'd do that.

One of the largest employers in my neck of the woods has decided that it makes good sense to alienate a goodly portion of the flying population. I'm not a big fan of this company in the first place, but some commenters over at Shapely Prose may have figured out what's behind this move (after Kate talks about the sexism inherent in this system).

First, punkrockhockymom pointed out that this allows airlines to bump people without reimbursing them, in fact forcing the passenger to pay extra for being bumped.

Then bigliberty comments that the airline can then make the seats even smaller, forcing more passengers to fall into the bumpable category.

Because really? 700 complaints gets you a whole new policy? Where's the "you have to pay extra if your baby disturbs someone" policy? Where's the "You have to pay extra if you wear too much perfume" policy? Or as OTM put it:

"surely you receive significantly more complaints about any one of the following...terrible food, insulting beverage charges, broken equipment, terrible customer service, lost luggage, delayed flights, frightening turbulence, filthy bathrooms, unexpected gate changes, tedious in-flight magazines, horrible movie offerings, and that insufferable flight safety video narrator. "

And she notes that none of those things seem to have been fixed.

This also keeps folks from complaining about seats that are too small and getting smaller - who's going to complain when it might mean you'll get booted off the flight and charged for a second seat?

Anywhooo, read the post, then read the comments. I really do think that punkrockhockeymom has it right on this one - that this is how the airline is trying to get around the reimbursement for bumping rules.

I read an article on Daily Kos

Basically saying that the teabag protesters should give up the things their taxes buy. And here's the flaw in that argument: I'm guessing that many, if not most, of the teabag protesters come from rural and suburban locations. Which, if true, means that they don't get or pay extra for some of the services that urban folks take for granted.

They probably have a volunteer fire service, many dirt roads, and either haul their own trash to the dump or pay a trash service. They may have to go to the local post office to pick up their mail. Many probably home-school. And in any case, all of the services (except for the Post Office and Armed Services) listed in the article are provided for through state and local taxes, not federal.

Here's the thing: the only direct contact many folks have with the federal government is through the annual tooth-grinding extravaganza that is filling out their tax return, or waiting in line at the post office to buy stamps and send packages at Christmas. These are not contacts designed to get the people to be happy about the government.

Ideas for making people feel more connected to what their (federal) taxes purchase? Aside from uniforms for our nation's sons and daughters?

Got my hair cut

No, not like thisIt's now just a bit below my shoulders instead of near my bra band. Still long enough to put into a ponytail or up for a fancy thing.

I like it!

Yesterday's agenda read:

Meet the Governor.

The Governor changed the agenda and added a word.

One word.

This word:

with


What a difference a word makes.


Meet with the Governor.

I had a really really really great day yesterday.

Hooray for Vermont! My sister's home state!

WOOT!!! WOOT!!!

Not Fresh, Not Fresh At All.

Yesterday I turned on the radio. It was, at the time, set for 88.5 WAMU (the local NPR station) but I was in the mood for a bit of something more raucous. So I tuned in 94.7 The Globe, which plays Pink Floyd and other such phenoms of classic rock.

Imagine my surprise when, instead of hearing Floyd or other such phenom of classic rock, I hear Jason Mraz. And then...then...I hear the station call-sign. 94.7 The Globe is now 94.7 Fresh FM. With, as far as I can tell, no live on-air people. "Fresh" is serving up canned music from a satellite feed somewhere.

And the music seems to be exactly what's being played on Mix 107.3 FM and 92.5 WINC FM, both of whom actually have live local people on-air.

So, it's time to take 94.7 off my presets. Bye-bye pre-packaged music without a shred of personality!

BTW, anyone know where I can get an on-air dose of raucousness now?

Four Years Ago Today

I posted my first blog post. I have loved being here. I love this community and feel like you are all my friends, friends I feel lonely without.



Thank you so much for letting me join you, and making me feel so welcome.

Things that have changed in those 4 years:

• MM is 7! Not 3! He is a fully actualized human being who doesn't need me to wipe his tushy anymore!
• I started a different job, then left work to go back to school, then graduated school and went back to work.
• We moved houses.
• Mr. Spock went from being a community activist to being a candidate to being an elected official and now is an elected official AND a candidate.

Things that have NOT changed:

• I still chew on my fingers.
• Still short!
• MM is still an artistic genius.
• I'm still reading a lot.
• I still am working on that same pair of socks.
• Still loving to visit with you all.

What I Did This Weekend (as it would be written by Muffin Man, if he were to write it)

Yesterday, my mommy took me to my skating lesson, which was fun, but I really need more practice. So, after the lesson we went home and then we came back to the rink to skate some more (Mommy rented some skates for herself) and we went around the rink once and then I fell down HARD on my hand and it felt like my arm broke, so I cried and then we sat down for a while and my mommy checked my arm but it looked all right so she kept asking and asking if I wanted to keep skating because we only had gone around once, but I said "no" and so she took our skates off and asked me if I wanted to see the doctor and I said "yes" so she took me to the doctor's office but it was closed so she called the insurance company to ask them what to do and then she took me to the hospital.

At the hospital I watched a movie and screamed really loud when they tried to take pictures of my arm because it really really really hurt and then they told my mommy and daddy that they couldn't see any break on my arm, but maybe it was bruised or sprained and they gave me a sling and some medicine and told my mommy to bring me back if it still hurt Monday.

Wow! That medicine sure made my arm feel better.

When I woke up this morning my arm was feeling much better and so we went for pancakes at the firehouse and then we came home and then we went out knocking on all our neighbors doors asking them to sign a petition for Daddy to be on the ballot. And then Mommy and I went to my friend LovesHighSchoolMusical's house to play and dye Easter eggs and we ate ice cream and then we came home and I rode my scooter while Mommy and Daddy asked more people to sign their petitions and then we came home and I asked to put my sling back on because my arm felt sore and then we ate dinner and now I'm going to bed.

Mommy doesn't think I need to go back to the doctor's office. I'm glad because tomorrow is the start of Spring Break Camp and I don't want to miss the field trip.

Gary Asks, Part II. "What's the most memorable live performance you've ever seen? Music, theater, comedy, whatever. "

Oh. Dear. So difficult.

Music:

• Squeeze at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh (I've heard it's gone now). It was a shallow arena, so it felt very intimate and when they divided up the audience to sing Black Coffee in Bed it was a heart-stoppingly amazing feeling.
• I also very clearly remember going to see Rick Springfield at Carnegie Hall in NYC. Sat 2nd row from the back in the top balcony. The girls behind me had a banner that said, "We love you RICK!" There were maybe three people with a Y chromosome in the audience.
• The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall.
• Gary Oxford at Jammin' Java.
  

Theatre:

• Peter Pan (yes, with Sandy Duncan. I was nine).
  
• Pump Boys and Dinettes
• Comedy of Errors with The Flying Karamazov Brothers ("I've got a mole on my shoulder!)
• Juggling and Cheap Theatrics (ditto) (can't find video, alas)
• My first-cousin-once-removed doing the Russian dance in The Nutcracker at Kennedy Center.
  

Comedy:

• The Lemming Project (you can see one member of this now-defunct group in Innocent Blood)
  
• Christine Lavin

What I wanted to be when I grew up: the first half of a two part question

Gary (AKA Dr. Corndog) asks what I wanted to be when I grew up. Well, for a while there, my dearest ambition was to be taller than my sister. That's the career I wanted, and I wanted it desperately.

I went through a Librarian phase. I still think the librarians at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library were the epitome of class and distinction. They could quell you with a look, had an encyclopedic knowledge of all the books on their shelves, and (remembering your likes and dislikes) could unerringly point out the 5 books you should take out this time. Plus, they had those stamps! I remember being taught how to use the card catalog and the disappointment on my favorite librarian's face when I asked her for help finding something if I hadn't used the catalog first. And, of course, Aunt SoLittleAndCute was a librarian. I'd say I only let go of this for real when it was killed off by the disappearance of the card catalog and the stampable cards in the back of the books. So I worked at Murder Ink instead.

Architect was an ambition that lasted a few years until I found out that it was heavy on geometry, which I only passed because my Grandpa tutored me twice a week. My BIL is getting his Master's in Architecture this May. Hooray!

Veterinarian lasted until we had our cat, Meetz, put to sleep. He had a tumor the size of his head in the bone of his shoulder. "When the day comes that he doesn't get up out of bed for food when you run the can opener, it'll be time." said our vet. It was the right thing to do, but I didn't want to have to do it as part of my job. Plus...the whole blood thing. Not so much for me.

Tomorrow, comes part 2 in this 2 part series of "Gary Asks"

If you've got a blog post request, donate to Mr. Spock's campaign and leave a comment here!

Update

Doctor says that the ever-expanding and leaking rack of doom has no sign or increased risk of cancer. Problem probably hormonal in nature and will consult a GYN on progesterone-lowering drugs.

Disappointingly, a reduction will not solve the problem and is not indicated at this time since "they might just keep growing." We need to fix the underlying tissue issue and then, when resolved, can reduce.

I really really really wanted a reduction to be the solution. Two birds, one stone would have been wonderful. Sigh.

This is the new house (pictures coming soon, I hope)

Look! I park in the garage!



Garage door opener, a previously unknown luxury.



Back yard. Spartan, I know.



Here's the door.



Laundry "room". Ironing station.



That there is Campaign Headquarters (for the moment). Say "Hi!" Mr. Spock!



Bathroom. The shower door creaks, which Muffin Man finds endlessly amusing.



The Front Hall!



MM's playroom. I like the colour. The house came with these colours already added. I am not responsible for any of the wall paint.



C'mon upstairs!



Here's the living room, I love all the light. And the walls actually match all our furniture.



Back porch. Mind your step.



Mr. Spock and I made this table. From scratch



Kitchen.



This pantry is much bigger than the one at the old house, but there are fewer cabinets over all.



New refridgerator! Ice and water dispensers are also previously unknown luxuries.



More stairs.



MS's bath.



Hamper. Convenient, no?



MM's room. Grandma made the quilt.



Guest room.



Master bedroom.



Computer corner. The one on the left is mine, the one on the right is MM's.



MM and I share this bathroom.



Closet. Look at all the new clothes!!! Oooh!



And that concludes our tour. Thank you, donor who prefers to remain anonymous!



If you have an idea for a blog post, leave a donation and a comment (or email me)!

And now, aren't you curious about what it actually looks like? I took pictures with my phone, but they suck and I'm looking for the real camera which is in a box here somewhere.

Won't my mommy be so proud of me?

• I brought my new pants to the tailor's to be hemmed.
• I brought my dry-clean only blouses to the dry-cleaners to be dry-cleaned.
• I've been hanging up my clothes, instead of letting them sit in the laundry basket (wow! It saves time on ironing!)
• I've been tidying as I go.
• I remembered to order my mammogram films from the radiologist for Thursday's appointment.

Did I tell you about Thursday's appointment? Well, because I'm still leaking 6+ years post-pumping, the nurse-practitioner who did my annual exam did a blood test for prolactin levels (normal) and sent me for another mammogram (normal/no change), and then said that I should see a breast surgeon to make sure there's nothing else going on there. So I'm seeing one on Thursday morning.

I'm hoping that the surgeon will say that a reduction will fix the plumbing problems. Because, if so, insurance will pay for it.

Mr. Spock and Jenn make a good point

Unfortunately The Old Dominion doesn't allow contributions from foreign nationals, though Amurricans living abroad are welcome to donate.

Thank you for the thought, Jenn! And please give a big kiss to Jim, Malcolm, and The Bears for me!!!! And hey! What would Jim like me to write about?

So, if you're an American citizen (no matter where in the world you live), and you'd like to donate to Mr. Spock's campaign for State Delegate, just click! And then leave a comment letting me know what you'd like me to post about, if you've got a request!

Talking about babies

Profgrrrrl asks:

For something totally different, how about a post about something baby (best baby advice or a funny MM baby story) since I'm living in babyland these days?

I will give you the best child-rearing advice I ever got, which is, "Pick your battles, but win the ones you pick." and, "You can give in at any time up until the screaming starts, but after the screaming starts you must not give in or you will just teach your child that she can get what she wants if she screams long enough". This advice, of course, does not apply to babies, but to toddlers and above.

For babies, the best advice is, "whatever works". And keep extra diapers with you at all times.
If the poop is leaking out of the diaper, it's time to go up a size. If the pee is regularly leaking through, ditto.

You can never have enough cloth diapers and onesies.

Swaddling is a good thing, except when it's not.

Never say, "no" to an offer of help. Let people cook for you. If your baby has a lovey that she can not live or sleep without buy a spare and keep 'em switched up. If the only chore outside of direct baby care that you get done is the laundry, you're doing a great job.

Read Ask Moxie.

I'll dig out a letter to MM to post tomorrow or the next day.

If you've got a blog post request, please donate and leave a comment!

Looking up

Taken with my phone today while out walking with MM. He was riding his scooter.

Spock Here

I'm Stevens (mysterymommy's husband) Miller, aka "Mr. Spock" (or just "MS") hereabouts. My wife is donating this space so I can tell you what the heck I'm doing and why the heck I'm doing it.

In 2007, after four years of building towards it, Liz and I managed to mount a successful campaign for local office. We won a seat on our county board of supervisors. Make no mistake about it, either: I may be the only one who took the oath, but this was a family project with Liz at least as much a reason for the win as I was (and probably much more than that).

When we announced the bid, everyone said, "Forget it. You're a Democrat running against a Republican incumbent in a conservative part of northern Virginia. You can't win." But we did. We won by 16%, and that was after our opponent spent over twice as much as we did (he had big money coming in from industry, while we relied mostly on friends, family, and help from a local pro-environmental group).

This time, we're challenging a member of the state legislature. His name is Tom Rust, another Republican incumbent. He's not a bad guy, but he's kind of lost touch with his district and, to be blunt, seems to have given up on getting anything done. For example, with transportation named as the number one problem in our region by every poll I've seen, he told a meeting of local business leaders, "We probably will never have the money to do these major infrastructure [improvements]." (See the March 23rd edition of the Loudoun Times Mirror.) What a defeatist attitude! My wife would never talk like that and she's never let me talk that way either, not as a husband or father, nor as a county supervisor. Liz and I can beat Tom Rust and we can do a better job.

I'm getting close to a deadline, so I'll wind this up and get to the point:
Midnight, Tuesday, March 31 is the end of the first campaign finance reporting period. Everyone's numbers go public after that, and it's important to show a good start and a lot of donors. Notice I said "donors," not "money." The money's important, but I need to show that a lot of people are backing me and Liz in this run. Some folks I've asked for help have said they really can't, because they would only be able to put in fifty, or maybe even only twenty dollars. But those numbers _do_ help! Barack Obama made it to the White House largely with the help of donors giving amounts like that. What's good enough for Barack is good enough for me.

If you can help with a donation like that, I'll be forever grateful. Every time another twenty dollars comes along, and with it, another donor, we move that much closer to winning another seat in the legislature. (If we turn six around this time, my party will be in the majority, with all that that implies.) Please know that Liz and I are exceedingly thankful for the donations that have come in from this site, just as much for the smaller ones as we are for all the rest. The folks who have given twenty-five or thirty dollars are often in a position where that means not having dinner at a restaurant that month, or skipping a trip to the movies. In times like these, those are real sacrifices, and we know it. But those amounts do help, and we hope for more of them as the days unfold.

Please feel free to post questions or ideas here in the comments. I'll get you an answer. Naturally, I'll also say that if you can help add to our March total, please do. It'll mean a lot more that I can say in words. And while I can't promise you that you'll be adding to the chances of making Liz the first lady of the Commonwealth of Virginia someday, I won't tell you it's utterly out of the question, either. ;-)

Best regards,
Stevens

Dame Agatha - part 4 in the Genevieve Asks series

Christie was a phenomenally prolific writer: 80 mystery novels! Not to mention plays! Short stories! Romances under a pseudonym! The Guinness Book of World Records calls her the best-selling author of all time - outselling everyone except the Bible 1.

I have read everything she wrote. And I will talk to you here about my favorites.

First, because it's not as well known, Rosemary is for Remembrance (also known as Remembered Death) in which, a year after Rosemary killed herself at her birthday party ("depressed after a bout of 'flu"), the people who were at the party are remembering her death. Her husband decides that he's going to have another party, this time for Rosemary's sister, at the same restaurant...
I have to say that Christie cheats just the squinchiest bit in this book, but I looooove the book very very much.

Another one that is less well known is Death Comes as the End, which takes place in ancient Egypt. Renisenb, newly widowed, has returned to live in her father's house where everything seems just the same...except...does everything stay the same for 8 years? And then her father Imhotep returns from a journey with a new concubine, Nophret, and then it is clear that things have changed quite a bit.

4.50 From Paddington (or What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!) is another favorite. What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw on the 4.50 from Paddington was a murder on a train that ran alongside for a few moments. She reports it to some officials, who don't believe her, and then she tells Miss Marple, who does. The best part of this book is Lucy Eylesbarrow. I love her.

N or M? Is a Tommy and Tuppence book that I love.

Please note that while I'm not talking about her most famous stuff, it's not because I didn't love Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express, it's because I'm expecting you to either have read them, seen the movies, or already know about them.

In my opinion, Christie's talent shines best in her short stories. Parker Pyne, Detective is a set of short stories featuring that very remarkable man. The Mysterious Mr. Quin features Mr. Satterthwaite and Harley Quin. The Labours of Hercules is a set of 12 short stories about a challenge Hercule Poirot sets himself. The Tuesday Club Murders is a fun set of stories featuring Miss Marple. And The Golden Ball is a set of stories that have nothing to do with any of those folks.

So pour yourself a nice cup of tea, and pick up a Christie (if it's a used copy from the '50's all the better), and start reading.

And if you've got something you'd like me to post about - donate to MS's campaign and leave me a comment here!

1. Wikipedia (I know, I know, but I gave away my Hubin).

Didja notice?

My thermometer over there --> is up to

$1000!!!

Woot!

I can't thank you guys enough! That amount was made up of 2 $25 donations, 3 $100 donations, 1 $150 donation, and a $500 donation (the $500 donation came from a very, very non-bloggy source). Not visible is the $15 in cash that a lurking friend gave me (that will appear on the end-of-month report but not Act Blue)

But the point is, thank you. Thank you for being so supportive of this venture. And remember that I will blog to order if you make a request in comments here (or e-mail me) when you donate!

We're making a push to have a big report for the end of March, and we only have 4 more days. If you feel able to donate anything at all - every dollar counts! - I would be so grateful.

Thanks again!

Coming later today: Ruminations on Agatha Christie.
Coming soon (by e-mail request): A blog tour of the new house.

Hello, Ducky! Would you like a cuppa Tey?

And finally, The Singing Sands. Discovered after Tey's death, this is not as strong a book as it might have been had she lived to polish it. Nevertheless, it's a fun book. Grant is going to Scotland to recuperate and finds a dead man on the train. All that is known about the man is that he wrote a scrap of a poem in the margin of his newspaper: "The singing sands that guard the way to paradise". The words haunt Inspector Grant and, instead of spending his vacation fishing with his godson as he had planned, he follows the pull of the poem to discover who killed the man in the train...and why.


Now, about Dorothy Sayers. To be honest, she never grabbed me. I read the series once (while working at Murder Ink) and have never revisited them...Seems like it's time to give her another try. I'm much fonder of her short stories than of her novels and, highly recommend English Country House Murders for an example of a good one. In fact, that whole book is lovely.

Ngaio Marsh, is a great series writer. Her detective, Roderick Alleyn, develops through the series. We see him meet Agatha Troy, fall in love with her, marry her, and become a father. Troy and their son figure heavily in many of the books, including one where there's a bit of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" in the plot. The books take place mostly in England, though Alleyn travels to New Zealand a few times during the series, to the Continent, and also solves a murder on a cruise. One downer note to mention: some of her books have a level of racism that stands out jarringly to a 21st century reader.

Christie tomorrow! Four posts from one question!

Do you have something you'd like me to write about? Donate to the campaign and leave a comment!

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Teys.

One-one-thousand! Two-one-thousand! Three-one-thousand! Four-one-thousand! Five-one-thousand! Six-one-thousand!

Josephine Tey (AKA Elizabeth Mackintosh) wrote eight books, all of which are just fabulous. I'm unable to pick a favorite, they are all so good and different in their own ways.

The Man in the Queue, her first novel, starts with a killing more mysterious than a locked-room killing. A man is stabbed to death while waiting in line for theatre tickets and, though hundreds of people were around him, no one saw a thing. What follows is a police procedural as fun and well-paced as a vintage episode of Law & Order. Which, if you think about the fact that The Man in the Queue was written in '29, is pretty fireplacing amazing.

I'm not going to talk about A Shilling for Candles because, well, it's her weakest book, and I've only read it twice. Don't start with this one.

My copy of Miss Pym Disposes is falling apart because I've read it so often. Miss Pym has written a very popular book on psychology and has been invited by an old school chum to speak at a women's physical education and physical therapy college. Planning to stay only one night, she finds herself drawn in to the college, covering for a professor on leave, and so is present when one of the students is killed. I love this book. I love Miss Pym. I love the students. I love the other teachers. Tey writes these characters so that they live and breathe.

The Franchise Affair. 'Nuff said.

Brat Farrar. Oh My God. This is just an amazing book. Brat is hailed on the street by a man who has mistaken him for someone else, whom he looks enough alike to be twins. It so happens that the man he looks like lost a twin (probably through suicide, but they never found the body) several years before, and he's very very rich. The lost twin was the elder...can Brat take his place? Even though I know all the twists by heart, I love re-reading this book. LOVE. The by-play, the characters. And you fall in love with Brat, with his sense of adventure and his coming to champion the twin whose place he's taking. READ THIS BOOK.

To Love and Be Wise. A famous radio journalist goes on a trek with a famous artist. The painter disappears. The journalist is suspected. These bare bones become nicely fleshed out under Tey's handling. F'rinstance, one clue that puzzles Inspector Alan Grant is that there is something missing from the artist's paint box. What was it? What would have that size and shape? This is just a lovely book.

The Daughter of Time. Inspector Alan Grant is sick in the hospital, and his friend brings him portraits of famous criminals of history. One face stands out to him as being wrong for the crime he was accused of. And thus Inspector Alan Grant sets out to prove that King Richard the Third did NOT kill the princes in the tower. In this book, Alan Grant, like Nero Wolfe, has all the information brought to him, because he can't leave his bed. Delicious.

The Singing Sands. I'll talk about this one more tomorrow!

Blogging for Donations: Murder Ink

Genevieve asks:

Please post about how you ended up working in the mystery bookstore, and your time there, including any specific ruminations on Josephine Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and maybe Agatha Christie - Tey and Sayers thoughts appreciated most, so if more detail on them means nothing on Marsh and Christie, that'd be fine.

I was working at a bookstore in Park Slope (Booklink, now defunct), and was the mystery, science fiction, and children's literature maven. I wrote little recommendations and put them up on the shelves. My co-workers were more into poetry and non-fiction with the occasional foray into serious literature. They wrote little recommendations, too. We sold books to Paul Auster and Andrea Dworkin...they lived in the neighborhood.

One day, I was headed up town to the movie theatre I used to work at, Loews 84th Street, to say hi to my former co-workers and maybe catch a movie. I missed my stop at 72nd (reading!) and stayed on the train to 96th to walk back downtown. And then...I saw it...

(Picture from The Gothamist) *

What is Ivy Books in this picture was a liquor store then. The red awning of Murder Ink stood out between the liquor store and a laundry. I never knew such a thing existed. A whole store of nothing but mysteries. I was in heaven.

I walked in right then and asked for a job. And bought 5 books. From Ann Romeo, who's read everything and is a walking encyclopedia of crime fiction.

I was hired a few weeks later. Jay Pearsall didn't have enough hours for me to be full-time, so I also worked for Murder Ink's sister store, The Traveler's Bookstore, down in Rockefeller Center. That was fun, but not as fun as Murder Ink.

God, I loved working there.

Eventually, I got the manager's slot at Murder Ink and began to work there full-time. I flirted with Leon, the UPS man. I wrote reviews for the catalog, I shelved books, and read more than I ever have before or since - discovering authors I'd never heard of before. I sold books to movie stars (actually, that last one was at Traveler's), and schmoozed with authors. But the best part (aside from meeting Mr. Spock) was recommending new authors to people....

And I will talk more about those authors tomorrow night, in the next chapter of Genevieve Asks About Murder Ink.

*If you watched Law & Order in the '90's and saw the episode called "Mayhem" you would have seen Murder Ink playing the part of a gay bookstore. You can spot the gun logo on signs in the background while Briscoe and Logan are interviewing Mr. Hexter's boyfriend.

Blogging for Donations: How We Met (redux)

As anon guessed, I have written about this before. I left out some stories, however.

Shortly before we started dating, MS woke up at 4 in the morning to wait in line at a science fiction convention to get one of my books signed by an author I love (he wasn't fond of her). Yeah, he's a keeper.

He used to bring me lunch at the bookstore: Delicious tuna fish sandwiches, Hershey's Kisses, and 8 oz bottles of Coke. The real glass bottles.

When we lived on 96th Street, he introduced me to that amazing time stealer, Myst. The number of nights I stayed up until three playing that game...I wore the Myst t-shirt he gave me for Christmas that year until it fell apart.

He built a ladder for the loft bed, because I had trouble using the one he had. It was ingenious: to allow us to get into the bathroom (small apartment! two rooms!), it folded up against the bed when not in use, and then swung out and locked open when we were ready to climb it.

That apartment felt bigger than it was, because it had a little tiny hallway between the two rooms, and two large closets. It was at the back of the apartment building and, while it got very little sun, there was also next to no noise. The "kitchen" was obviously an after-thought, not in the original design of the apartment. It was a stove, a sink, and a refridgerator stuck in a corner of what we used mostly as an office. There was no counter, so we put the drying rack in the sink.

The oven had to be lit with a match. I still have the scar where I wasn't quick enough.

He didn't tell me for a long time that he doesn't like lasagna, something I made often. He's not fond of ricotta, amazingly.

And then there was the Dracaena Marginata. The plant that wouldn't die. It moved with us from 96th Street (where it survived despite next to no light), to 3rd Street in B'klyn, to Tyson's Corner, to our old house...where it ended up over 10 feet tall. It finally started to look peaky and it went the way of all good plants. Perhaps we should get another one.

If you have an idea for a blog post, please donate to the campaign and leave a comment!! I will post for any size donation!

Wow, that was just perfect!

Just got back from the perfect birthday weekend where I:

• Traveled up on the Acela with MM and MS. Paid bills while MS made calls asking for donations*, then I watched HP & tOotP with MM while MS made calls asking for donations**.
• Went shopping with my mom and BigSister and had a blast. So much fun shopping with the two of them for more clothes than you can shake a stick at. Five pairs of pants, eight tops, a sweater, and a skirt. And they loooook mahvelous.
  
• Ate a stuffed artichoke and lobster ravioli, after which I WAS a stuffed artichoke.
• Giggled long past bedtime with my sister and my son.
• Went for a walk in EvenBetterThanCentralPark with my sister.
• Did a crossword with my step-father while eating a bagel and drinking some of the strongest coffee in the world.
• Watched my mommy hem my new pants (thanks mom!!!)
• Went for Dim Sum with my mom, dad, step-mom, step-dad, sister, grandma, husband, and son. As MM said, "Yum, yum! Dim Sum!"
• Got beautiful earrings and a bracelet.
  
• Schmoozed with my dad and step-mom and then...
• Got back on Acela to come home. Read a book, watched The Muppet Movie and listened to MM read from a very silly joke book. He's gaining a pretty good sense of comedic timing.
  

Now we're back home. MM is asleep, I got all unpacked and hung everything up, and am now in my jammies ready for bed.

And I totally forgot to twitter any of it. D'oh!

*I will blog to order if you donate!
**Donations of any amount are welcome! Every dollar helps!!!

Random bullets of I'm Forty

• Thank you for your birthday wishes!
• Not feeling the big-dealness of this b-day, because I've been thinking of myself as forty for months now, since MS turned the big FIVE OH last October.
• Yes, that's how I calculate my age, I'm MS minus ten.
• I can't believe I still chew on my fingers. I'm forty. Time to break that nasty habit.
• OTOH, there are worse habits and I haven't got any of them.
• I really enjoyed myself yesterday...waking up to chocolate and cards and then spending the day down in Richmond doing committee work. I really like the woman I carpool with to get down there, she's smart and funny and doesn't take herself too seriously.
• MM and I finished reading HP & tOotP last night. Boy, that's a hard book to read aloud. Those last three chapters involve a lot of throat clearing and tissues.
• Talk amongst yourselves.
• I'll give you a topic.
• Mallomars or Thin Mints? Explain your reasons.
• I'm back.
• And now we know what movie we'll be watching on the train up to NYC for Dim Sum with the family.
• Mmmm...Dim Sum.

Don't forget that I'm taking requests for blog topics in exchange for donations to the campaign!!! As Dr. Corndog, Susan, and others have already found, donations of any amount are very very very welcome. Obama got mostly donations of 10 & 20 dollars! So please, please help us out.

Thank you!

Mwah!

Blogging By Request: Transitions (ETA something I nearly forgot about)

In the comments on the last post, Susan asked

"Well, I'm curious about what it's like to go from a family w/o an elected politician to a family with one. Not sure you can blog about that, now that I think about it, but I'm curious what that transition has been like."

The answer is, it's been both easy and hard. Easy, because running for office, from the point of view of the spouse, is an incredible amount of work for both the candidate and the spouse. Back-to-school nights, weekend events, door-knocking, phone-calling...I hadn't known before MS did his last campaign that I was expected to do these things too! We had babysitters about three nights a week there at the end, as well as most weekend afternoons. So MS actually holding office is much easier on our family, though he's still out at meetings at least two nights a week, and more often three or four.

At the same time, the transition is hard, because holding office can take as much time as the office holder will let it. There isn't an amount of time that would be considered too much time to give to the job - especially during budget season, which happened right after MS took office last year. MS got (and still gets) calls late into the evening and all day on weekends from constituents, and it was hard to set boundaries in our family about that.

Also, I've had to learn how to state my opinion outside the family in a way that doesn't commit Mr. Spock to MY position. I generally say, "I'm not speaking for MS, I won't say what his position is, if you want to know what he thinks, you'll have to ask him. But if you're asking me for my opinion, here it is:" insert relevant opinion.

Now most of y'all know that I am not afraid of offering up an opinion on just about anything, so the preamble there had to get memorized pretty darn quick.

Muffin Man definitely prefers being the son of an elected official to being the son of a campaigner (more at-home time with both mommy and daddy) and isn't terribly thrilled about a return to campaign status. He didn't like all the work I did for Obama either, but he loved the outcome. He's becoming quite the little partisan, though, so maybe I'll take him walkingwalkingwalking with me sometimes this Fall.

Do you have anything you'd like me to post about? Make a contribution and leave your post idea in the comments!

Thank you again, Susan!! I really appreciate it!


Oh! it's my birthday! Thanks, Magpie, for the b-day wishes!!

How is this for an idea?

If you contribute to MS's campaign and leave a comment with a blog topic request, I will post about that topic. This is retroactive to Saturday!

If you've contributed, don't want to comment, but you still have an idea for a blog post, then email me (liz#at#millerhousehold#dot#com) with your idea.

Squee!!!!

Thank you!!!!

Weekend update

Ooh! Organizers! Kitchen shelving (not many cabinets here in the new house), over the door shoe racks, over the door towel rods.

Unpacking and keeping things tidy, one cardboard box at a time.

We only have a few more boxes to unpack.


That pretty much sums up the weekend, along with calling friends and family and begging for money.

Speaking of...Thank you for contributing!! And please pass it on.

Asking for your help

Y'all know that MS is running for office again (more coming soon to that site, btw), right? Well, the state party is eager to help if we can show a strong push here at the beginning.

Meaning we need to raise some money by March 31. Enough to show the party that this is a good bet.

The guy currently holding this seat is a Republican who sponsored a bill to mandate insurance coverage of autistic children...and then he let it die in committee. I took that pretty personally since I volunteer on both our County and State boards that oversee the intellectual disabilities services.

This district went for Obama and for Warner very heavily. Last time out the incumbent won by only 5% against a good guy with no prior elected experience. The party thinks MS's opponent is one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the state. And if we win just 6 more seats, the Democrats will have a majority!! Which is especially important this year with the redistricting coming next year -- helping us keep folks like Rep. Periello in his new seat! Also, if the Dems have a majority in the House, we can really bring Obama's policies home to the people of Virginia.

So, I'm asking you to help again, just like you did last time. We couldn't have done it without you.

Here's the link to my page on ActBlue. Please consider contributing if you can. And whether you contribute or not, please consider passing along the word to folks you think might be interested. I'll also be putting a permanent link over there on the right -->

Got questions about where MS stands on issues? Feel free to ask him!

Meanwhile, here's a link to my favorite MS as Supervisor moment.

New house, new routines

I'm liking the new house very much. Still need to unpack more stuff and figure out the best places to put them all, but so far, so good.

MM is happy with the new house too. He likes his playroom and is much more comfortable being on a different floor than MS and me than at the old house.

Driving MM to school is nice, too. We're definitely going to need to fine tune the "hopping out of the car" routine.

Today's the day.

Still have more to pack.

Send a masseuse and coffee!

Movers coming tomorrow. Still packing

If you don't hear from me by Thursday, I may have packed myself into a box by accident.

Mourning things I'm not taking with me

• The latest edition of the Hubin Comprehensive Bibliography of Crime Fiction (1749-1990).
• Many many many first editions of crime fiction (storing them in the basement here, though. If we can't rent the house without clearing out the basement, I'll have to sell them.)
• The 5-disc CD player I won from a radio station (nearly 20 years ago).
• The big bag o' cotton yarn that never became the baby sweaters I envisioned.

And the list goes on. Items that represent things I did and things I wanted to do...and I'm giving them away or storing them waiting to sell them or, in the case of my favorite pair of boots, throwing them away because they are beyond repair.

Sigh.

Packing panic

Gah!!!! GAHHH!!! GAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!


GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!



We're moving Sunday.

As seen at Redzils's: The BBC Book List

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE. (Redzils didn't do this, and neither will I. What I WILL do is put a + on those I've read more than once)
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.(Redzils didn't do this, and neither will I)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X+
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X+
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X+
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X+
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy X
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare X
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier X+
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X+
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot X
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens X
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X+
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh X
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X+
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens X
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X+
34 Emma - Jane Austen X+
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X+
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X+
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X+
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X+
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez X
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving X+
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins X
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - X+
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X+
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X+
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X+
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X+
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez X
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - X+
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov X
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt X
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - X+
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson X
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X+
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker X+
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro X
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X+
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X+
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X+
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams X+
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole X
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X+
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo X

My total: 62. I just noticed that there is no #2.
Of these, I HATED two (Secret History and Wuthering Heights), never got past chapter three of Moby Dick and read twenty-nine of them more than once.

Great moving tips!!!

• Take this opportunity to bring your coats/suits/dresses to the dry cleaners to get cleaned and/or mended. Bring them from the old house to the cleaners and then pick them up after you've moved.
• You really DO NOT need that hotel receipt from 2002. Throw it away.
• (avid readers only) If it's been on your shelf for over two years, and you haven't read it yet, you're not going to. Hand it on to someone else.
• Give away the toys your child hasn't played with in years. Be honest with yourself if you are only giving away the ones you hate. If there are toys your child is unwilling to part with (coughLittlePeoplecough), but never plays with anymore, try to compromise (put them in storage if you can or give to a younger relative if you've got one or ask Grandma if she can take them. Hey, Mom? Can you take a box of Little People toys?
• Use this moment to really really be honest with yourself about your clothes. I don't care how cute it is or how much you loved it, if it doesn't fit/is stained/you just never wear it/it's SOOOO 1990's then throw it out or hand it on. In my area, The Resourceful Woman is a great place to hand these things on...it benefits the local abused women's shelter and especially needs suits and blouses.
• Keep a box ready for packing in every room of the house. When you wander into that room, pack the box before you wander back out.

The more I pack, the more there is to pack

Packed books and toys and there are still more books and toys to pack.

Need to do the kitchen. Oh Lord. Need to do the foodstuffs in the basement.

Need to do MM's room

I bribed him to let go of the changing table/dresser in his room. He's getting more Lego. We'll keep the fronts of the door and drawers because of the sticker collage (much more elaborate now than in this picture from over three years ago.)


We're also keeping the baskets for his underwear and socks. They're going in his closet.

Today we parted with an armoire, a bookcase MS built, and a blanket chest we built together. It feels good to get them gone. Why do we wait to move to get rid of stuff we don't need?

Meanwhile, the wind is wuthering about the house. Four to eleven inches of snow due by tomorrow morning. I'm guessing I'll get a call from our local school system at 6:00 AM to let us know that school's been canceled.

What's up in your neck of the woods?

Flashback Friday: What was I doing X years ago?

Anne asks, what were you doing X years ago?

Last year, I didn't post anything on the 27th, but I did on the 26th. I'm guessing I was doing homework on this date last year.

February 27, 2007 was a banner day at Chez Mystere!

And three years ago today, I crowed over the awesomeness of my test-taking skills.

Those three posts pretty much sum up what I've talked about here these last three years: School, Muffin Man, and Smiling. With an occasional foray into body politics.

So, what were you doing X years ago?

Sorry so silent

Many things on my plate. Many plates in the air. Many airs in my head.

I'll be back when I can write coherently.

In the meantime, why don't you read some of these guys to the right? -->

People sure like free stuff

Things are movin' like hot cakes! Less for us to move.

I love my neighborhood forums (fora?)

I listed a bike trailer and our old futon "Free, but you have to pick 'em up!" on Wednesday night. Got eight replies on the bike trailer and one on the futon. They were both out the door by 4:00 PM yesterday.

The bike trailer guy also took our Sit-n-Stroll off our hands. I'll be listing more as we clear out.

Question: should I list clothes I was going to donate or should I donate them? Donating means I have to deliver them. OTOH, listing them means having to be around for someone to come try them on.

In other packing news, I've packed up all my summer clothes and thrown away all my stained clothing.

Tonight will see me packing up MM's summer clothes and sorting out the ones that are too small for listing on the forums (fora?). Kids clothes are much easier to give away, dontcha think?

Genius!

MM agreed to take apart his Lego structures if we pack the pieces into ziptop plastic bags with the instructions. "That way, I can put them back together when we get to the new house! And that will be fun."

Because I am occasionally tight-fisted

I made MM's Valentine's cards to hand out to his class this past Friday.

They consisted of: 2 pieces of clip art (a wizard's hat and a magic wand) put on the upper-right-hand side of a normal 8.5X11 sheet of paper + WORDART (flipped! Upside down!) on the lower-left-hand side of the same sheet of paper that read "Have a magical Valentine's Day! From [MM's real name]"

Then I folded them all in quarters and MM addressed them.

I KNEW there was a good reason we have at least 6 kinds of printers in the house!

Packing packing packing

Gotta keep on packing
Packing packing packing
Our stuff!
Cookbooks, toys, and towels
Enough to keep our howls
Roaring 'til our neighbors cry "enough!"
Packin' our stuff!

Three times is enemy action

1. The Thanksgiving Party was the same day as the T-Day potluck here at work. The only work-related event I was invited to attend all November.
2. The Christmas Party at MM's school was also on the same day as the Christmas party here. Again, no other work-related events all month.
3. The Valentine's Day Party at MM's is scheduled for today at 1:00 PM. My manager-to-be scheduled an all-hands meeting for 2:00. This is the only meeting I've been invited to SINCE I STARTED HERE.

Conclusion: these people can see my son's school calendar and are deliberately toying with me. There can be no other explanation.

Thank you Kate Harding!!

I just said no to a pitch from the "Health and Wellness Center" to join in their "Biggest Loser" competition.

N. O.

"I'd say 'yes' to a biggest loser of cholesterol numbers competition, or to a biggest gainer of resting heart-rate numbers competition, but focusing on weight is misleading when talking about health and is counter-productive in terms of an ultimate goal of staying healthy and reducing negative health outcomes. Focusing on weight alone leads to disordered eating, which contributes to negative health outcomes. Besides which, less than 5 percent of people actually maintain their new lower weight. When you focus on actual health indicators, such as cholesterol numbers, people do much better at maintaining healthy exercise levels and reducing junk-food intake."

At this point, they ran away from me.

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain

The wind is whipping around our neck of the woods, pounding our house, and threatening the stability of the Thursday recycling piles.

At work, I'm hearing periodic beeps from the UPS systems and the lights are flickering. The newspaper reports downed trees blocking roads. I wouldn't be surprised if there ends up being a major power outage at some point.

Days like today, I feel impatient with our 100-year-old grid. I want to rip off the roof of my house and re-do it with solar shingles. I want to insulate the crap out of the whole damned house. I want power lines to go the way of the dodo and never ever come back.

Local politics comes alive on Twitter

Fun to watch!

Yeow!

I've got a convert! He sings! He dances! He gets annoyed with me for singing the boy parts!

O! K!

N'Oklahoma

At least not last night. MM wanted to watch Aladdin instead.

On the plus side, we haven't watched that movie in OVER! A! YEAR!

On the minus side, I can still recite the whole thing...which means it hasn't been long enough.

How can I keep from singing?

Our lullaby routine lately.

Me: Why do they think up...
MM: Stories that link my name with yours?
Me: Why do the neighbors...
MM: Gossip all day behind their doors?
Me: I know a way...
MM: To prove what they say is quite untrue
Me: Here is the gist...
MM: A practical list of "Don'ts" for you
Me: Don't throw...
MM: Bouquets at me.
Me: Don't please...
MM: My folks too much.
Me: Don't laugh...
MM: At my jokes too much.
Me & MM in harmony: People will say we're in love
MM: Which is true (kiss!)
Me: Don't sigh...
MM: And gaze at me
Me: Your sighs...
MM: Are so like mine.
Me: Your eyes...
MM: Mustn't glow like mine
Me & MM in harmony: People will say we're in love
MM: Which is true (kiss!)
Me: Don't dance...
MM: All night with me
Me: 'Til the stars...
MM: Fade from above
Me: They'll see...
MM: It's alright with me
Me & MM in harmony: People will say we're in love
MM: Which is true (kiss!)

We sing the whole song that way (with a bit of an argument over the actual words in some places). Then he has me sing The Star Spangled Banner and I fix his blankets and brush the bad dreams out of his hair and kiss him goodnight.

What do you do for your bedtime routine?

D'oh!

After a busy, fun, exhausting weekend, I am back at work except....I left my badge at home.

I'll be back in a few after I go home to get it.

Flashback Friday - It's The Inner Beauty That Counts

Anne asks for some of our more awkward looks. I haven't got much in the way of older pictures scanned in yet - I really need to do that! But I think today I will take as my theme...

Hairstyles I Have Worn With Pride

The "Puli"

You may remember this one from "The Horror, The Horror!" I had blocked out the lower half of my face on that post to preserve anonymity, and to hide my teeth. Please note that showing my horrible teeth in this picture is a sign of my growing maturity. I like my teeth much better now, but I was going through an "avoid the dentist" phase at the time.

The "Yes, I Washed It, But I Didn't Use Mousse"

This hairstyle comes and goes with me. I'll cut my hair short, and keep it short for a few years, then grow it again. When my hair is short, my bangs ALWAYS do what they are doing in this picture unless I take drastic measures.

And my current favorite:

The "Those Frizzies Were There Before I Started Going Grey,
And I'm NOT Dying My Hair So Deal With It"

This is what my hair looks like when it's not short and I haven't put it in a french braid.

The spiral perm (and btw, those two words get more people to this site than any other, with "mushroom risotto" as a close second) had a run of 3 years back in the 80's. Not pictured: The Dorothy Hamill from 2nd grade, and the short version of the puli (aka, The Poodle Puppy).

Story time

MM's school had a story night. All the kids came and we went from room to room to hear teachers read stories. There were at least 20 choices, alas we could only pick 4.

We listened to Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, Waking Beauty, a chapter from Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, and Giraffes Can't Dance read by the school's Principal and performed as a play by a class of third graders.

It was a ton of fun, and all the kids got to go home with a free book.

Oh well. ETA More links

We aren't getting a h0$pita1.

MSN is posting Washington Business Journal

SEVEN

From this:
To this:

Lego-maven, Pokemon card collector (shudder), Harry Potter follower, singer, runner, funny, silly, smart, rockin' reader, polite (most of the time), considerate of his friends, loving, snuggly, and very very sweet.

He'll always be my baby. No matter how big he gets.