Today I brought a pregnancy test

But not for the reasons you are thinking. I am 100% sure I am not pregnant. No, I brought them because I went to Walgreen's for the sole purpose of buying a bunch of stuff to help use up the money I have left in my medical flex spending account.

So I mostly brought contact lens solution, bandaids (right now there is a little person in the house who wants a bandaid everytime something hurts, whether or not there is blood), and then I thought, why not? Pregnancy tests are about $15 for a box, so not inexpensive. I'll just stock up now and have them ready for next year and use up some of that flex money.

I fully intended to warn Urban Shaman about the pregnancy test box before I let him see it, but he was the one who took the groceries out of the car and started unpacking them while I put Il Tonino down for a nap. He gave me a funny look then I quickly told him it was 'just for next year when we are ready to try.'

I'll Wash, You Dry

Well we really need a new dishwasher (thank goodness it was only 3 of us for Thanksgiving dinner -- we had all the dishes we could manage to wash). But it is Black Friday, also known as BUY NOTHING DAY, so we are going to wait until tomorrow. We should still be able to find a good deal on a dishwasher tomorrow. Then keeping my fingers crossed that it can be delivered and installed early next week. Then I will have to do a happy dance.

You do what you got to do!

True story...

The first Thanksgiving I did all on my own, Urban Shaman and I were at my college on the East Coast. It was just to be the 2 of us. At that time I was living in a house that had a full kitchen, so I brought all the traditional stuffs, including the turkey (this was back when I was eating meat, although only poultry meat).

I got up the morning of Thanksgiving and took the turkey out. I don't remember if I just set it out, or if I put it in a sink of cold water, or what.

While the turkey was working on thawing, I prepared the other stuff -- stuffing, mashed potatoes, some kind of green vegetable, etc.

It was time to put the turkey in the oven. I just had to get that little bag of organs out of the back end of the turkey. I put my hand in there (ewww!!) and attempted to get the bag out. It wouldn't budge. It was still frozen solid inside the turkey. At this time it was later in the afternoon, and it really was time to put the turkey in the oven, otherwise we'd be eating well past normal dinner eating hours. The rest of the turkey was relatively thawed, but I had to get that bag out.

After several more attempts to get a frozen ball out of the back end of the turkey, I had a brilliant idea. I ran upstairs, returned, plugged in the cord, and aimed my hair dryer at the back end of that turkey.

It worked. The bag came out and the turkey went into the oven.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Wahhhh!!!

*Insert your own verbal stream of swear words here*

I spent more than an HOUR last night working on the horrible twice-yearly task of completing my bragging papers employee self-assessment form.

This morning I go to continue to work on it and all those words that I typed? GONE.

And of course it is due TODAY.

The form is still there, mocking me. It is in this stupid, complicated excel file that nobody likes. It just somehow ate my words. Even though I saved the damn thing at least 20 times while writing it. Why?

So now I am procrastinating on the stinkin' re-write by writing this blog post.

Oh self assessments, how I hate you so.

To Baby or Not to Baby

It is no secret that I want a second baby. If my company had not suddenly required requested that I return to traveling, I was hoping to have been pregnant by now. But life never turns out how you plan. So now we're hoping that it will work out this spring, so I can get that promotion that I deserve want before they find out I am pregnant again.

Urban Shaman, however, has been having qualms. His job is not very secure and the economy does suck. There was a quote in The Oregonian recently that said "When your neighbor loses his job, it is a recession. When you lose your job, it is a depression." So for him, thinking about a second baby right now doesn't make him feel very secure -- he wants to be able to provide Il Tonino with a good education and not have us scrimp just because we've added to our family.

My stance is that Il Tonino deserves a sibling (and I want another baby, dammit!).

Yesterday Urban Shaman told me that he had spontaneously asked Il Tonino if mama should have a baby, to which Il Tonino replied without hesitation, "yes". So Urban Shaman has re-thought his position on the matter. (Thank goodness, not like he had much of a choice anyway. Kidding. Sort of.)

My Thanksgiving

We're on our own for Thanksgiving this year. Thought we might have friends come up, but that didn't happen. That's okay, I'm just glad we won't be with family this year. (I think this will be a 3rd Thanksgiving without family?)

I love my family, and I love holidays with them, but not this holiday. My mom insists on making all of the traditional fare every single year, and it is a very non-vegan spread. And she tries not to feel offended, but she is anyway, and I just get annoyed by all the food that is in front of me that I don't really want to eat, and the fact that I am regulated to a dish or two plus what *I* bring.

So since we are on our own, I get to completely plan my own, delicious menu.

This year we are having a corn chowder that I make every time we have Thanksgiving on our own. It is sooooo yummy. I also brought a small-size Tofurky -- can you believe that I have NEVER tried Tofurky before?!? I decided we should try it this year for fun.

Corn Chowder
Tofurky
Green Salad
Homemade bread (possibly millet cornbread)

And then I need to try to make a pumpkin pie. My past attempts at vegan pumpkin pies have been total failures. However, I think it just might work and be yummy if this year I use the eggs I get from the farmer's market plus hemp milk which is just about as thick and sweet as that condensed milk that you are supposed to put in those pies. I am excited to try this and see how it turns out. Urban Shaman really wants pumpkin pie.

Ha

Seen on a sign in front of an auto body shop:

I couldn't fix your brakes so we made the horn louder.

All in a Name

You may or may not know, but my (married) last name is extremely annoying. It is not particularly difficult to pronounce or spell, but people always want to misspell it by adding 1 extra "r" than it has. There is a "de" in the middle of it, and people invariably change it to "der", even when I have just finished spelling it out to them. Recently on the phone it took me three times spelling it out before the person removed the "r" that they had inserted the first time and got it right. Bah.

Recently my sister-in-law was visiting and we were talking about names. She got rid of my current last name and married someone with one of the most easy last names, something similar to "Green". I am jealous and she totally started laughing at me that I am now stuck with this last name.

So the Urban Shaman and I started talking about changing our last name to something that was easier to spell and that we liked better. Urban Shaman is totally done with the 3rd syllable in the name. However, we decided that we really want to keep the first letter as we like it.

Later that night we brought it up with my parents, who totally thought it was a great idea, and best to do it before Il Tonino starts to memorize and learn to write it. So we started discussing names, and then started getting all silly with it. My dad got out the dictionary and started throwing out words that start with that letter. With the help of the good wine we had been drinking, I just about died laughing. My mom was much more practical by getting the phone book and looking at the names in there.

We like 2 names, but they don't feel right. So I think we'll keep thinking about it and see if we can find another name we like better. My sister has always been very good with names (she was the one who could easily name each and every Barbie doll while I stumbled to find a name for even one of them) so I am going to ask her to help out.

So this is kind of exciting... especially when it is something you're going to have for your whole life. Except the actual paperwork involved with changing the name won't be so exciting (passports! driver's licenses! social security! mailing lists! credit cards! bank accounts! marriage certificate! birth certificates! email addresses!)

Still, might be worth not having to spell our name and get the "r" removed for the 2,387th time...

DHL, don't leave me!

My work has informed me that the carrier DHL is ceasing domestic operations here in the USA, so now we have to turn to other options. Namely, FedEx.

And we all know how I feel about FedEx.

And no, no part 3 to that story yet because I still haven't done anything about it.

Cool School

I spoke with Susun Weed on the phone today!

No joke. Urban Shaman and I have signed up for a herbal correspondence course with her, to learn about how to make our own infusions, tinctures, vinegars, soaps, etc. using simple herbs. It is a course that you do at your own pace, and using your own learning style(s). The fastest student took 6 months to complete it, the slowest 10 years. We hope it will only take a couple years!

Susun herself was so sweet and uplifting. I believe this will be a fun process.

Urban Shaman and I are very excited to do this as a team. We're sharing all the materials and will learn together yet still read different things. It should work out really well because Urban Shaman really loves learning about plants and plant knowledge, and I love to be in the kitchen and cook/follow recipes. We've always wanted to have some practical skills, things that we can do with our own hands.

**

Speaking of practical skills and working with your hands... today I visited school #5 in my search for where I will send Il Tonino in the fall. The schools are all soooo different. The two that I like the most, so far, really do emphasize practical, hands-on learning. As I am looking at them I keep trying to think back on my schooling experience and figure out what hands-on knowledge, if any, I learned. Honestly almost nothing. All of the hands-on stuff was extracurricular. Thus I would really like it to be a bit different for Il Tonino. Here Urban Shaman and I are, 20 years later, trying to school ourselves again so we can have that.

Of the schools I am looking at, one school is a K-8th grade only so that is not in consideration right now. Another school I have struck off my list -- it is a very good school but I just don't feel that *I* would fit in very well there. Il Tonino would do fine, but it is a little too mainstream for me. That's kind of funny considering I am looking at Montessori and Waldorf schools, which are about as away from the mainstream as you can get. (And yes, I like those schools.) I have an appointment to visit one more school this coming Tuesday, and after that I will work on making a decision (and I'll post about it).

THE OLD MAN AND THE MARINE

(My mom sent me this one!)

One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench.

He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine looked at the man and said, 'Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The old man said, 'Okay' and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The man thanked him and, again, just walked away. The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, 'Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?'

The old man looked at the Marine and said, 'Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.'

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, 'See you tomorrow, Sir.'

More than you wanted to know

Poor, neglected blog. Doing NaBloPoMo on my other blog, so this one is getting the short end of the stick. Plus today, when I FINALLY am able to rest, rather than run around and do 234,232,380 things, I am sick. But not with a cold. Actually, a cold would be nice at this point -- much better than having a nauseous and queasy stomach all day. Thank goodness I work from home all this week so I can recover from this and my emotional coaster week last week.

Want to hear about it? Yes, I thought so.

So last week was the election (duh). Election night I was alone in a hotel room. I was awake when they announced that Obama was president-elect, but went to sleep before seeing McCain's concession speech and Obama's acceptance speech. So, when I went to sleep I wasn't yet feeling 100% sure about the results, and was actually really nervous that I was going to wake up in the morning and find them saying, "oh, we don't actually know -- (insert state name here) had problems at the polls" etc. So when I did wake up, I decided to shower first before turning on the TV. When I finally did allow myself to peak at the TV, I started to cry (in happiness). It was a good thing I hadn't put on my makeup yet.

It was also my first night away from Il Tonino. I did really well, being so busy and so tired and having the election to take things off my mind. I did, however, cry when I called my Mom (who had Il Tonino with her at that time). Il Tonino had a much harder time with me being gone and we had a rough adjustment once I was back home.

The day after I got back from my trip, I took both my cats to the vet for dental cleaning. They both have horrible tartar on their teeth, and since they are 6 years old, it was time to get it taken care of before it caused worse problems (and a bigger hole in my wallet). Even though it was not a big deal, they still got the whole anethesia thing and they were on my mind. Once they were home, though, it was fun to watch dopey, wobbly cats walking around in a drug-influenced daze. They are fine now.

While away, I got notification that my checking account was $0 and they had to use my overdraft protection. WTF!?! I had PLENTY of money in there. The day was spent beating myself up for being so careless with my fiances and not paying greater attention. It was a huge relief when the Urban Shaman figured out that the bank had withdrawn $4070 on a check that was written for $1420. Dude! That is a HUGE difference. $2650 to be exact. I had to call them and they told me they saw the error and it would go to the research department and take up to 5 (yes, FIVE) business days to resolve this. Uh, no. Give me my money back NOW! Luckily, I got it back the next day, in time to pay a credit card bill that was due. Man.

My brother and sister in-law showed up the day after I got back from my trip to stay at my house for awhile. It is a good thing I love being with them. (Actually, it is awesome to have relatives that I adore that are not actually related by blood.)

Now, who wants to come over and rake the leaves off my lawn?

Six Boring, Quirky Things

I was tagged by Lennon!

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.

my six boring things:
1. I cannot sleep with socks on.
2. I love turbulence on airplanes.
3. I cannot sleep if someone is breathing on my skin, or if I am breathing on my own skin.
4. I ate Fruit Loops for dinner as a frosh in college. A lot.
5. I have a picture of the Swedish Royal Family children on my bulletin board.
6. I smashed two of my fingers and it has taken 2 years for the nails to grow back normally.

I'm not going to tag anyone as my time is limited right now, but if you want to do this on your blog, go for it! :)

Be My Friend!!!

Il Tonino and I attend a Music Together class -- we did it all last year (fall, winter, and spring) and are in it again this fall. We had the same teacher and the same class last year, but this year is totally different, with a different teacher, different mom/kid pairs, and even a different classroom.

The first day of this new class for this semester I met a mom who has twins -- a boy and a girl. We hit it off talking while our kids played on the playground after the class. She is extremely friendly and immediately invited us over for a playdate. Uhh, okay! I am usually a bit more reserved and like to develop my relationships slowly. So I told her we'd exchange emails at the next class.

Well things have just been really busy and either she hasn't been to class, or we haven't. Today we had class together again today and she was totally enthusiastic about seeing me and Il Tonino. She's the type who will totally tickle and hug your child, even when your child really doesn't know who this person is. Is a little much for both of us, but she is still nice.

Anyway, I am trying to figure out if she just has a really, really OVER-enthusiastic personality, as evidenced by her saying and waving "good-bye!" to us at least 10 times between leaving the classroom and us driving past her as she was still buckling her children into the car, OR if she is some kind of weird stalker-leach mom and I'd totally be falling into a trap by befriending her and going over to her house.

Really, I think it is the first guess, but it is just bordering on my comfort zone. I do like her, and we have a lot in common, but the over-eagerness is just making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a little bit. So I'm proceeding cautiously...

Plugs

Happy November!

We went to Nomad today and the Urban Shaman got some new holes. Looks really good. They are a gauge 2. After a few weeks, he looks forward to getting some other nice plugs to put in.