YAY!

I got a new job. And it's one I actually want!

I'll be working for the Oregon PERS as of Jan. 2. It's better pay, it's SO close to my house, it's work that uses my teaching background....

Just, YAY!

This TOTALLY makes up for the fact that we had to buy new doors. :)

Squirrels ate my internet.

I shit you not.

It should be back up today.

We're doing Christmas cards this year. Needless to say, they will feature a certain smiley boy who can now race down the hall.

Ya want one?

Poll #1091563 Christmas Cards!!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 18

Do you want a Christmas card?

What's your name and addy?

I'm taking him for his first haircut on Friday. The poor kid's hair goes every which way, and he has a cowlick! Right up front!! So yeah, on the busiest shopping day (which I know really isn't) of the year, I'll be buying a haircut and a new toilet.

Envy me.

I should make pie crust tonight. I should also work out. I'll prolly just sit around and watch Chuck.

BEST thing about the new digs? We had trick-or-treaters.

Not just one or two, either. PACKS. Packs of trick-or-treaters, we had. At least forty.

How awesome is that?!?! YAY!

Declan did not dress up for Halloween, as he is recovering from a double ear infection. His second in the last month or so, poor little man. He did, however, go to a costume party with his mama on Saturday. See?

( OMGWTFPOLARBEAR!! )

What else? I'm not hating my new job, but it's not a dream job either so I'm still looking. I'm getting remarkably fannish about Supernatural and I'm kinda hooked on the cheesetastic goodness that is Blood Ties. For new shows, I'm liking Chuck, Reaper, and Life -- and I have a kajillion shows to catch up on online.

Jer's blood sugar is much better, and the bastard has lost 25 pounds since his diagnosis. He's looking like he did when we first started dating. Well, except for the gray hair. Hee.

Baa Baa Sheep!


These are my responses after the short quiz. #1 cracks my shit up, as does #8 (I like to live as religion-free a life as possible...)

1. Probation / Parole Officer
2. Curator
3. Director of Photography
4. Director
5. Professor
6. Anthropologist
7. Set Designer
8. Clergy
9. Costume Designer
10. Foreign Service Officer
11. ESL Teacher
12. Sport Psychology Consultant
13. Foreign Language Instructor
14. Music Teacher / Instructor
15. Psychologist
16. Humanitarian Aid Worker
17. Rehabilitation Counselor
18. Historian
19. Lobbyist
20. Archivist

After taking the more EXTENDED quiz, I got these answers:

1. Communications Specialist
2. Professor
3. Lobbyist
4. Anthropologist
5. Historian
6. ESL Teacher
7. Public Policy Analyst
8. Political Aide
9. Adoption Counselor
10. Probation / Parole Officer
11. Archivist
12. Researcher
13. Costume Designer
14. Medical Transcriptionist
15. Website Designer
16. Lawyer
17. Civil Litigator
18. High School Teacher
19. Office Manager
20. Artist

What does "Communications Specialist" even mean? And I've actually been a high school teacher. My mom thinks that I'd make an excellent lawyer, as I love to debate stuff. The problem with that is, then you have to hang around with, y'know, lawyers.

( Boy Boy Boy! )

Next post: the U.S. Open. Hot sweaty men, yay!

( House Quiz Results )

I bet you thought it'd say "Ravenclaw." Snerk.

GIP. My first ever icon. In MS Paint. Woot!

Thank goodness it's all about the subject.

Multipicture baby post is long overdue, and shall be happening soon. Promise.

What is this sensation I'm feeling? It it? Could it be? Am I feeling all fannish and squee-y again?

I think I might be. Hmm.

Or maybe I'm just looking for something to get fannish and squee-y about again. Something new to get crazy and crushy about and gleeful about.

I think part of it is that I'm finally over the loss of Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor. I can't help it -- I like David Tennant, and all, but Chris -- even in the middle of grand goofiness, he had this capacity for tragedy. It's like he felt so much as the Doctor his skin could barely contain it. There are sooo many moments where the purity of what he's feeling as the Doctor brings tears to my eyes. ("And everybody lives, Rose!")

Conversely, Tennant? Tennant just can't escape a certain boyishness and lightness in my eyes. He didn't bring the same depth of feeling.

Here's the perfect casting for Tennant -- he's Algy in The Importance of Being Earnest, all wearing striped waistcoats and lolling on couches and saying, "What do you mean, there are no more cucumber sandwiches?" Yes, being madly in love with the girl and all, but to a very silly and light effect.

Damn. He'd make an excellent Algy.

I don't love him as much as the Doctor, though. I know, he's a different actor and a different character - sort of - and I oughtn't compare. Much. Sure, he's the running-jumping-action Doctor. I quite like the enthusiasm, and the intellectual curiosity he brings to the role -- the fun! The ep with Anthony Stewart Head last season was really cool. But I never really felt the loss that Eccleston brought to the part.

Now this season, which is currently airing on Sci Fi, I do. It's like he's more open to feeling the loss of Gallifrey because he's also mourning the loss of Rose. The ep that aired last Friday is the first one I really think I want to rewatch. It was awesome! Scary, and weird, and heartfelt. I just really liked it.

Torchwood also approacheth. I watched the first half; then stupid having a baby happened, and I got behind, and then downloading became an impossibility. It may be possible again, but my home computer time is pretty limited. It's much easier to veg in front of the tv and feed baby than to try to entertain him while catching something online. Which means I watch it on BBC, starting over. Yay! Captain Jack! Dare I even say, SQUEE!!

( The Contest )

And who knows? Maybe the fall shows hold something wonderful. Something that can obsess and enthrall me. I've liked, but it's been a while since I've LOVED. Maybe I'm ready again.

*crosses fingers*

GAH! I'm reading LJ and all these people are already posting their fall schedules. I'm not ready for Fall TV, people!! I can't do it until I get some expert input. I've given up on the Fall Preview of TV Guide, but I have to have some critical input. Entertainment Weekly, or Matt Roush at tvguide.com, or something. Right now, my schedule would be based on inchoate stuff like having had the Bionic Woman Board Game as a child, or an incontrollable shudder of revulsion whenever someone brings up the concept of Cavemen, or the fact that I have a wee bit of a crush on Damien Lewis after having glutted myself on Band of Brothers recently, and therefore I'm planning to watch Life.

I mean, I'll watch stuff just 'cause y'all are watching it. At least initially. But what are you basing these decisions on? The cute boys, or the holes in your schedule wherein you are already watching the cute boys? Hype, like I've seen for Pushing Daisies (though I've also seen comments of "Twee.") or antihype, like for Viva Laughlin or the aforementioned *shudder* Cavemen?

And speaking of which, there seems to be rather a dearth of cute boys on the new fall shows. They couldn't find a ripoff vampire detective hotter than that?!?!?! It's debatable whether he beats the Forever Knight guy in the hot department. Feh.

I've been meaning to post since last week about the trip to Indianapolis. Unfortunately, the random cough on the flight back turned into three-day fever and ongoing lung-coughing-up and horrendous lack of ability to sleep at night due to said fever/coughing. I've therefore been walking around in a vaguely gray haze knowing full well that I could not give my darlings their due when I have the mental capacity of a slighty overcooked pudding.

I've been back a week now, however, and if I don't speak now I'll probably forever hold my peace. And/or have forgotten everything.

Indianapolis was fabulous! Fortunately Declan was an excellent traveller and his usual charming self, or my brain could've exploded on the flight. And Indianapolis itself, weather-wise, is a bit like checking the dryer halfway through a cycle -- where you just get hit in the face with hot. It really does take going elsewhere to make one appreciate the weather of one's home. All we have is a little dinky rain. Lovely!

I'm really not much of a NASCAR/racing fan, but the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is pretty nifty, and quite the feat of engineering. My father-in-law is appropriately envious of my visiting such a Mecca of turning left. But I haven't given him his hat yet.

Still not a racing fan.

Biggest moment of culture shock: the Cracker Barrel. I didn't know you could make a chocolate cobbler.

And I've GOT to find a good Greek restaurant around here. I'm missing that hummus. Plus, FLAMING CHEESE!

Now to the most important thing: the girls. fenwic, I just keep on adoring you more and more. And I'll never watch the "Run Crichton, Run!" eppy without thinking of you. canadia_bit, I'm sorry I missed most of the Dressing Sunny Time -- especially after the success of last summer's Dressing Fenny! Maybe this should be a tradition, and we can find another victim for the Couv. I can tell you're a fantastic Auntie, as you were fantastic with Declan. I can't wait to show Jer that video. And I miss you already. angelchicken, it was so good to see you! And thank you again for the bling -- I feel like I should wear it and have superpowers. What would pink Kryptonite do, anyway? juliedarling, it was lovely to meet you! And Declan loved meeting you too! So many people on my flist whom I adore think you're the bee's knees. I'm looking forward to feeling the same. enkeli, I've officially decided that I have to start stalking you or something. We neither of us are on LJ often enough, darn it! And these weekends are just long enough for me to revel in how fabulous you are -- not long enough to get used to the fabulousness. I don't suppose you'd want to move to Portland?

(BTW, enkeli and I? We got carded, buying booze. CARDED. I'm closer to twice the drinking age than I am to 21. Even if you go off of that, "Card if they look 27" thing, er... not very damn likely. It's possible that we were acting seventeen, though, and that younged us up.

CARDED.)

Finally, sunbrae, thank you soooo much for hosting this madcap affair. It was, as it always is, so lovely to see you. I hope that I raise my boy to be as kind, as thoughtful, and as fun as your Monkeys are. Give each of them big hugs and raspberries for me!

The one thing I regret about bringing the D-man with me is that I feel like I didn't get nearly enough time with everyone. He had to be my first focus and attention, as well he should be -- but it also means that other people got fit in around my attention to the baby. Next year, guys!

Okay. You know you're low on sleep when two nonfat double-shot lattes do NOTHING. Absolutely nada. Nil. Zip.

*yawn*

Declan's been sick for the last three days, with a fever as high as 103.4. Yes, that's right, he's HOT BLOODED. HOT BLOODED!!! (that's another indicator that my brain has turned to cheese) So I've walked around totally stressed out, I was up between 12:30 and 5:00 on Monday trying to deal with fussy baby, the whole nine yards. There's no diagnosis, as the fever's the only symptom. And I'm a new enough mom that when he does sleep and he's sick, I have to keep checking to make sure he's still breathing.

Last night he slept better (Yay!) and he ate more (Yay!). Then I call into daycare to inform them that he'll not be gracing them with his presence and they say, "A fever with no other symptoms? Yeah, that's been running around the infant room. It's been lasting three days and then done." Today is three days.

I've called my mom three times from work. He's fine, he's sleeping, he's doing better.

All that stress which was keeping me upright? *makes air going out of a balloon sound* Man, I can barely stand up. I remember when he was only a month or so old and getting more than three hours of sleep at a whack was a luxury. I was STUPID all the time, but I didn't need sleep.

Screw you, sleep, getting all "necessary" again.

The good thing is that I should be able to bundle him on a plane tomorrow morning to take him to Indianapolis. He's still teething, but that ain't no thing. He's usually pretty charming even when he's exhausted.

Gah. I feel horribly behind. On life, on LJ, on... you name it. I need some way that I can stop time, just to get caught up on everything. Wouldn't that be awesome?

I watched three lovely hours of Doctor Who on Sunday morning (like, from 1-4, as Declan was up) and it just made me miss the show desperately. It was the stuff that got aired on Sci-Fi. That's how behind I am. Plus I've caught all of half of Torchwood. And I don't think I can even find my seasons of Nine and first Ten, as they were not-quite-legal downloads and the burned discs are now... well, they're in a box somewhere, unlike the legal stuff. Which means I'll just have to go buy the actual sets. Some time. Those bastidges ain't cheap!

Just watching those two eps made all the love come back. I think a big chunk of that is that he so clearly missed Rose. It wasn't just "Hoop! That's done, and on to the next one." He was all sad and stuff. And people are making reference to Captain Jack coming back on Doctor Who, which I shall get to see, but that's a ways away now, isn't it?

I would also point out that it's nearly impossible for me to watch stuff online right now. I can nurse baby or hold sacked out baby whilst I watch actual TV -- but until I get a laptop (and maybe not even then) I cannot compute and baby-monitor.

And if it comes down to an either-or on that one, the either wins every time. :)

SPEAKING OF WHICH!!

This now devolves completely into baby stuff. Be forewarned.

( BABYBABYBABYBABY )

We have achieved tooth!

Tooth number two is imminent. My brilliant son is also sitting up -- well, STAYING seated when positioned so -- and yesterday he shifted an object from one hand to another.

Clearly he's a GEEEEEEEEENIUS. :)

I've decided that I have to get a new camera, as the current one does a preflash thingy even when the red-eye is off. It makes all his pictures look like he's thinking, "Hey! Whatcha do that for?!?!" I need more pictures of his smile.

In other news, it's Paintapalooza at the Old Homestead this weekend. Do I know how to have fun, or what?

Clearly the answer to that is, "Or what."

Yesterday was Jer's and my anniversary. Our FIFTEENTH anniversary, to be precise. I'm pretty impressed by that. It seems like forever; and yet, from a different perspective, it's no time at all. Part of me is looking forward to the time when the part of my life where we've been together is longer than the part we haven't -- it's still a few years away, but needs to be celebrated.

In case you all had forgotten, I love my husband tremendously. Beyond the power of words to express.

We didn't celebrate the anniversary much, yesterday. Jer let me sleep in and took care of baby (I returned the favor this morning) and then last night we grabbed a quick dinner at Chevy's. Which Declan FREAKED OUT in the middle of. The poor lad is teething -- he's even got a white spot on his gum where the tooth is pushing to come through -- and though he can usually keep it together, that plus sleepy made him blow a gasket.

But this weekend? After a birthday dinner for a friend on Friday night, we're going to the coast on Saturday. We went to the coast for our honeymoon, and spent a summer there doing summer stock. So we're going to relive some of those memories: Jer's making a seafood lasagna, we're going to have a picnic on the beach, he's going to feed me mangoes (the first time I had a mango was on our honeymoon). It'd be really damn romantic were it not for the five-month-old baby. ;)

I'm reading ... okay, not TRASHY fantasy novels, but fantasy novels that really don't require much of one. David Eddings. Not bad, very readable, but very very derivative of Tolkein in plot and I can't think too hard about the characterization of females. It's not Robert Jordan bad, but... they're pretty much all in it to be love interests. Hmph.

And then there's the TV. I broke my string of summer reality to watch Band of Brothers in its entirety on HBO On Demand. And I think it's finally done it -- I now have a bit of a crush on Damian Lewis. He's just so GOOD in BoB!!! So decent and stalwart and upstanding. It finally pushed past the ginger thing for me (I'm usually not a fan of the redheads, as I am shallow, so he joins... well, Toby Stephens in the meagerly peopled Adj's Redhead Crushboys). So the fact that he's got a series this fall, Life, has me rather excited. It looks like Robin Weigert is in it too -- and though I doubt she'll get to scream at people to GET FUCKED!, I'm still glad to see her in stuff. I also, being the freaky completist that I am, want to watch more Damian Lewis stuff -- maybe catch the I'm-sure-it's-dreadful Dreamcatchers on some random movie channel, and rewatch The Forsyte Saga, though his character is reprehensible in it. Okay, not reprehensible, just a real jerk.

What I'd really love to see is the ShakespeaRetold he did of Much Ado About Nothing. BBCAmerica aired it ONCE. ONCE!! What's up with that?!?!?!

For those of you who've not caught BoB, and/or if you're missing other HBO shows like that mob thing (heh) or Deadwood *sob* or... whatever, it's so worth a watch. It's just brilliant. Quick spots of lots of British actors, too: Jamie Bamber, James McAvoy...

Other than that (and watching the awesomely cheesy '90s Fox series Space: Above and Beyond on dvd, which Jer bought for me for Christmas and I love him for it), it's the Summer Reality Wallow. Top Chef looks awesome this year -- and there aren't any egregiously incompetent chefs this year. Okay, there may have been, but he didn't survive the first night. And now I have to use the phrase amuse bouche all the time. Apparently it's different from an appetizer in that you only get one? Heh.

Apparently all the incompetent chefs got on to Hell's Kitchen instead. I have a much lower tolerance for that one, because of all the yelling and fuckwittedness. But I watch, thinking "Thank Pete I'll never work in a restaurant!"

The last reality show blipping my radar is So You Think You Can Dance? I think I like it because 1) it doesn't MATTER that I'm finally watching it when the baby wakes up at 4:30 a.m. and I can barely think, it'll still make sense; 2) I'm not a good dancer and am much more of a layman at recognizing good dancing than, say, good singing -- so I can just go, "oooh, pretty!" and root for people in a desultory way; 3) it's dancing, and it's nifty.

No pictures this time. I HAVE them, mind you. They're just still on the camera. Feh.

LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Let's just take the bitching over the letdown that was The Amber Spyglass as given.



I like the name Eamonn. A lot. Unless you say it with a Jamaican accent.

I started back at work on Wednesday. Which means I now have time to dink around on the internet. Wheeee!

I'm still not going to be able to get out to see 28 Weeks Later when it airs. Damn. IDRIS ELBA, people!

Jer got the call a couple of hours ago.

We're officially homeowners.

I'm simultaneously elated and terrified.

You know how they like to give disclaimers? Here's my fave. "You know, pitocin isn't always effective; it may not work." Grr.

My uterus is apparently a fortress which pitocin cannot breach. Dangit. We had me hooked up from 9:45 a.m. to almost 5 p.m., eventually cranking that drip thingie as high as it would go, and... nuthin. No change. No dilation, nuthin. I had some minor contractions that didn't even cause any pain, and those tapered off. So I'm just as pregnant, and now have some lovely i.v. bruises as a memento of my stay (three tries to get an i.v. in -- YAY!).

The good news is that Declan remained healthy through the entire experience, his heartbeat strong and steady, his movement good. It's just that apparently my uterus doesn't want to let him go.

We're going to try again next week. If I don't go into labor before that.

... personally, I think I may be pregnant forever...

We're supposed to check into the hospital a little less than 8 hours from now. We have to call first, as there's the possibility that we could get bumped if they're swamped. Needless to say, I don't think either of us are getting any sleep tonight.

So. Nervous.

Eeek!

ETA: We called, and we're good to go!!!

I'm a little sad, because Peter Boyle passed away. dionneshea mentioned his amazing X-Files ep, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," so I'd just like you to sing along with me.

If you're blue
And you don't know
Where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits?

PUDINNN ONNA WIZZZ!!!!