Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Eli is really growing up!

Check out these very cute pictures Nicole sent me of baby Eli from the Curtis Farm.

LOOK.

AT.

THAT.

FACE.



Monday, January 28, 2008

Yes We Can!

I really love this guy. Check out this inspiring speech Barack Obama made after he won the South Carolina primary this weekend. You will be glad you did!

Part One


Part Two

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Professor Obama and Me


Professor Obama and Me

It was 1996, and there I was, in a seminar room with maybe fifteen students, not knowing that I was learning from the man who might be the next President of the United States.



This is a pretty interesting article I found on daily kos, which is a website I am visiting regularly now. ch-ch-check it out!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Up to Ten



So Maggie has discovered the computer. She plays games online as long as you will let her. (She's a Mortland, after all.) I want to support this, but the commercialism and advertising that goes on within the one spot she likes to go was too much! I wondered if perhaps there was an independant website for kids games that we could find.

Friends, I am here to tell you that there is, and she loves it, and it is going to be great. Uptoten.com is where we will be hanging out. There is a free area, and there is a premium area. Last night she played puzzles and games on the free side, and this morning I just bought a premium membership. 49 bucks for one year, but it's full screen, no ads, more games, supports a small independant company, etc.

If you have small kids and you'd like to incorporate multimedia games and learning experiences for them, check this place out. Heather, Lanie, Katie, I'm talking to you. Let me know what you think!

Monday, January 21, 2008

I'm hungry!

I am looking forward to going home for lunch. I will make a turkey and cheese sandwich. I will wipe down the countertops. I will use the bathroom. I will cuddle with Kermit. I will watch a show.

So the inmates are running the asylum. Both kids, certainly Maggie, end up sleeping in our bed at night. Yesterday it was discovered that Maggie doesn't find her bed to be as cozy as other beds in the house. So yesterday she and I went to Homegoods and Target and picked out some cozy pink flannel sheets. Looked for other "princess" ephemera, but could not find anything worthy of purchase.

It stinks how you see something "everywhere" and then when you finally decide you want some, and you return to the places you thought would stock that stuff to the rafters and you are thwarted at every turn. Boo. Maybe when I'm not in the market for it, I see it and think "Pink!" or "Maggie would love that" and that's the end. But when I decide to go out and make the purchase, I determine that Maggie wouldn't love exactly that. And Pink is one thing, 49.99 is another.

Anyway. I tried to make her bed as cozy and warm as possible, but she still ended up in our bed halfway through the night...Boo....

Elsewhere in my life... I'm going to be taking over a new position at work. It was the one I originally interviewed for way back when. I wish I were more excited about it, but hopefully that will be good. I'm not having second thoughts, I'm just sort of "eh..." I guess I'm not dissatisfied with the job I've got, and I wasn't really looking to jump ship just yet - I feel like I'm just getting warmed up in this position and now it's time to learn something new. Luckily I really like the woman I'll be working for/with, she and I have a great rapport, and she, apparently, is convinced I'll love the new work. Time will tell...

Next weekend kicks of day after day of good times and visits with some of the very important women in my life. Lanie and Cassidy and Nora plan to arrive on Thursday night, and then Jocelyn and Brooke come Saturday night! Jeff and Henry will be surrounded by women this weekend - the lucky ducks!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Monday, January 14, 2008

Good Day, dear reader

Hello good people of Bloggingtown, it is I, your loyal scribe.

Jeff and I had a great dinner date on Friday. We had a babysitter and everything! Went to Amigos, where I quickly ordered a house margarita. the thing was so nasty and bottom dwelling, I turned right around and upgraded to a top shelf quality margarita and mmm-boy, was it just what I was looking for. Yum. And, Ole!

On Saturday Jeff took the kids to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and I went out with my new girlfriend Liza to look at used furniture. F-U-N spells fun for this gal! Liza was the one who watched the kids for us on Friday, and it is so nice to feel like maybe I have a sister pal on my hands! She's the bees knees, that one.

And yesterday Maggie and I made a mermaid dolly. She still needs some work, but I'll try to post a picture of her.

I have six or seven more 'parts' of Maggie working on the puzzle. Videos at youtube take forever to upload, so you will get those in installments. After I figure out what is wrong with Part Two, that is.

We got a whole bunch of snow over the last 12 hours or so, several to a-whole-bunch of inches of snow. Hopefully we'll get some snow while Jocelyn and Brooke are here, 'cause it's real purty to watch falling from the sky. (Unlike other things falling from the sky, that is.)

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Maggie works on a puzzle

Part 1



Part 2

Friday, January 11, 2008

Election Analysis

Our local paper published the election results for the towns in the community... very interesting.

In our town, Obama got 386 votes, Clinton got 284 in the democratic primary. Romney got 245 and McCain got 283. Our town had a 60% voter turn out. There are 2,923 registered voters and 1,771 votes were cast.

In Milford, the breakdown was this: Obama 1,052, Clinton 1,091, Romney 867 and McCain 978. Milford had a 56% voter turn out. There are 10,045 registered voters, 5,693 votes cast.

For Amherst: Obama 1,300, Clinton 970. Romney 1,140 and McCain 1,250. Amherst had a 72% votern turn out. There are 8,459 registered voters and 6,165 votes were cast.

So we delivered our town to Obama!

Hello, friends...

Well!

So!

Tonight, Jeff and I are going out to dinner! Just the two of us! Alone! My girlfriend Liza is going to watch the kids at her house for us. I will have a margarita for YOU, dear reader!

And a margarita for YOU, other dear reader!

Weekend plans this weekend are not so hot. The sheer quantity of laundry that needs doing is unbelievable. And I won't even mention going to the dump. Anyway, a bunch of housework, in other words.

Oh if only I didn't have a Wii to play and a new chair to sit in and a laptop to surf on! I might actually get things done around here...

Maggie is really enjoying puzzles. She's so patient and careful about them. I picked up a few new puzzles for her at the Job Lot today at lunch. And last night was the first in several dozen (it seems like) where we woke up in our own bed, with no small children in it! So she gets a My Little Pony.

The other new thing with Maggie is that she's been working on the computer more. last night, for a very long while, she was consumed with playing "Bunnyland" games at disney.com or whatever it is. And heaven help the adult who might have a tip or two on how to use a trackpad. This sister will do it for herself!

Another goal this weekend will be to sell one of our red couches on craigslist. Gotta work up my craigslist karma, you know.

And, I'd like to see a movie, too. Maybe "Juno" or "Lars and the Real Girl", or whatever's playing at our local movie theater...

Have a great weekend blogland!

p.s. I hope to get my sew on this weekend as well. wish me luck!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

First Lady in Waiting

Here is a great article about Michelle Obama...




Change Agent
First Lady in Waiting
Who needs a warm-up campaign? Having scaled down her career to support her husband’s political goals, Michelle Obama says “it’s now or never” for the couple to take the White House. As Barack gathers momentum, Michelle speaks candidly about America’s need for change, and a different kind of political marriage.


First Lady in Waiting

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

That's a relief.


Obama to Get Union Endorsement

After suffering a setback in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Senate Barack Obama will get some good news at 11 a.m. today, Pacific time, when Unite Here, the union representing 460,000 apparel, laundry, hotel and restaurant workers, announces that it is endorsing him, a union official said.
The union will make the announcement simultaneously at its New York headquarters and in Las Vegas, where its local, Culinary Local 226, representing more than 60,000 casino, hotel and restaurant workers, is by far the largest and most politically potent union in Nevada.

White Yankee Talking

I think what's important to remember is that:

a) NH doesn't know anything - we are all a bunch of yankee white folks - not at all representative of the nation as a whole.

b) obama's strategy and plan didn't have him winning NH anyway -- winning Iowa and then the polls lurched him onto this trajectory of expectation.

c) it is odd that the polls were so wrong, but something I read today said that the independants went to mccain rather than obama (more afraid of romney than clinton those folks were apparently) yesterday. so the committed voters for clinton were more than the committed voters for obama.

d) romney is such a sleazeball, I'm just relieved to see him going south.

e) interestingly, the actual count of democratic delegates awarded to each candidate went down like this: obama 9, clinton 9 and edwards 4. so technically it was a tie! but clinton gets the 'popular vote' win. And who will get Edwards' 4 delegates when he drops out?

f) I worry about nevada and who the food service workers union will back. word was it would be obama, but they were waiting until after NH to announce who they were backing. obama hasn't gottem many union endorsements, it would be really sweet for him to get that one.... whoever gets that endorsement will basically win onaccounta how many union members make up the population in nevada.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Monday, January 07, 2008

I think I figured it out

The adorable rocker girl


Gol Dang it, I did it again!

(You could also say I'm turning video capturing on its ear!)

My new world headquarters

Here is the chair you may've heard me talking about. $110 cash! got it off of craigslist over the weekend. The guy, a furniture liquidator for hotels, got these chairs out of a Ritz Carlton, and they were reupholstered about three months ago. I am loving it, and intend to purchase another one in a couple weeks when it becomes available. Makes me not crazy about the rug though. Like the fabric on the chair looks like the dingy denim couch next to it. Could be the nasty florescent light bulbs in the lamps. But very comfortable, great shape and exactly what I've been looking for.



Sunday, January 06, 2008

Got a new digital camera!

Here is the first video from it...

NOTE: the camera I got is an upgraded version of my old Canon Powershot. So it's a camera looking camera, but has video and audio too. I had been shooting some portrait shots of Maggie when I started to make the video. Notice it did not occur to me that I wouldn't be able to rotate this picture once I got it in the computer...

Anyway. It's a start!

In this video, Maggie is listening to my ipod...

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Mindy Ephron



If you recognize this woman, Mindy Kaling from "The Office", you might be happy to know she has a blog! And you may be happier still to know that I have a link to her blog right here for you! Pretty funny stuff. She and her friends write about the things they've bought that they love. Hence, the title.


Things I've Bought That I love

1. Zenergize Drink Tablets.

In my efforts to ween myself off of disgusting, stomach-lining-eroding diet soda, I've turned to healthful alternatives. For a while it was kombucha, but man, it is expensive, and also it kind of tastes like an alcoholic is peeing in your mouth. But yeah, I try to keep a minimum to the chemicals and preservatives I ingest.



Remember those old ads as a kid where you'd see an elderly person happily plunking a tablet in water and then dropping their dentures in it? And even though it was kind of grotesque, it also looked really, well, fun? Zenergize tabs allow regular cool, healthy, young people to drop tablets in water, but instead of cleaning dentures, they create a fun fizzy drink you can gulp down before you work out, or take a midterm, or have sex or something. I primarily use the "Burn" tablets because I am obsessed with any calorie burning booster. But if you're feeling sick or something, you can use "Immunity" which has a kind of citrusy taste and it really does feel like you're keeping yourself good and impenetrable to baddie cold germs. I love that they aren't too-too sweet or anything, and have only 2 calories for a whole tablet! Moreoever, if you lick a tablet, you get a super satisfying little fizzle on your tongue.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Henry ROCKS!

Photos from Christmas

I need to get outside and take some pictures, because this snow is crazy. Follow this link to our friend's blog where he posted a walk down main street during the last snow storm. Thanks Scott!

These few pictures represent the majority of the photos I took over the holidays. Sad, I know. A nice new digital camera is now twinkling at me off in the distance. And I'm going to toy with making a youtube video of Henry playing Guitar Hero, so keep your fingers crossed on that. Hopefully tonight is the night!

First, I show you a bath mat I made recently. Let's just get that right out of the way.



Here's where I got the idea.


Santa brought Maggie a new winter coat!



Maggie and Jeff napped out on the couch.



And, lastly, Henry's snowballs.

Happy Nude Rear!

(I saw that new year greeting somewhere online, made me snicker...)

Oy VEY have I been feeling lousy! *Cough* *Hack* *Snort*... I am feeling better, thank goodness. Still lots of ...uh... residual sickness product inside, but I'm making my way through it. It was nice because I was just beginning to forget what it felt like to feel good when I woke up from my sleep to meet the new year feeling tons better. Yay! cough hack snort.

We didn't do much at all for new years eve. Maggie and I went to sleep early, and Henry and Jeff stayed up past midnight playing Guitar Hero or Super Mario Galaxy. (We are loving our Wii!) I was going to have to go to work on Monday, but the snow that came in late Sunday night ended up causing work to be cancelled, so at least I got to stay home for the day, which was great. And then yesterday we got a ton MORE snow, but it got all sorted and plowed away in time for us to get where we needed to go today.

We are getting a ton of snow this winter, by the way... Jocelyn and Brooke, you'd better bring your snow gear! maybe we'll go sledding when you're here...