Conversations around the house

Syl: Look honey! She's moving her fries over so I can put more chicken on her plate! Oh, Kitten, you don't like things to touch either!
Pants: I'm a little disturbed that you're so excited about that.

Kitten: Look mama, it's dark outside.
S: Yes, it's getting dark, isn't it.
K: NO, it's already dark out!
S: Ok, sweetie. Whatever you want.

Meimei (standing at top of stairs): ISS CODE OUSSIDE!! YOU PUT COAT ON!!
(M proceeds to drag my long sweater off the chair and bring it to me so I can go to work. With a coat. Because it's cold out.)

M: I HAF GET MY HUCKEN!! (because most of what she utters is a scream these days)
P: What did she say?
S: I have to get my bucket.
P: You got that?

Settle the debate

Ok, so there's this crappy country song where the girl demands to be let out of the car on prom night and then she is hit by a car because it's a dark night, black dress, and the car couldn't see her.

So, Pants thinks you never let a girl out of the car. You offer to drive her somewhere, call someone, take her home, whatever.

And I think that whenever a girl asks to be let out of the car, you let her out. She is either very serious and you should respect her wishes and let her out, or she's playing a game and you should not take it and she should be let out of the car.

When she demands to be let out, do you let her out?

Tee hee hee

Ok, so Michele Bachmann, Represenative from Minn to the US House, questioned if Obama had anti-American views and suggested that Congress ought to call him out on it.

Many of us liberals here in MN (the only state that voted for Mondale, thank you very much, D.C. not being a state) have been cringing at Bachmann for years. She seems to always be putting her foot in her mouth or getting herself on camara in some weird way. You might remember her from such hits as getting awkwardly affectionate with the president after a State of the Union speech (on camara on national television), or her extremely conservative views on women's issues. I secretly think she either hasn't completed her transgender surgery yet or that she's a total closet lesbian - something that's causing a lot of self-loathing.

So anyway, let's return to our faux pas already in progress. So Bachmann makes this inflammatory comment on national television while in the middle of running her own campaign for reelection. Within hours, the great people of Minnesota have donated $600,000 to her opponent (unfortunately named, and I'm not even kidding, Edwyn Tinklenberg).

So nice job, Michele, excellent campaign strategy. We hoped your own comments would eventually bring you down, but we couldn't even have dreamed of something this delicious. Thanks for making the election season a little more exciting, even when you're not in my district.

Error

Due to a postal holiday, wherein our country co-opted another in a seriously brutal endeavor, there will be no posting.

If I don't get mail, I don't write. End of story.

Project day

I planned to go to an orchard with the kiddos today, but one of the cousins probably has strep so they backed out, and MIL didn't want to go with the threat of rain, so we didn't. But, hoody-ho, MIL offered to take the kids all day WITHOUT ME.

So I threw some clothes on the kids and ran them over to MIL's. AND THEN LEFT.

I never do this. Never. If we go to MIL's, I stay and help. It's nice to get out of the house and it's nice to have extra hands. I just feel guilty - they're my kids and I can't just dump them on people when I'm done for the day. But she insisted. She insisted.

So I agreed to it - and oh, the full day of doing and not doing. I forget what it was like to actually get things done.

• Hung new blind in our room - replaced the matchstick blind you can totally see right through at night when the light is on in the room.
  
• Hung new curtain on office window facing the walking path.
  
• Put separators in my new underwear drawer (it's an actual drawer! Not a basket, a drawer!)
• Cleaned the tub and did some patch-caulking. I am afraid the entire tub will need recaulking and I think the tiles all need to be pulled and replaced. Although it looks like they might have been once already.
  
• Removed the shelf and closet rod from the closet underneath the stairs. Started reorganizing my office and my products. Now I won't run forehead-first into the shelf again. I can actually stand up in there.
• Also purchased and put together a rolling rack for my office supplies - I can pull it out when I need to do business or just get my backorders in the mail.
  

Go get them now!!!

I ran to J.C. Penney today to get Kitten some new tops - her body is so long that most of her long sleeve tops from last year don't come down far enough and allow her belly to hang out.

Holy cheap batman! They are having a 50% off sale today, with all of their Okie Dokie line $5 a piece. And they now carry shirts in Tunic length!! PLUS, their clearance is 50% off clearance prices AND they have a coupon for 10% off your entire purchase, which the lady at the counter was kind enough to have on hand and give me.

I got 2 pairs of leggings, 1 skegging (skirt and legging sewn together), 1 babydoll sweater, 5 tops, and a pair of shoes for Meimei for $43. THAT'S CHEAP!!

Conversations

Dear feet -
I have made the podiatry referral appointment, but it is so not my fault that they are only at the clinic Monday mornings and Tuesday afternoons and it's a whole extra month before we could get in. Please stop the insane burning itch. I will continue to scrub and lather you with medicine in hopes of appeasing you.

Dear MIL and SIL -
Thanks for covering 2 days of daycare vacation this week. You are awesome and the kids loved it!

Dear Poppa Rob -
Kitten told SIL today she had her eyes on her (complete with the fingers in her eyes). She loves you guys so much.

Dear CSI writers -
Damn you for killing Warrick off and making me sob through the entire episode. Evil bastards.

Love,
Someone who forgot her medication today...

Have we finally learned?

It appears that, after months of railing against the inevitable (and racking up the credit cards in the process), we have come to accept that we have very little disposable income and have started to live within our means.

I carry a coupon book around in my purse. I scour the Sunday paper each week for manufacturer and store coupons. We rarely eat out anymore at a restaurant we don't have a coupon for. I order much more creatively at fast food restaurants.

I have started shopping for Christmas and regularly peruse the Clearance racks for things I know someone will like. I have found some awesome bargains. I have also found several pairs of shorts, pajamas, and tops for the girls for next summer.

The biggest difference is that we eat at home. I am planning menus again and purchasing food based on what's on sale that week. I made Pants a lunch yesterday for work (I know, the good little wifey, puke puke).

We have also been looking at other expenses - I found that the Minnesota Renaissance School, a Montessori school in Anoka, is $10 less a week during the school year, but $75 less per week in the summer for both of them, plus they start getting some preschool education, which I think they are currently lacking at the present daycare. Meimei has to be 2 1/2 and I suspect they both have to be potty trained, but we have a few months to get everything squared away. It also changes our morning and evening routine because we have to cross the bridge each day, so there is more to be worked out on that one, but we're going to try to make it work. What a break in the summer!! And even $40 a month is $40 dollars we didn't have before.

We have also considered refinancing our house, as the rates have gone down a bit since we bought. We would like to stay with our credit union, but I don't think the rates have gone down enough to make it worth it and drop our payment much and I am afraid the value of our house has gone down and it won't appraise high enough. This refinance would NOT be to take out extra money, but merely to get a better rate, although we would most likely have to roll the refinance costs back into the loan.

This month, the busiest month in my toy business so far, instead of continuing to build my demo kit all available profits will go back to the credit cards. Pants is also putting in some overtime to get the credit cards paid up. My secret hope is to pay off the credit cards by the end of the year, although it's really a stretch goal.

As I read this back over, though, I wonder if these are temporary changes that will fall away again, as they have many other times. Some of them are designed to be temporary, but some need to stick much longer if we are to make it until they are both in school.

More Random Thoughts

Discovered the day after my show I have a half-dollar size bruise on my left arm just below my elbow where my half-assed rigging of equipment rubbed somewhere during between the parking garage and hotel suite. Bummer, dude.

It's vacation week for daycare so I'm home today and tomorrow with the girlies. Today we went to the zoo and then baked an apple crisp with Kitten while Meimei napped. When she got up, she helped us.

And then Kitten fell off the chair she was standing on. Twice. And later burned her finger trying to make sure that baking pan I told her was hot was actually hot. Granted, she's not exactly genetically predispositioned to be an Olympic athlete, but dang, girl.

Other than that, excellent day. Perfect day at the zoo, great weather and very few people. I was able to let the girls walk around inside the animal buildings and on the "cat walk". After clawing at my leg upon seeing the lion pair in the glass enclosure sleeping in the Large Cat building, Meimei was very brave and roared at the lion pair out in the enclosure from the walk. Yes, very brave indeed from the upper walk. When the cats were at eye level, not so much.

Random Thoughts

Had no takers for this evening's show but I managed on my own. Two of my stock totes did take a fall in the IDS Center, but there were no toys involved and I got it picked up really quickly. I definitely know what I will do for next time to make it easier, though. The show was a typical bachelorette party - I'm mostly there as entertainment. They're lower dollar shows, but it gets my name out there.

So, while I was out this evening, Kitten threw up on Pants. I don't know why he gets so lucky to get all the puke, but he does. She was fine by the time I got home, but Pants high-tailed it out of here.

Pants did get my new dresser into the bedroom today, though. It was free, curbside down the road about 6 houses. It's probably 60s, but not tragically Brady Bunch, and it's larger than I thought with fairly clean lines. It needs some work, but I think it will be a cool piece one day. In the mean time, I just needed a better place to put my underwear.

My athlete's foot saga continues. As predicted, once the horrible burning stopped I was not quite as consistent on the foot-washing and application of medicine as prescribed on the box. Grrr. On the other hand, I am once again fully medicated, in every sense that word applies to me.

Daycare is closed this coming week, so I'll be home Monday and Tuesday with the monkeys.

Random Thoughts - VP Debate edition

Um, did anyone else throw up a little bit when Gov. Palin talked about the "expanded definition" of the VP's responsibilities and how she would take advantage of them, like Dick Cheney has?

Palin word count:
Maverick: 6
Main Street: 6
Partisan/Bipartisan: too many to count

When the first comment is, "Well, she didn't embarass herself," I wouldn't feel terribly encouraged.

Pants and I agreed that, while she didn't fall flat, Palin appeared to have 5-7 talking points that she kept coming back to, and we didn't feel she answered a lot of the questions.

Have I mentioned how much it completely pisses me off that here is only the second woman to share the presidential ticket for America and she's dumb as a rock. We finally get another on in there and it's Phyllis Wheatley. She's Jesse Ventura with better taste in suits. She's a novelty as Alaska's governer and they like her because she's "anti-establishment" and she gives them a check every year. Remember the Jesse check? Remember the budget deficit the year after he left office? Ask Alaska in 2 years how they feel about Sarah Palin.

Wanna help?

I have a show at a downtown hotel on Saturday afternoon. It's a bachelorette party, approximately 10-15 women, and they want it to stay on the short side with lots of fun and games. I need a helper for the show, from 3-7 (all inclusive, from picking you up to dropping you off, if needed), to assist me in carrying my crap from the car to the hotel suite, run games (not participate), and help get the products in and out of their hands. Also to assist in getting women through the ordering room with as little waiting as possible.

Oh, and a $25 product credit to the lucky volunteer. Plus a cheap dinner and all the carbonated beverages you want.

Any takers? Oh, and friends with male parts need not apply. Sorry guys.