19 November 2007

potty training a girly girl

Lib is FINALLY trying to potty train...on a regular basis, not just a day & then back to pullups (or diapers). Her inspiration is the promise of a new PINK carseat. She's all about the pink these days. Geez, everyone knows pink is for girls. Other colors are for boys. And boys are yucky. If you ask Lib, only pink & purple are appropriate girl colors. Every other color? Well, let's look at this example: Fi was drawing the other day & Lib wanted her to use ONLY pink. Every crayon Fi picked up (& not being deterred, proceeded to color with) was met with one comment from Lib: "ugly". e.g. Fi picks up red, "ugly" says Lib. Fi picks up blue, "ugly". Black, "ugly". Green, "ugly" and on & on it went until the picture was complete.

Anyway, potty training. It's exciting. Yay! No more diapers. No more wipes. That's a significant savings in $ and time. So far only a few "accidents". Wish us luck!!

Oh, I had to remind Feefer that her reward for potty training was being able to go to school. She promptly informed me that she doesn't want to go to school anymore. She wants a pink carseat. Lib said she would go to school instead. And she would too, if only it were that easy. Every day the highlight of the afternoon is her chance to say "hi!" to Miss Cathy, Fi's ECE teacher.

18 November 2007

I bleed black & gold -even when I'm 1300 miles away!

And it's been over 11 years!

You are 100% Pittsburgh.
 

Great job! There's nooooo doubt about it. You're from Da Burgh. You deserve a reward, so go have an Ahrn City or two. And GO STILLERS!

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**If it were my quiz, I'd ask "what is a MAC machine?" And the answer is:???? Anyone NOT from PGH know the answer??

14 November 2007

chilly fam photo

Maddie said that she wanted to spit on the ground at the Continental Divide so that half her spit would go east & half would go west. She was so cold, she forgot to spit. Either that or she imagined a real "line" that would tell her exactly where the divide lay and was surprised & disappointed that reality is often not what we imagine.

 
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12 November 2007

November 3 1997, revisited

Or "The Reason I Believe in Guardian Angels"

so, the story behind the lightpole. Have I posted this before? I better check first. Okay, no. Earlier in the summer I noticed how rusted the lightpole has become, so I've been wanting to get a snap of the lightpole for posterity's sake before it's replaced. Here is is again:


10 years ago, I rode the bus to this bus stop at Broadway & Dartmouth in Boulder. I was on my way to pick up Nikki at her school across the street. I was standing on the southwest corner right beside the pole waiting for the light to turn & watching traffic rush by.

I watched -in what totally seemed like slow motion- you know those moments, the ones you can "see" what will happen next- as a little white car travelling south in the middle lane of Broadway (three lane street, 40 MPH?) put on her turn signal to turn west onto Dartmouth. BUT there was a beige/gold Suburban (or some equally mammoth SUV) travelling in the right lane beside her. The white car started to turn right into the SUV. The SUV then continued its inertia on a somewhat 35 degree angle directly towards me and the other pedestrians. I was standing right in the path between pole & SUV. SOMETHING moved me backwards -like I was floating, not rushing post haste- just out of harms way. There really was no time for reaction as it all happened in a split second -despite the seeming slow mo. I could feel the shattering something (glass? headlights?) from the SUV fall on me.

The SUV did not rest there, however, but sort of bounced EAST off the light pole & continued traveling across all three lanes to finally rest in the median on Broadway. I was in shock as I walked to Nikki's school. I couldn't even hang around to see what happened b/c Nikki was only 9 and she needed me to pick her up from her after-school Spanish class.

It was mind-boggling thinking about what could have happened. It still makes me think. The SUV could have bounced west & tragedy would have ensued. I was about 2 months pregnant with Maddie. Ten years later, I brought Maddie to the spot where our very successful guardian angel saved both of our lives. You can see the dent the SUV left as a marker for history. This memory also reminds me (and I tell Maddie to think on this too, when she's feeling blue) that God surely has a greater plan for us; we could easily have been snuffed out like a little birthday candle on that day.

That's one guardian angel story. I have a really really good guardian angel.

that time of year




what's in there?










Lib wanted a bunny; G improvised without a template (top left). Maddie mostly carved wolf all by herself (top right). Fi drew a marvelous spider as a model for her carving; G improvised (bottom)

sleeping beauty. Fi added the accessories herself


a lovely corpse bride who was mistaken for a princess at school (make-up & black hair spray added after school helped with the overall effect)

cowboy Libby was all for utilizing her boots as a costume(horse missing from picture)

update & correction

I now believe that I did NOT have food poisoning, but that nasty norovirus that's going around. It was awful. And I didn't feel completely well for a full day until yesterday. So don't let my previous post prevent you from eating at Islands or Glacier. In fact, I was quite excited to see that there is now a Glacier in Denver. How exciting!!

What else is exciting? Our wireless works seamlessly now!!! Yay!!

06 November 2007

birthday continued

This is the bad part of my birthday celebration:

Somewhere in Boulder I contracted food poisoning. Was it my burger? Was it my gelato? Regardless, I woke up around midnight, sick as a dog...all night long. At one point I decided to just "sleep" in the bathroom, as it made more sense, & felt a bit safer, than traipsing back & forth between bed & toilet every hour, iykwim. I had to wake Garrett @ 4:30am to take Chris to the airport. It sucked. What sucks more is that today is Tuesday & I've had to call off work again because my insides are still not okay. Grrrrr. I hate doing nothing all day. I haven't even felt up to knitting, if you can believe that. It's like having the flu but no other symptoms. Which, I guess if you think about it, is actually better than having the flu. No, wait, Sunday was like having a hangover, but without having had the benefit of partying on Saturday. Horrible. I was a tad concerned last night b/c I still couldn't keep anything down & I feared I might be dehydrated. Hero that Garrett is, he brought me some pedialyte. GROSS! OMG! That swill is nearly as foul as the sugar drink one is forced to imbibe during pregnancy for the glucose screening test. Blech! BUT! it stayed down, sip by little sip through the night. And! here I am at the computer (bathroom not far away though, lol). I did attempt to eat today. Rice was okay. Not satisfying in the least, but it didn't make me nauseous like the soy cracker I tried. Maybe I'll try some knitting. And of course, there's the weekend's laundry to fold.

Anyone have a cure for food poisoning?

how I spent my birthday

This is the good part of my birthday celebration:

my good friend Chris was visiting from Pittsburgh for the weekend. On Thursday we went to the Pens/Avs game. Sadly, the Pens lost. However, Nikki has declared her undying love for Pens C Sydney Crosby & (unbeknownst to him -yet) he is now her future husband. We convinced Snick to spend the night & watch Grey's. Yay!

On Friday we had a little retail therapy & then had lunch with my ex/Nikki's dad Bryan. Maggiano's downtown -always tasty. That night we dined at Gunther Toody's because Chris prefers "normal" food. Chris & I tried to see American Gangster, but it was sold out. Instead we watched "1408" -typical Stephen King. Actually, it started out strong -reminiscent of "The Shining"- then faded into this "Tales from the Crypt" type movie towards the end.

Saturday was up in the air; Chris wanted to go hiking "in the mountains". I wasn't sure what she meant but I wanted to take her somewhere she hadn't been before...the Continental Divide was new for her, so it was kind of spur of the moment as I was driving west on I-70 with no particular destination in mind. I don't think she realized how cold it is at higher elevations. Needless to say, we didn't hike (Maddie was getting a little concerned, considering she chose to wear a skort).

We drove to Boulder via Golden, taking the old Rte 6 through all the tunnels then HWY 93. We stopped at Broadway and Dartmouth for a photo-op...I'll post about that later. We met Nikki, & Chris had the opportunity to check out Nikki's pad. We ate at Islands -another "normal" food joint for Chris. It's actually quite tasty. Garrett met us too, after installing our wireless at home. (yay!) (now, about that xmas list...macbook, added)

Chris & I went to Glacier for the most delish gelato as the end of my birthday sweet treat. (Garrett had swapped cars with me & had taken the girls home). Later, we watched a bit of Monty Python & the Holy Grail with Maddie before an early bedtime -Chris had a 6:30am flight.


why so chilly mamacita?

could be because you're standing on top of a mountain?



view of the bowl on the other side of the road leading to A-Basin



took the scenic rte 6 down & stopped at tunnel #1 for a break. See that awesome striation on the wall between Fi & Lib? (not a camera error, it really is cool striation)


mountain glass?

this boulder fell from...

...this wall. Can you imagine the massive crashing sound it made?

see, I know deep down she likes being outdoors; that is not the smile of a girl who prefers to be inside


back in Boulder, there is a story behind this light pole