Proactivity

We may - we hope - be moving around November. It's been nearly four years since we moved (thank goog, and we want need more space and a yard would be great, and our rent is kind of ridiculous now and +Laston Kirkland wants to grow veggies (and since our apartment porch faces north there's not a lot of that we can do here).

Anyway, in the hopes that we can move - and my insistence on staying in our school district (part of the reason our rent is so high, but I like this district and its schools and the fact that my mother/babysitter lives nearby) - we've started doing some cleaning for it. Yes, it's early, but we have as I said been here for nearly four years, with two adults and three kids (Leanna is not here all the time but a lot of her stuff is) and a cat.

Today I cleaned out my filing cabinet, in an effort to find an old digital camera, as Abby has shown an interest in photography.

And it was a treasure trove of old games (which I loved but could not find), and things I meant to keep for the kids and they are now old enough for, like cross-stitch beginner kits and Moonbase Commander and my favorite ever Pajama Sam game. I used to work for HumonGTgramatari, so I have several of these old things kicking around.

Out of that one (admittedly legal-size) two-drawer file cabinet, I got fourteen games to keep, a like number of music CDs, my trusty copy of Microsoft Office Small Office Edition, a folder full of the kids' assorted school pics, a gazillion barrettes and hair ties, a binder/clipboard for gaming, and my computer repair kit. That's just what we're keeping. Then there's a bag of assorted computer bits and cables going to a friend of Laston's, a bag of software going to places like Half Price Books or something, and three bags of just... junk.

Oh, and the camera for Abby.

And two (mismatched) socks.

Kid Vid

I don't like most of what Abby likes from the Cartoon Network, which is now available on Netflix Instant Play. Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, and Ben 10 are fine, but the adults can only stand the repetition for so long. Hole In The Wall is clever... the first time. The rest are - as Abby explained when summing up Adventure Time - "adventure, and farting.”

Then we watched the first two seasons of Total Drama (not Cartoon Network) which is an animated (pre-teen-aimed) spoof of shows like Survivor, and Netflix decided that we therefore liked reality TV. Now on our suggestion list for Netflix? Destroy Build Destroy from - you guessed it - Cartoon Network.

I love it.

It's like Junkyard Wars for pre-teen viewers (and teenage - mostly - competitors). I might just possibly even like it more than Abby does.

Also, we have fallen into the bad habit of letting Lizzy watch videos from her bed at night. This started with Fantasia and other not-a-story videos of the type (classical music plus pretty pictures), and it was in lieu of a lullaby mix. Over the past few weeks it's (d)evolved into pretty much any preschool show that we have on DVD.

This is Not Okay, especially for someone like Lizzy, who's not a terrific sleeper to begin with. But cutting her off cold turkey won't work; she will feel like she's being punished and that's not fair to her (not to mention that I would like to sleep now and then too, which I cannot do if she is awake.

Which she will be, if she has nothing to fall asleep to.

So in the interest of family harmony, Lizzy and I have made a deal: As soon as it comes in the mail (Wednesday) she will be watching only the sleepytime episodes of things at bedtime (the one in the link is NOT the one we ordered). And the hope is that we can slowly wean her off the TV-as-lullaby this way.

Right now we're watching Mulan.

Ain't No Cure... Wait, Yes There Is...

We all know that I'm somewhat prone to the Winter Blues; Seattle is dreary that time of year. Apparently I'm also prone to the opposite.

We joke that we native Seattleites have webs between our toes, which dry out when the weather gets warm and dry for more than a couple days. But on some level it's true.

I woke up this morning feeling vaguely queasy, lightheaded, super tired, and kind of brain-foggy. I felt feverish (chills, muscle aches) although I do not have a fever, and I was seriously thirsty. I'm a fairly new employee, so I didn't want to just call in sick. So I did what I do for the kids when I think they might be sick, but taking them in to the doctor is impractical: I called the consulting nurse at the hospital.

She looked at my records (I had Lizzy in that hospital so they know me), asked me some questions, and said this: "You might be coming down with something, but honestly, given your one medication and your weight and the weather, I'm going with a mild form of heat exhaustion. My dear, you are dehydrated."

But but but... I drink a ton of water in any case. Every day, me and SparkPeople. "Yes, Mrs GamersBabes, but in this heat you need more." I guess when one spends the day in an air-conditioned office, one does not feel thirsty... until one gets hit in the face with that blast of heat upon exiting.

(And yes, I know I'm a wimp. I'm a Seattleite; we are not built for 85+F for more than a couple days at most.)

But I took a couple ibuprofen, ate breakfast in spite of the mild quease, and have already filled my insulated 24oz cup twice (by 9:30 AM). I still have the headache and some of the muscle aches, and I feel flippin' wiped out, but the nausea and the lightheadedness are gone.

Why I Still Use Facebook - Though They Disappoint

I prefer Google Plus. And I've said before that I am on Facebook for the games (those G+ does not have) and those few of my relatives and friends who are not on G+.

But then today, while scrolling through my - what are they calling it this week? Oh yes, my Timeline - I came across a post from (or about) Pam.

You may know her as Raven.

Now, I've known Raven for years, but I only see her (and usually write about her) once a year. She's a massage therapist (and much more, but that's a different post) and she practices that art at +Norwescon  every year. She truly has healing hands.

And now she's in the burn unit at Harborview because of a slow-cooker with a grudge.

So, all you Con folk? Please send good thoughts, prayers, woowoo, whatever you've got to Raven. Sounds like she could use it.

The Soup of Doom happened Saturday (or late Friday night; it isn't clear). And I just now found out on Tuesday evening because of the way Facebook arranges my Timeline.

Not cool, Facebook.

A Busy Summer Day

Abby and Lizzy were both pains in the neck when we set off for Abby's four days and three nights of horse camp with the Girls Scouts of Western Washington today. I can only surmise they were picking at each other  for the same reason I used to pick fights with my mom the day we'd go to my dad's house for the weekend as kids (and especially as adolescents). Apparently this is a fairly well-known psychological phenomenon; if you are angry with a person then you don't have to feel bad about leaving them.

Anyway; after I threatened them with dire consequences if they didn't shape up, we went out for our promised lunch out on the way to camp (Sushi Connection is more expensive than our usual Sushi Hana, but it sure is tasty). They were good as gold there, and then we drove the rest of the way. Everything went smoothly for once, except that I had tossed the box the fresh new epi-pens came in, and therefore lost the proof that they are Abby's prescription.

Oops.

So I promised the camp nurse that I would get proof and scan it and email it to her, and she decided that was okay. I'm sure my lovely workplace will let me use their scanner; they're very nice about that sort of thing.

So we came home (with the bribe promise of a mango smoothie for Lizzy; she doesn't get mango often although she loves it, because it's on Abby's list of allergens - related to cashew - so we rarely have it). We picked up yesterday's mail and noted that Abby's report card had arrived.

Oh. My. God. This is amazing.

Our school district grades from 1-4 in elementary school; Abby is a pretty consistent 3 ('at grade level') student as a rule. She's always struggled with reading and writing though. Until this year. Until this trimester really, because her scores - while better than they had been - still barely hit 3 until Spring Trimester.

She still has 3's in many things, but only one 2 ('working toward grade level') in spelling. which surprises no-one. And a sheaf of 4's ('above grade level') in science, math, reading comprehension, and social studies (she really really liked the game they played for social studies. This is the child who came home from school shrieking, "Mom, guess what? I almost died of cholera today!")

That's my girl!

Happy Fathers' Day... of BOOM!

Laston signing a book at Norwescon

We're still not in the money, and I have a ton of homework, and +Laston Kirkland is feeling displaced from his native (sort of) Texas (this sentence got away from me; displaced Texan ties into the theme for tonight's dinner), and Miz Liz is still getting over the crud. So we're having a quiet Fathers' Day at home, having called or emailed or otherwise let our respective fathers know we love them. Abby did the same for her dad, and Leanna called here.

And I tried my hand at Cajun cooking, with (you can insert the word 'Cajun' in front of all these foods except the salad): Shrimp over rice, deviled eggs, meat pies, lite Caesar salad. The kids of course - not caring for spice - had the salad and the rice, and chicken nuggets instead of shrimp.

Thank goodness for pre-mixed Cajun seasoning.

It was a qualified success; the Father in question liked it all except the meat pies, about which he was meh. Needs more filling and less crust. No worries there; we've got half the filling left and a second box of pre-made pie crust. My cholesterol count for the day sucked, but I've been very good since I started SparkPeople a few days ago, so one day of six more milligrams than my upper limit won't hurt.

Because Abby is here, and Lizzy's still a bit sick, we've been hanging around the house, indulging ourselves in an Are You Afraid if the Dark? marathon. All day. So when just as we finished dinner there was a loud explosion of thunder, we can be forgiven for jumping a foot in the air. Yes, we live in Seattleish, and yes, it does rain here quite a lot (though not as much as claimed by the popular media). But thunderstorms in this half of the state are unusual, and out of a clear blue sky even more so. This one was loud, and kept going on and on; I was reminded of the Nisqually earthquake in the way I kept expecting it to be over and it wasn't. Then three or four smaller peals of thunder, and that was it.

No lightning. No rain.

Just one big explosion and a few... aftershocks.

Well, we know that dads - at least the dads I know - love to BSU. I choose to attribute the thunder as Mother Nature's way of honoring the dads.