liza thinks

My Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend. Wow. Quite a weekend. Here was the plan.

Saturday. Meet the folks to hand over Ushki.
Sunday. Pancake breakfast at the Firehouse with the extended family. Art & Wine Festival. Dinner at my inlaws.
Monday. Take the kids for their long awaited trip to Great America.

Here's the reality.

Saturday. Met the folks and handed over Ushki. They came here full of tails of Alaska and the fun they had on their trip. They brought pilmeni and we feasted. It was a nice long visit. The kids loved seeing Mimi & Bumpa again. We had a good time. I miss Ushki now that he's gone. He's mellowed into a nice dog. Greg and I played Toontown until around midnight that night. Totally fun to play it again.

Sunday. Pancake breakfast and Art & Wine Festival. Dinner. All that went as planned until we got home around 10:30pm. Already reported on Rosie's foot (see update in comments to that post). She's doing okay. I went to bed around midnight. Here's where the BIG changes started.

Midnight-thirty. Gage came into our room crying. He'd thrown up. Yup. Here we go again. So, I grabbed him into the bathroom as he started making gagging noises again. Greg was on clean-up duty this time (stripping bed, cleaning carpet). I made up an impromptu bed for us with his sleeping bag, sheets, and his quilts. I snuggled with him and his pot for the rest of the night. He threw up 11 times that night. Poor miserable kid. He was super brave about it -- just looking at me in the middle of all the wretching saying, "I don't like throwing up. I think it's a bad thing." Finally, around 6:00 am, I was done. He wanted to watch TV so I traded with Greg who had been awake and counting the sessions but got more sleep in between sessions that I had. He sat with him through two more sessions. And, then, he was fine.

But, we weren't even going to consider going to Great America -- rides and junk food on a delicate stomach? Mom and Dad with not enough sleep? Holiday weekend? I don't think so!

I slept until around 10:45 or so. We showered and got dressed and went out to breakfast. Our local Denny's is now the Scotts Valley Diner. Great breakfast. Gage got plain pancakes with no butter/no syrup. He was good with that and ate a lot, surprisingly. Then we took the kids to see Over The Hedge. Very cute movie -- they LOVED it. Half way through, Ruth turns to me and says, "I can tell this is meant to be a comedy." Greg and I had some big guffaws in it too.

Then we came home and puttered around the house. Greg cleaned up all the broken glass. I tended Rosie and washed off the deck. I did tons of laundry. We had dinner (stopped at the store and everyone got what they wanted for dinner). We just hung out. When the kids went to bed, Greg and I played ToonTown again. Totally relaxing. I got a GOOD night's sleep.

What a weekend.

Birds
California Towhee
multiple Barn Swallows
multiple Stellar's Jays
multiple Western Scrub Jays
female California Quail
multiple Acorn Woodpeckers
multiple Purple Finches

The DigiBarn Computer Museum

Link: The DigiBarn Computer Museum.

Today, we met the most interesting person. Greg had some computer equipment that was pretty cool and he had heard about this guy on a show about how William Shatner changed the world [click]. Since the DigiBarn is right here in our own Boulder Creek, Greg thought he'd check to see if this guy wanted the equipment. Turns out he does. We met for breakfast at one of our local coffee shops and chatted awhile and then went up and had the full tour of his place. Fascinating! Beautiful farm, lovely gardens. Fed the three pigs oranges -- they LOVED them. It was lovely.

We think we have some more old equipment that he might be interested in -- hopefully we didn't chuck it.

From there, we got the kids, moved some stuff around for Greg's former partner, Terry, and then went to dinner, did a little shopping. It was good. Nice day!

Oh, and Ruthie ate both a taco today AND a half a cheese burger! Amazing!!!

Done and done.

Okay.

I'm done. And, done! Here is the current status in our house.

1. I turned in everything I could at 12:00 midnight last night. Damn. I did not finish one of my assignments. I am feeling REALLY down on myself right now. Are there reasons why I didn't finish LAST NIGHT????? Yup. Do any of them change the fact that I shouldn't have been finished 4 assignments last night? Nope. It just sucks. I screwed up. Not sure what the ramifications are yet. We'll see.

2. The Princess is WAY better but not before scaring the pants off me. In the midst of my cram session yesterday, I checked her temp at she was at 101.2. So, I gave her a dose of ibuprofen. 1/2 hour later, I checked her again -- still hot (really hot). Took her temp 103.9. Yup. That's a nice thing to see on the thermometer. So, I called the doctor who hadn't returned Mr Wonderful's call of that morning. The receptionist was not real helpful but she did finally figure out what to do and handed me off to a nurse. The nurse was awesome. Told me to give her Tylenol while she went and talked to the doctor. So, dosed her with liquid Tylenol (not an easy task -- she hates medicine) and waited. They called in a prescription for me to Walgreen's. And told me to give her a cool bath. Fortunately, this was when Mr W got off the phone (poor guy -- he's been swampped too) and took over. Gave her the bath (taking her temp right along) and let me know when she was down to 100.2 again. Whew! Then he went and got her meds (and got himself a glucose tester -- more on that later). With two doses of antibiotics in her, she hasn't needed any fever meds. Her temp got up to 100.2 again this morning but was at 97.7 (normal for her) this morning. YAY! First time she's had a temp below 99 since Monday night.

Could it really be true?

Today's Weather:

Mark's Garden
Originally uploaded by lizalee.

They are telling us that we should have sunny days and temps into the 70s all week. Could this be true? Is it all just a cruel hoax? A plot by evil weatherpersons? I would love it if we all spent the week here talking about how gorgeous the weather was and wasn't it nice to see the sun. I'd like to see my yard dry out and stop having to wonder if we should run the pump under the house for awhile to clear out the standing water. Yup. It would be great to have an actual spring! Spring! Can you imagine?

Fun new blog phenom

[click]

What fun! I have got to try this with my kids!

Kids
play
with
bunnies,
baby chicks,
and eat chocolate.
They find Easter to be great fun.

Fibs. I *love* it!

Spring Break Update

It's Tuesday morning. I took yesterday to get a bunch of work around the house done. Yippee! Drs appts, dentist appts, hair appts, etc. It's all good. Also made plans for the chillens and the week. We're hoping to take the kids to Great America on Thursday -- if the weather cooperates.

Last night, the kids were at my inlaws overnight. Mr Wonderful and I had a Date Night. So fun. We got chinese takeout, rented a couple of grownup DVDs, and settled in on the couch, in front of the Jumbotron with a bottle of local Zinfandel. AWESOME!

Greg's cousin, who owns our local video store, told us that Flightplan was AWFUL but we are diehard Jodie Foster fans and we loved it. We also rented School of Rock which tragically we'd never seen before. Totally awesome movie -- especially for a rocker and a teacher! :)

Today, I'm getting the kids (soon, in fact) and then Ruthie has her singing lesson. Then we'll come home and I'll start cranking on the work. Yeeee-haw! Work, work, work. Whistle while you work. Workin' for a livin'. (Okay, I'm done now).

In bird/nature land, the squirrels are driving me insane. They have removed all my feeders except the hummingbird ones. The chickadees are so frustrated that one of them is actually trying to drink from the hummingbird feeder (She put it out here. There MUST be sunflower seeds in it!) It's insane.

And, it's pouring rain. The power was browning out a few minutes ago. Oh joy. Off to the showers for me and then to get my kidlets. Wheeeee!

Rise and shine!

Do I need to mention that I woke up about 47 times last night? And that I checked my alarm about 6 times before going to bed? But, all is well, the alarm worked. I'm up. Coffee in hand. Humming under my breath, "I will survive!"

So, I have to get through today. And, then tomorrow we'll pick up the house, I'll do some work. I *may* take the kids to see a movie. Not sure yet. And, then we go to my inlaws and I drop the kids off there and I go get Mr Wonderful at the airport. Wheeeee!

He's lucky I'm letting him come back home with all his talk of the view from his hotel room, the steak he had for dinner, the chocolates on the pillow of his hotel room. Just lovely.

Meanwhile, still no heat here. I have GOT to remember to call Amerigas today and see if they can come out tomorrow and look at the furnace. Oh, and buy a box of wood. And, more kindling. Oh joy. Oh, and chocolate powder for my mochas! But I did remember coffee and toilet paper at the store yesterday. It's all good.

Calgon. Take me away!

Do you want whine with your morning coffee?

Spring is here!

Look at those gorgeous flowers. They are stolen with all due credit and amazement from Julie Zickefoose [click]. She makes me wish it was fall so I could go buy more daffys and plant them so I could be enjoying them right now. They are Salome -- utterly gorgeous. Why don't I have any planted in my yard? I'm so enamoured of the traditional yellow daffys that I forget the glorious nature of other colors! I need some Mt Hoods growing (in honor my father) and some Salomes and other pink daffys to brighten my spirit. I need some itty bitty daffies and some great huge ones. I need doubled and ruffled daffys. Basically, I need a LOT more daffies in my life! There are so many beautiful choices out there [click].

Or is it?

As I sat listening to the rain POUNDING the roof last night, I mentioned to Mr Wonderful that it is one of my favorite sounds in all the world in November but in April it makes me feel sad and dreary and hopeless. I honestly wished that the phone would ring at 6am this morning saying that a tree was down and school was cancelled. Of course what that really means is that our late Spring Break is really too late. By this time next week, I'll be sitting here gloating that I don't have to work. But, today. I do have to work. And, Mr Wonderful will be out of town all week -- oh joy.

I need a theme this week. I think I'll be humming "I Will Survive!" under my breath. Sing it, sister.

Lizalee's Vibes

[click]

Because my sister [click] always knows about the coolest things, I learned about Netvibes today. It's really cool -- totally beta and in need of more options but loaded with potential.

The day ahead

Ahhhhhh, what a difference a warm house and running water make in one's outlook! The little things in life truly do make the most difference. A hot shower. Ahhhh. Pulling clean, dry dishes from the dishwasher. Ahhh!

What else. Today, I'm supposed to meet with my principal and my disgruntled parent. Not feeling good about this one. I know that it will all be fine but it never feels good to be complained about and have to defend yourself. Sigh. I met with my mentor on Monday and we outlined a plan for the future of my writing program. I hope it all goes smoothly. I'm feeling really stressed about it.

I finally worked up the nerve to contact Gander's breeder and let her know that its not working. He just isn't happy here with the lifestyle we are currently able to provide. I HATE it but I can't ignore it any longer. Makes me so sad. So, we're communicating on that but it's not easy.

All the uncertainty about my firebug isn't helping either. I hope we learn the outcome soon. Then I could help to prepare my students and myself for whatever the answer is. I'm not sure when we'll know, however.

Boy, I'm a mix of upbeat and negative today. Hmmmmm.