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Woke up in a weird mood today. Stuff popping through my head, I guess. Fortunately, the content of the day wasn’t overly bizzare, or I’d be fussy.

My Dad’s better, for anybody I talked to about that. He was having trouble with doing physical stuff, and they suspected his heart. He had a stress test Friday, and they could tell there was a blockage.

He was in the hospital Monday, and they put two long stints in his heart. One of the main ateries was completely blocked, so it’s especially good they didn’t go with my dad’s intial plan of “exercising his way through it” via the treadmill, huh? Geez. (more…)

I have been working, very hard, for a very long time, it seems. It feels like forever…i plowed through tons of work the last couple of weeks, often with anxious and cranky clients breathing down my neck, and i managed to do what i consider to be a decent job of juggling all those concerns.

last weekend, it hit hard. saturday, it got to the point i was so tired and frustrated i could barely focus. i had people freaking out at me and stressing me out left and right. (more…)

We’re snuggled up, getting ready to go to sleep. He’s not dozing off in his usual 30 seconds after laying still.

“You’re thinking,” I declared. “I can hear it.”

“Yeah? You’re thinking, too,” he responsds. “You need to go to sleep now. I can sleep better when I hear you snoring.”

“I don’t snore! Who says I snore? Well, okay, the kid does, but I don’t snore. Snoring is not ladylike.”

“It’s very soft.”

“Nah. I don’t snore. Gotta be your imagination. I’ve never heard myself snoring.”

I settle in and we both go to sleep. The kid claims that she sometimes hears a snoring serenade from our room. I think she must be exaggerating. Now, my husband’s snoring could rattle the doors! But me? I’m a perfect lady at all times. Even in my sleep.  

i started the day with over 40 items on my to-do list–the running “red flag” stuff i mark in outlook of work that needs to be done; i am currently down to FOUR. Count them–4!

Granted, one is an entire web design, but you know what? I don’t give a damn. The last couple of days, I’ve minimized distractions, focused, and got a lot of stuff done. And I’m happy with myself for it.

It helped a lot de-stressing; I fired a client whose job was hanging over my head (and whose sarcastic email made me cry). I pretty much kicked out a very big project that I’d been dreading and that i will soon get to send out a nice invoice for, and they’re thrilled.

 and all this with some “open window” sneezies.

chip comes home and immediately knows it’s been a productive day for me.

“Get a lot of stuff done today?” he asked.

“How did you know?”

“There’s less stress in the air.”

over on my LCE blog here -

http://lowcarbeating.com/low-carb-diet-support/blog_callback.php?b=67

“I had a question,” Mom says. I know what that means–it’s tech support for Mom time!

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I could type something on the internet to see if hotels in certain cities are pet-friendly?”

“Well, that’s what I’d probably do if I wanted to know that, yeah.”

“What would I type? ‘Pet-friendly hotels’ and the city?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’d try.” Mmmm hmmm.

“Well, I wasn’t sure if that would work.”

“I dunno, Mom. I haven’t tried that specific search. But the internet has lots of information, and lots of hotels are online. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to find some that way.”

“Where do I type it?” she wants to know.

“Whatever search engine you use. Do you use google?”

“I don’t know. I type stuff in. Sometimes I get the Google, sometimes I get the Yahoo. I have that little e thing i use…”

“Yeah, that’s internet explorer, Mom. That’s your browser. I don’t know what start page you have set.”

“How do I get to that Google?” she wants to know.

“You type ‘google.com’ in the top. It takes you to the Google.”

“Ok, I’ll try that.” She’s happy. I am too. It wasn’t too painful to tell her how to get the Google.

“Don’t you get tired of me nagging you?” I ask her.

“Yes, actually I do.”

“Well, there’s one sure fire way to end all nagging forever! It’s easy…simply take care of your business without me nagging you about it, and you’ve just permenately cashed in your ticket for the guilt trip express for all eternitiy! End all nagging in one easy step. Doesn’t that sound great? You can end all nagging without resorting to killing me in my sleep. Much easier. And your shit gets done at the same time.”

“I don’t have to kill you in your sleep,” she responds. “The Roomba’s gonna do it for me.” (She had gone off on a tangent yesterday trying to convince me the Roomba is demonic. Of course, I know Roomby is my close personal friend. Any entity who does the vaccumming without bitching cannot, by definition, be demonic.)

“Don’t count on it! Doing your shit is much more reliable. And the Roomba is my friend. You know that.”

Roomba is a good little robot. He wouldn’t hurt anybody. He’s just scared of her. He’s heard tales about the carpet in her room.

We went to the Republican Caucus this morning to vote for Ron Paul…It felt WEIRD to register Republican, but whaddya gonna do? There was a HUGE turnout…somewhere close to a thousand people, I am sure…the pic from the line wasn’t even all of it! We waited in line about an hour to check in, which ultimately consistend of getting a colored sticker to put on the ballot. Then we waited about another hour, sitting on the floor by the wall, for others to check in and finally, for people to speak briefly for each campaign, and then to vote.

The biggest cheers during the speeches came for the Huckabee speakers, followed by the RP speakers. The McCain speaker got some token applause, but that’s about it. I only saw one McCain sign the whole time there-the lady looked just like the “funny glasses lady” on the Old Navy performance fleece commerical-and one small McCain Button (and that was on the guy who spoke for him).

And we were far from the only Paul supporters there, as you can see. In our district, about 23% voted for Paul.  (Click on an image for a larger version. Had to doctor the pic with the overall guy, because the damn Huckabee guy in front of me covered part of it with his sign. So that’s why it looks funny.)

My kid was there, too. She just isn’t in this pic. She was playing “Diner Dash” on the cellphone while we were waiting.

Now, I’m not clueless. I know RP doesn’t have a lot of delegates and with Romney dropping out, there’s less of a chance of a brokered convention now, which was his best chance to win the nomination. But you know what? It still feels good to be involved in the process. It’s been YEARS since I felt like my contribution mattered at all, let alone felt inspired by listening to a politician speak about freedom and liberty, and I’m glad that’s changed. So screw “electibility.”  I think that the only real way to “waste my vote” is to vote for someone I don’t believe in or skip voting at all because I don’t think my choice is “popular” enough. I’ve never made my decisions based on popularity, and I have no intention of starting now.

We had a really good time, even though it was tiring and a HUGE amount of waiting. Afterwards, we went out to eat at Old Chicago’s and then made a Walmart run. I’m really glad we went…

I think I have a nap in my future… Best of wishes to everyone who is involved in the process this year, regardless of who you’re supporting. It’s pretty damned cool to live in a place where we have the option of supporting what we believe in, after all. Pretty damned cool.

Peace out.

I’d been to the grocery store. She’d slept. A lot.

“I got you some Dr. Pepper in bottles instead of the cans. I figured your room could use a change in decor.”

She laughed. She couldn’t very well deny that the most prominent feature of her current “decorating” scene is about seventeen kabillion empty popcans. My daughter takes procrasitination beyond the level of ordinary humans.

“And I got you a can of Oust. Outdoor scent. A whole can. Just for you. So you can get some idea of what the rest of the world smells like.”

“Are you joking?” She’s incredulous.

 ”No, I’m totally serious. I picked it up and it made me laugh. Thought it would do you good to smell simulated outdoors. So I bought you your own can of Outdoor Scent Oust.”

I also suggested she might want to engage in some productive activity.  :mrgreen: 

Kidlet and I made a gingerbread house today. Ended up working on it way longer than we’d realized, and had a blast. She was even able to overcome some of her genetic tendencies towards OCD-type behavior (NOT from me, by the way) and put some of the candy on the house without making sure there was a consistent color pattern rotation in some cases. Har!

 At first, we thought it might look like a 3-year-old barfed the day after Halloween, but we ended up deciding it looked like the work of a pyscho clown on acid. Either way, we had a delightful time building it.