Unexpected, Delightful...

Found while searching for my Wedding Guest List on Google. Had no idea these were recorded:
February 28, 2007

1:16 PM Karl: meep

meep

1:17 PM meeple

me: mooop

Karl: zweeply

I am so bad

me: zoooooooba

Karl: I got nothing done in my prep

me: bad bad bad

Karl: yeah well

1:18 PM I have first hour prep tomorrow

that rocks for getting work done

me: it'll all work out

it usually does

Karl: third hour prep you are already exhausted

I'm not worried

I'm smerply

me: oooh. shmerply. i see.

1:19 PM Karl: somewhere there is a little us growing

I dreamt about frogs last night

me: itty bitty tadpole

Karl: I dreamt we had a little aquatic frog

1:20 PM maybe we should get one

those dog watering things are on sale at petsmart

I think I'll get one on my way home

I also have to stop at ITT

me: ok

Karl: for some paperwork

me: i have to call a doctor

i'm all nervous

1:21 PM Karl: Tempe or Sandy?

me: start with tempe beause she sent me a name

Karl: ok

the bell will ring soon

and then I must teach

me: diiiing

1:22 PM Karl: soon

not yet

three minutes

or sooooooo

me: ooh. gniiiid

Karl: all our fish seem so happy

I watched them all last night before you got home

me: were they smiling?

1:23 PM Karl: singing actually

me: that's pretty happy

1:25 PM Karl: there's the bell

I must salivate now

c u

Wind's a Blowin'

I was posting to FulcrumMonkey, and mid-post I heard a familiar sound. I heard thin metal flapping in the wind, and bashing against the bricks. Then it stopped.

I headed outside, and there was a strip of my brand new fascia, face down on the sidewalk, a casualty of the windstorm. Didn't even make it 3 months.

Called the installer. They said not today, but in the next few days they'd get somebody out to fix it. We'll see how that goes.

Aunt Kelly sent this great magnet set, which till now had been in it's metal container, or affixed to the outside of said container. Till the other day, when El realized he could stick them on the fridge.

And he did so, sorting carefully by colors in perfectly straight lines.



Cute, but a little creepy. Sadly, the old magnets are 'out.' He has thrown most of them on the floor, and won't acknowledge their existence, preferring the little squares and their easy alignability. A shame, too, because the old ones had Braille, which I found super-cool.

Call a Mechanic.

So you know how your car makes that funny noise EVERY TIME YOU START IT, till you take it in to the shop?

My internet went out last weekend. I went upstairs to reset the router (which I have to do about every 2-3 days) and came back down, and it still didn't work. I went up, and all the lights (power included) were flashing on the modem. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. All lights still flashing. I turned on the tv to make sure I still had cable. Cable worked. Internet didn't.

Well, I thought I'd unplug it a while, let it think about it's attitude. Sort of a time out for electronics... Plugged it back in a while later. Still flashing. Still not working.

I left a message with Kris, my bro who used to work for Charter(Satan). He'd left his phone in his truck, and didn't get back to me till later, when I was out shopping with Elliot. That was Monday.

Yesterday we ran around town doing this and that. When we got home, I went up to check on Flashy. Still flashing. Still no internet.

So this morning I called my brother again. Left a message. He messaged me back, but I was getting El to sleep. I called him back, no answer. He called me, I was on the phone. I called him...

"Hello?"

"Hey. It's Jes. It's flashing. All the lights. Bad, Right?"

"The power button too? Yeah, sounds dead. Why don't we try something. Go to your computer and open the browser."

I put down my popcorn and head to the computer. I open the browser. Up pops google, happy as you please. WTF? I key in Facebook. There's my account, working just fine.

I go upstairs. No flashing. Solid power light, happy blinky send and receive lights. Cheery little modem with no signs of attitude.

WTF??

I tell Kris he fixed it, and say, "Thanks."

"Sure. Just let me know if it happens again, and we'll try the stuff I was going to have you try. Glad this one worked on brain waves alone."

Yep. Call the Mechanic.

Found

So I did find my cell phone. I'd looked everywhere, and since it couldn't be nowhere it had to be at the Symphony Hall, where I'd last had it. I called and talked to the security guard, who went up and looked in the seats, but found nothing. A few hours, and a lot more searching, later I decided to go in to the hall and look myself.

When I got there, the lady at the desk gave me the classic "Why are you wasting my time?" look, complete with rolled eyes. I begged, pleaded, and grovelled, and she agreed to walk me up to the TOP ROW of the theater to look again.

In the elevator (which takes you about half way there) I explained that my Mom had bought me the phone, so I really had to find it. This softened her a bit, and she and I scanned the floor in the row above and below our seats. No luck.

Saddened and disappointed, we trudged back down to the security desk. On the way there, she said "Maybe if you give me your number, and I call it, you could see it light up?"

"We looked everywhere. I think it's just gone." I sulked.

"Look," she handed me her phone. "DO NOT lose my phone. You go back up there and call. I'll call you in a few minutes to see if you made it." What did I have to lose? Not my phone...

So I went back up. One of the maintenance guys, who'd been listening to our conversation, met me up there. I showed him where we'd been sitting. I called the phone.

"Yep. I hear it." He reached down in between two seats and there was the phone. It was on vibrate, and still had enough charge to shake.

Just as he handed me the phone, the other phone rang. "You're a genius! We found it!" I told the guard. We headed back downstairs, and I gave her her phone. She gave me a hug, and we were all smiles all around.

Red letter day.

Lost.

I'm in a bad mood.

I've spent much of today, and some of yesterday, and quite a bit of the day before looking for my cell phone. I've looked in boxes and bags, drawers and cabinets. I've checked the freezer, under the bed, under the covers, under the couch. I've looked in Elliot's room, in the toy box, down the laundry chute, and between the sofa cushions. I've checked pockets. I've cleaned out my entire car. It's just nowhere.

I know, nothing is nowhere unless it really is nothing. And my phone is something, so clearly it's somewhere, but I can't figure out where.

I had it last in the parking lot at Powell on Tuesday night. I dutifully turned off the ringer so as not to disturb other people attending the lecture if I got a call. I didn't think about it again till Wednesday morning, when I discovered it was not in my purse. Or my jacket. Or my pants pocket.

I messaged my step mom, who'd been out with me that night, and she called the hall, as well as Gene, who'd given us a ride. No phone. I emailed mom because i'd stopped there to pick Elliot up on the way home. No phone.

I'm out of ideas. I'm frustrated. I'm isolated.

It's not like I lost a limb. It's just a phone. It can be replaced. But it's such a hassle, and it had to happen just when I was getting into the holiday spirit and starting to feel cheery. So much for that. Bah, humbug.

Holiday Cheer

We got this catalog the other day - Chef's Whatever Gadget-o-Rama. It's your typical mid range kitchen enthusiast catalog full of pots and pans and pasta machines... and stand mixers.

It happens that I have a stand mixer, and I used it on Elliot's birthday to make cupcakes. Because I had spatulas and spoons and mixer blades covered with cake batter, somebody had to clean them off.

So, naturally, Elliot got his first spatula and it was love at first bite.

I didn't know the monster I had created till I saw him start leafing through the Chef catalog. He found a picture of a stand mixer, complete with unknown white buttery goo in the bowl. Then he licked the picture. About 20 times. When it still didn't produce the desired result (and the page had become wrinkly and soggy) he leafed through looking for another bowl. Sure enough, there was one with yellow icing. Maybe this one would taste better. But it didn't.

He looked rather distraught. A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do. Of course I made cookies, and he was willing to trade the magazine glossies for the real thing.