Earlier today I looked like this: large paper shorts, high heels, and a very grumpy look on my face. Can you guess why? Whoever comes closest to guessing correctly wins a prize*.
Here are a couple bonus pictures for you.
Happy long weekend!
Fran
*I will give send you a prize, and I don't know what it is yet, but it will be nice. Oh, and my mom and Pat are not eligible. Either is Aunt Kish.
Last week Greta's day-care center was closed, so Pat, my mom, and I tag teamed and took turns watching her. There were quite a few trips to the zoo, quite a few walks around the neighborhood, and quite a few laughs. I was on duty Thursday and Friday. Thursday I had my first ever "mommy date" with my friend Melissa. We met up at the mall, ate lunch in the food court, and then walked around the mall for two whole hours! It was like a dream come true. See, whenever I make a quick trip to the mall during my lunch hour, frantically searching for a must-have item, I see these women: the mommies. They're walking in their stroller brigade, casually chatting, a recent Build-a-Bear purchase in tow. While trying to cover as much territory in approximately 45 minutes that I can, I've often shimmied my way past such a brigade, lamenting that I've never been able to take part in the mommy posse. Thursday, my dream finally came true. Although neither Melissa nor I ooze "mommy," we blocked a few patrons with our strollers and lollygagged and enjoyed beverages from Starbucks. It was great.
Friday was a little less relaxing. I took Greta to have some blood taken for a lead test in the morning. I got to sit with Greta while some phlebotomist milked my crying daughter's finger for 10 minutes while he informed me that most kids are good during this test. To that I say bullpucky.
Here are my two favorite images from my time home with Greta. This one looks like she is in timeout, which she isn't, but it's like a little preview of what's to come. In case you're curious, Greta is wearing a beautiful hand-smocked dress that Taryn got her from El Salvador and some of my cheap-o beads. She works it.
Here is a silly photo that was taken shortly after.
Friday night we all went to my parents' house and had Doug's Fish Fry for dinner, and then we headed out to Taryn and Todd's for dessert, homebrewed beer, and sparkling conversation.
Saturday we bid adieu to Gretabean and came home to get ready for the sweet party I planned for him. We had a great low-key evening with some close friends. Here is a picture documenting the scene: Pat Reed, friends, hula hoop, chiminea, s'mores, beer, awesome.
Another highlight is that I brought the Franimikaze out of retirement! If you don't know what that is, well, then, I'm sorry.
Sunday we picked up the kiddo and a nice day as a family.
Today classes started at RIT. Sigh, summer's over. Greta also moved up a class in day care. Little boo is growing up so fast. Double sigh.
You may recall that we went to Ohio at the beginning of the month to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday. One thing I didn't mention is that my grandma asked that, in lieu of gifts, people donate food or money to her local food pantry. My grandma was recently interviewed by the Dayton Daily News, and the story was published this past Thursday. Read about it here.
Here is the best quote ever, from my grandmother, "'I considered it a real wing-ding. It was wonderful for me,' said Whitacre."
I can just picture the newspaper's editor looking up "wing-ding" in the dictionary (although, at the risk of sounding snotty, my sources say it's one word, no hyphen).
Okay, so I had to go on Friendster and before you get all up in my grill, I spend very little time on that site but I do go there rarely because there are certain friends that I basically only know how to contact through that site. But anyway, so I was on there today and I was scrolling around because that interface design is whack and I couldn't find what I was looking for, and I saw this!
Pat Reed listed as a "local single"! I'll assume it was an error by Friendster since he is listed as "Married" and I'm in his Friendster photo.
Oh, and that's not the first time stupid Friendster has made one of us look shady. I was adding a perfectly respectable photo once and somehow accidentally set it as "private" or some such. I got a request from Pat to see my "Private Photo." D'oh! These are all going to make funny stories for the grandkids some day. Except that they'll be like, "What the hell is Friendster? You're talking crazy talk. We're putting you in a home."
PS - Amy, recognize that person to Pat's right. Not that first guy but the next one??
If you have a fascination with looking up dermatological conditions (I'm assuming that's everyone), then you should try this.
Thanks to this widget I've diagnosed myself with mild cases of the following maladies: dermatofibromas, keratosis pilaris, cheilitis, melasma, rosacea, xerosis, floaters, either xerophthalmia or blepharitis, and pediculosis pubis. I'm a mess! Okay, so I was just joking about that last one - just seeing if you're all paying attention!
At my previous job, people could post their personal pictures on the company's intranet site. Of course there were a lot of vacation photos and pictures of kids, weddings, etc. One woman was notorious for posting "messy baby" pictures of her kids. Something you may not know about me is that I get really grossed out by such a site. This woman once posted a picture of her son covered in spaghetti and the title was "[Insert name] enjoying spaghetti." It was on the site for SO LONG and I would need to go to the intranet site probably 20 times a day to do my work. It actually made me nauseated on numerous occasions. It was quite a difficult time. This was years ago and I am obviously still not over it.
So of course I have a baby now, and of course she's as messy as any other baby out there. My heart is not completely made of stone, though, so of course I need to document it when Greta is looking particularly gross. (And in case you're wondering, no, I don't get grossed out by Greta. Apparently unconditional love makes it impossible to be disgusted by your own kid.) Anyway, with this long preface, behold my gift to you: Greta enjoying spaghetti! You may try to fight watching this video clip in full, but you won't be able to because this is a minute and a half of Internet gold.
And a still shot displaying the bloody aftermath.
You know you love it.
Oh, and when I get a chance to post a "real" update, I'll talk about my great weekend seeing some of my best gals, how I got bullied by a 4-and-a-half-year-old girl on the playground, and I'm sure I'll drum up some other crap awesomeness to talk about.
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