Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Jay: How to Make Sadie Happy
Valerie too.
Break out the bag of Gummy Octopuses you’ve been hiding in your desk drawer and give them each one.
They’re way cool. I couldn’t really see what they looked like in the bag, but they’re huge, like three of the worms each, and almost as cute as the Gummy Alligators they finished the other day.
The size means only six to the 50 cent bag, so they won’t last long. Oh well. At least it’s an even number.
Jay: It’s Annoying
To wake up at 5:00 and never be able to return to sleep. What I really needed then was to go to the computer for 20 - 60 minutes, as frequently happens in the middle of the night, then go back to bed snapped back into sleepy and out of whatever pain or mental state was associated with waking. I decided not to do that for a change, and as I was about to get back in bed, Valerie flew out of her room and tried to climb on Deb and the baby, in the recliner. I grabbed Val and put her in bed with me, which made her happy. Just enough restless to add distraction, though.
I just couldn’t get comfortable. Which I find happens perhaps more in the bed I should be comfortable in than on the office floor, or on the floor in the kid’s room, or certainly on one of the air mattresses in there. There was a distressing lack of white noise, made worse by the windows rattling loudly in the wind and making it sound like the house might fail to hold up.
My mind raced through the work I once did for a travel agency, whether I might be able to collect anything from one client I never got around to billing for some work, or whether I should settle for a good reference, whether I might be able to guilt another client into paying anything at all toward what she never paid, updating the old business web site to reflect the PO box, updating the WTH site and shaking loose some possible work even if I am just going to get side or interim work through it, replying to a couple neglected e-mails, my stubborn psychology distrusting employers and how it came about, finding a CotC host, what needs to be done in the house and how to divide time between work and that today, remembering I have the girls for a couple hours by myself today, how easy it was to complete a resume the day last week I psyched myself in the wee hours into being undepressed - even in the face of Deb having a bad day - and the need to keep that change of mental state from slipping, hourly rates and the conflict between what they must be to live on and what so many people - including me - perceive as excessive, posts I want to write and whether I am making things worse when I make myself not write them because dammit there are other things to do, how it would be fun to actually fire up some of the spare computers I have in the office and fiddle with them and whether I make things worse by failing to have that kind of fun, how energized I feel, say, cleaning up a bad patch of malware or other stubborn problem so maybe it’s odd for me to wonder if I want to change careers entirely, how I can possibly make money helping people with a combination of undervalued work and work that’s given away free on the internet if you know to look for it, whether I’d fall asleep more comfortably in Val’s bed since she’s not using it, how rough the day might be if I get up now, whether the Heroes newsgroup will be updating in the morning so I can see what people posted about the finale, what I think of Twitter and whether to delete my account and whether it would be useful to start some special purpose accounts, and well, yeah… sleep didn’t seem to be in the cards.
So here I am, at the computer, only just starting to feel sleepy again, though my back still hurts from sleeping, hesitant to drink any of the coffee I started brewing an hour ago, wondering if I stayed awake because my system knew I would need the bathroom soon, not just because of a worried and overactive mind.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To sometime blogger Ninjababe, who is 32 today.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To attorney turned financial planner Doug Ewing.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To Melissa McDonald, who is 27 today.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Jay: Why DVD Sales Are Poor?
Too expensive. And the studios are impressively unclear on when they have on their hands a $20 release versus a $10 release versus a $5 discount bin release.
I keep seeing older films I might buy from the $5 bin, still as high as $15, and shaking my head as I continue to wait. I walk in the store and see new releases at $18 or more and all to often I snort at the audacity of trying to get that much, even during a brief early adopter phase.
I did almost buy Jungle Book for the kids for Christmas recently, then decided that, on top of whether I ought to spent the $14 or whatever it was, it was way too likely someone else would buy it for them. They have too many toys, but more videos don’t hurt, and are a common gift from some relatives in particular. At least Jungle Book is actually worth that kind of money, being a classic. It’s the first movie I can remember ever seeing in a theater, rather than a drive-in.
Deb: I’ve got nothing to say but it’s ok
Good morning, good morning, good morning…
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Jay: SadieArt 1
Sadie draws obsessively, and has started trying to copy letters, which hasn’t worked out great so far. Besides having ramped up the effort to save some of what she does, we’ve been taking pictures. Most of them are people, and those have grown in complexity. Today she drew a snowman, which was different.
This first one, I have no idea what it was supposed to be, but it reminds me of a slice of pizza. She isn’t saying or doesn’t remember, or there was no special intent. It’s a somewhat older one, compared to others that may get posted. I love the little person on it, so I got a closeup to post here as well.
The third picture is different from the norm, but is an intentional depiction of people swimming in a pool. Apparently she likes going swimming that much and remembers it that well. Not sure it got saved, but just the other day she was working on a similar drawing, all in red, of people in a pool.
This morning I introduced her to traditional lead pencils and their erasers, so she’s all excited. We went through shapes and the alphabet, where I showed her how the letters are just combinations and variations on lines, curves and shapes. When she followed me into the office and was frustrated by the lack of a surface, I gave her a 14” clipboard and showed her how it can hold paper. She loved that and filled all the sheets before going back to paper on a table. Anyway, here are the first three I had ready to post (click to embiggen, as always)…
Update:
Sadie wandered in just after I posted this, when I was looking at the post and making sure the links to big versions worked. I had named the little person “littleguy” when I saved it. Apparently that was appropriate, since she got all excited about “little guy! Sadie Rose little guy.” And that was in the pizza picture, before I scrolled and showed her the closeup. She loved that and babbled about drawing a little guy with eyes and a mouth and a nose.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Jay: A Little Lesson
The girls are all dressed to go outside and take a walk down to the craft fair. Except for the tiny detail of one MIA shoe for Valerie. When it got to be 1:40, the whole thing became silly, even for getting there near the end to help Deb with teardown.
They get a lesson about not hiding their shoes so thoroughly they can’t be found in 20 minutes of intensive searching. Not sure Valerie “gets” it, unfortunately.
I was really curious to see what the fair was like first hand. Oh well.
If it turns up while they’re still dressed like ninja twins, maybe I’ll take them outside. At any rate, I told Sadie if I go to the store I’d take her, since she is shod. Chances are Valerie is the one directly responsible for the disappearance of her own shoe, too.
Jay: Good Morning
Deb is off to the Middleboro craft fair, which is from 9:00 to 2:00 today. No more worrying about getting ready for that. Before it’s over I’ll try to walk the girls down there to check it out.
Based on when I went to bed and how much sleep I got, really I shouldn’t be up. It’ll be nice to get past the current set of sleep issues the kids are having. Sadie is normally a rock, but apparently had a bad dream one recent night, so now needs someone to lay down with her while she falls asleep. Once she’s asleep, even Valerie’s screaming doesn’t always wake her, but if she does wake it can be rinse and repeat with laying down with her. Which usually means falling asleep there for some length of time.
Valerie still hasn’t completely adapted to sleeping in her own bed, and “don’t you dare touch me while I am sleeping” girl prefers to sleep plastered against one of us. She always had issues of waking up and, most commonly, being unable to find her cup to have a sip, or being uncovered and not able to get herself back under blankets. Now she is able to get up and wander screaming to our bedroom. Teething those last molars is also an issue, so sometimes it’s proper to interpret the screaming as need for Tylenol, or ibuprofen if the last Tylenol was too recent. Rather than having her come to our bed, I went and slept beside her in their room. Thus sleeping through Deb’s loading the truck and departing.
At the same time, we’ve been trying to get Henry used to sleeping in the crib in their room. This has had mixed results. Generally there is one nursing during the night, but that can mean falling asleep in the recliner for an extended time, which isn’t quality sleep. That also means it’s easier if Deb sleeps in there, which fits with one or both girls wanting someone there anyway. Trouble is, if Deb sleeps by Valerie, the time when Val comes out of the room screaming is when Deb is feeding the baby. The other night, I ended up with Val plastered against me, pushing me closer to the edge of the bed. Then Deb and Henry joined us, as I found when I woke up enough to decide it was too uncomfortable perched right on the edge, so I landed in Val’s bed and slept late.
Anyway, time for more coffee. I wasn’t intending to wax on about the night time shuffle. No wonder my coffee consumption has increased to as much as six big mugs a day. Maybe seven. Five is the new normal. We sometimes empty the second pot completely, and once or twice it’s been tempting to make more.
I need to visit GoDaddy this morning. Before supper I purchased certified domain appraisal, then was like “hold it, it never asked me which domain.” It appears that it lists and lets you manage appraisals, so it must be a matter of going in and telling it which domain when you want to actually invoke the appraisal. The appraisal hadn’t appeared yet, right after the purchase, so I figured I’d need to log on again later. I hope my interpretation is correct.
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