Tera's Blog

With my lack of blog updates, I’ll be surprised if anyone reads this anymore.

I’ve been meaning to write this one for a while, but it never seemed to be the right time. Then it got so late, it seemed a bit silly to make it out to be some sort of big announcement. So, I’ll just do a quick recap of the last 7 months.

For those that haven’t heard/seen…We’re pregnant! A little over 30 weeks to be exact. Which means we have less than 10 weeks to go! It can’t get here soon enough, that’s for sure. It hasn’t been an easy pregnancy. For me or for poor Dan. It probably has something to do with that ‘Advanced Maternal Age’ thing I keep seeing on my medical charts.

Here is a phone camera video of the 16 week ultrasound.

The ultrasound was done as part of the amniocentesis. Which, by the way, hurts a hell of a lot more than anyone let on. If I wasn’t already laying down, I would have passed out. Apparently the doctor had to make TWO attempts at stabbing me with the giant needle, and on the second one I got all pale and clammy. Did I mention what a big wimp I am? I have no tolerance for pain, so I’m really going to be up a creek without a paddle in 2 months.

I’m getting a little ahead. The first three months were rough because not only did I have morning sickness, I had noon, night, and car sickness as well! Toast became my favorite meal. Then in the 4th month, after the amniocentesis, I was put on bed rest for almost 2 weeks. The amniotic fluid level was still low (hmm, wonder why…) a few days after the amniocentesis, so I was told to rest and drink lots and lots of fluids. After my fluid levels were back up in the ‘normal’ range, I went back to work.

The fifth and sixth months were relatively uneventful. I had monthly checkups, and my weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, the baby’s heartbeat, the baby’s size, etc were all good. Then I went in this week for my 7th month appointment. The good news was, I had passed the glucose test (no gestational diabetes! Yay for us!) but when the doctor went to measure my stomach, she measured it, then remeasured it, made a face, and then rechecked my chart.

“You’re measuring a little big.” Which didn’t seem possible since we were spot on at 26 weeks and I had only gained a pound in the last month. When I asked how big, she said we were measuring 33 weeks when we were only actually 30 weeks along. She said that either, “the baby is big, the baby is laying funny because you don’t have a lot of room in your torso (i.e. – I’m short), or there’s too much amniotic fluid.” So, I get to go back for another ultrasound in 2 weeks to see what’s going on. In the meantime, sit here and sweat over what the problem might be.

Did I mention we’re having a boy? The amniocentesis came back normal and he is definitely a boy. The ultrasound technician was quite sure he was a boy, but the amnio confirmed it. When we told the girls we were having a baby, the first thing Diana said was “If it is a boy, can we name him Peter.” So, Peter Doty Blance is due to arrive sometime around December 15th. Both girls are very happy not to have another sister.

So, that’s where we are now. I’m hoping to tough it out at work another month but the commute is killing me. After sitting in the car for 45 minutes, I can barely walk. And then sitting at a desk all day doesn’t help. I’m hoping to telecommute for a while before going back to work. I’ve already got Peter on the waiting (yes, waiting) list for the infant room at the daycare center on campus. I’d love to be able to stay home, but with the economy doing such a spectacular crash and burn, I don’t see it happening.

Which leaves us two months to get the baby’s room , and ourselves ready. I can’t wait to see Dan with a little baby. I have visions of having to say “Ok Dan, you have to put the baby down now so he can sleep.” And then having him pout at me.

He’s going to be a good daddy.

Posted by at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"The thing I like most about the new house is that it so QUIET. No traffic, no sirens, NOTHING."

I was getting ready to take Rachel over to a friend's house when I looked out the front window and saw smoke pouring out the neighbors garage. My mother in law was here and called 911 while I went across the street to see if the neighbor was ok. He had just finished mowing his lawn and had put his tractor in the garage and it caught fire. My father in law helped the owner put out the flames with the other neighbor's garden hose before the the fire trucks got here.

Now that's an impressive response from the fire department!

Oh god, the news crew just showed up....

Posted by at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, it's been a while since I sat down and updated the blog. Though, I do have the excuse that I've been insanely busy - life tends to get in the way of blogging. I even tried Twitter for a bit, though that felt too much like short attention span blogging.

Anyways, here's part of 1 of what we've been up to for the past 8 months or so.

At 12:55 yesterday afternoon, I finished signing the paperwork to sell the house! We spent a good chunk of the last few years painting, landscaping, updating both bathrooms and the kitchen. (Ok, we paid Harvey's Construction to to do the bathrooms and kitchen, but we went shopping for all the supplies. :) Anyways, everything turned out beautiful, the house was in immaculate condition, and we sold it to a nice young couple...who already have plans to go in and repaint everything *sigh*

The day before, Dan got writers cramp signing all the paper work to buy our NEW house. Ok, it's only 3 years newer than the old house, but it's new to us....and it needs some work. Mom, Dad, and Aunt Denise were up here three weekends in a row helping us clean and paint. We painted the kitchen, the living room, and three of the bedrooms. Diana painted hers hot pink and Rachel painted hers white so she could add her own drawings. The landscaping was neglected for a long time, so I should get out there with the hedge trimmer at some point. But right now, I'm thinking of having the bathrooms remodeled. I know I have the Harvey's phone number around here somewhere...

The thing I like most about the new house is that it so QUIET. No traffic, no sirens, NOTHING. Just the occasional blue jay...I've spent more time outside here in the last two days than I did at the old house all summer. It even has a koi pond! I'll get pictures of everything online as soon as we get some of the storage bins out of the way.

I should mention how the move went down. I had hired movers to come in and pack everything up and haul it to the new house. A guy came over, I showed him all the rooms (the attic and basement were well stuffed with storage bins and such) and he gave me an estimate for about 5 hours of moving. He was slightly off with his calculation. First of all, there was a slight miscommunication between the guy who did the estimate and the guys who showed up to do the move. They showed up with a truck, but no packing supplies and they had no access to packing supplies that day. Thankfully we had quiet a bit already packed up, and there was plenty of furniture to move. So, while they were hauling stuff down from the attic, we recruited Dan's parents and John Adams to start filling more boxes and storage bins with the rest of the stuff. Did I mention we wound up buying about 60 extra storage bins? (this is in addition to all the ones we've accumulated over the years for other things, such as holiday decorations and season items) The movers were there 7 hours the first day, and 6 hours the next. We did all the packing. There were quiet a few odds and ends left after the movers were gone, including our lawn tractor. We then called up the reserves, better known as Laurie, Howard, Brian and Doug. They helped with the last bit of packing, and then the cleaning of the house. We left with the last of our stuff in a small convoy at about 9 PM the night before the closing. It took about an hour to unload everything and then find the storage bin with all the bed sheets.

So, we have the next 30 years or so to go through about 200 storage bins. Has anyone seen my cell phone??

Posted by at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At approximately 12:03 this morning, we acquired our copies of the last book in the Harry Potter Series - The Deathly Hallows.

No, that's not Barnes and Noble in the background. We went there at about 9:30 and there was a line to get INTO the building that only moved when someone came out. So we opted to take our chances at Wegman's. We were 8th in line and with three 'Harry Potter Express Lanes' open, we were the second to check out with our books.

After staying up most of the night, Dan and I are about 200 pages from the end. I won't spoil it for anyone, but it's certainly darker than any of the other books. It will interesting to see if they wind up having to tone it down for the movie...

Posted by at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The kids practiced this dance in our basements for months and did an incredible job tonight at the school talent show...and with only one head wound as a result!

Congrats to Speedy Shrimp and the Killer Bunnies. We're very proud of you.

Posted by at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I was a little kid, my Dad worked at 'Gasland' in Saugerties, NY. Gasland eventually became a Hess gas station where Dad was a manager for several years.

Every year at Christmas, Dad would buy a Hess truck for my brother. Now, he buys one for my brother, one for each of my daughters and one to drop off at M&T Bank's "Toys for Tot's" bin.

This year, Dad didn't have a chance to buy the trucks until it was too late. While he was still able to buy all the trucks, the 'Toys for Tot's' had already been distributed. On Christmas morning, he told my Mom he was taking the extra truck to Kingston Hospital to see if he could give it to a child there.

At Kingston Hospital, he was told that there were no kids in the hospital today. (They try to make sure that any kids in the hospital get to go home for Christmas). They send him over to Benedictine Hospital, where there are also no children. At Benedictine, they suggest he try the homeless shelter in Kingston.

He takes the truck to the homeless shelter, where there is one little boy. Dad gave him the truck.

Posted by at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm commuting to my new job and in order to save on gas money, I've started carpooling with a coworker. He immediately invoked the 'carpool rules' that had been in place in his previous carpool. I should mention, his former carpool partner decided she didn't want to carpool with ANYONE ANYMORE. This probably should have been my first hint that this was going to be...interesting

The rules included things like "Eating in the car determined by driver" and " Driving alternating days", which were completely understandable. But the "no small talk" rule kinda threw me. What constitutes small talk? Am I expected to limit my conversations to "the Social, Economic, Environmental Impacts of genetically modified cotton on cotton growers in Third World Countries"?

Add on top of that, the "driver picks the music for the day" rule and it can make for a down right torturous drive. I just can't imagine he actually likes most of this music. One minute we're listening to "Switchblade Symphony" and the next it's the techno/club remix of the theme from "James Bond". Yesterday, it was two hours of Tori Amos. Now, I like Tori Amos. But not for two hours straight. At this point, I think he's choosing his playlists just to see me squirm.

Now it's my turn. The trick is to find music that I would want to listen to for the duration of the carpool, but based on his tastes, would make him cringe.

Here are the playlists I've put together so far.

Songs That Get Stuck In Your Head.
White & Nerdy - "Weird Al" Yankovic
I Wanna Be A Cowboy - Boys Don't Cry
Our House - Madness
Super Happy - Rob Paravonian
Mr. Roboto - Styx
I Ran - A Flock of Seagulls
Ritalin - Rob Paravonian
Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
Tarzan Boy - Baltimora
My Sharona - The Knack
Here It Goes Again - OK Go
Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand
Dragostea din Tei (aka The Numa Numa Song) - O-Zone
I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness

I Love the 80s
Love Is the Drug - Roxy Music
Flash's Theme - Queen
Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Our House - Madness
Be near Me - ABC
Avalon - Roxy Music
Affair of the Heart - Rick Springfield
More Than This - Roxy Music
Girl You Want - Devo
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
One Vision - Queen
The Look of Love - ABC
Kiss Them for Me - Siouxsie and The Banshees
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
Princes of the Universe -Queen

The Emo Carpool
Everyday Is Like Sunday - Morrissey
Dear God - XTC
Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together - Morrissey
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Warm Wet Circles - Marillion
Suedehead - Morrissey
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Pseudo Silk Kimono - Marillion
Kayleigh - Marillion
Lavender - Marillion
Script For A Jester's Tear - Marillion
Chelsea Monday - Marillion
Take Tomorrow - Butch Walker
Joan - Butch Walker
Just Good Friends - Fish
Cliche - Fish

I'm also thinking of a playlist made up entirely of Weird Al Yankovic's Polka Medleys. Though that may just send him off the deep end...

Any other suggestions?

Posted by at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tom Lehrer was right when he said the "New Math was so simple only a child could do it."

I had this conversation this morning with Brian M., who has children the same age as mine, so I knew he could relate to helping kids with math homework.

Me: God, I must be getting old
Brian: oh?
Me: I had to look up 'stem and leaf' plots on google to help Diana with her homework
Brian: ??
Brian: what's a stem and leaf plot?
Me: ha!
Me: http://regentsprep.org/Regents/Math/data/stemleaf.htm
Me: I feel better now

Add just for kicks and giggles, here's the song by Tom Lehrer that I mentioned above.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last year, a proposal was put before the town board for a very large (7300 sq ft) day care center on a residential lot near a corner of a busy intersection on my street. Nearly the entire neighborhood was against it. Others were "Just too old to care" - really, someone said that to me. I went to the town meetings, I asked people to write letters, I gathered signatures on a petition. And then the town board approved it anyways and all the 'negatives' (increased traffic, increased accidents, etc) became a reality. Just Lovely.

Recently, a new Dunkin' Donuts opened up a few blocks away from my house. I had mixed feelings on that. They remodeled a former bank that had been closed for several years. So, they were using existing space in an already established commercial zone. Good for them. The problem I have with it is this, Dunkin Donuts is a known high traffic business and they built this one near an already overly congested intersection. The Town Board has even said that the infrastructure can't handle the traffic that passes through there now - they blame it on the county (?!?!). Also, there's a 'Best Bagels in Town' and 'Nezuntoz' (pronounced 'Knees and Toes') all within three quarters of a mile, all on the same road. So, Dunkin Donuts isn't going to so much as bring more customers into the area, but compete with the two existing businesses - businesses that are locally owned (as opposed to part of a national chain).

FYI, Best Bagels makes the best bagels (go figure) and Nezuntoz makes the best coffee.

So, the grand opening for Dunkin Donuts was yesterday and I decided to check it out. Well, what do you know - there's 3 of the 5 town board members, including the town supervisor - all of whom voted in favor of the daycare. After the first couple of times I showed up to the town meetings, they never looked thrilled to see me. And yesterday was no different. They did all the niceties (how are you? how's your family? blah, blah) the town supervisor asked how things were going with the daycare. I then listed all the problems that we anticipated had come true and some compliance issues.

During this, two of them wander off - leaving me an audience of one - the town supervisor. Which, I give him kudos for listening to me for all of five minutes, especially when there's four large boxes of donuts on a table behind him. But he listened and asked what I thought should be done and said he had my name and number and would call me to discuss it further. I'm sure he forgot he talked to me the minute I left the parking lot - but at least he WASN'T RUDE TO ME BY WALKING AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION.

So, Rose Sotak and Mike Arcangeli - I hope you enjoyed your free donuts. I look forward to voting someone else into your job very soon.

Posted by at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

It's cold out there today! Ice crystals formed on the lilac shrubs.

Posted by at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a flurry of medical appointments this week, I've come to the conclusion that I'm 33 going on 16. Why do I say this? Because I'm still getting acne breakouts (wasn't I suppose to 'outgrow' this a decade ago??) and now my dentist says I need braces. All I need to do now is to swap out my contacts for my old eyeglasses and I'll look like a bigger geek than what I was in 1988.

But dammit, I'll be smokin' at the prom!!! Err, wait...nevermind

When the dentist/orthodontist was running down my list options, he highly recommended the braces route and asked if I had any objections. I sheepishly asked what kind of time frame we were talking about because Dan and I are getting married next June.(just like the prom, but I'll be the only one wearing an overpriced dress...and the one footing the bill for the night). I really didn't relish the idea of have a mouth ful of metal for my wedding pictures.

The dentist had a bit of a chuckle and thought that I would probably have a retainer by then, if not, he could take the braces off for the wedding and put them back on afterwards. He also said he would throw in free teeth whitening as a wedding present (*SWEET!*).

Thank God for medical/dental insurance. Now if I could only get this *&^% pimple on my chin to go away...

Posted by at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Taking a slight detour from the rezoning issue...

Back in the fall, I was having a slight problem with the 'wildlife' that had taken up residence under the storage shed in my backyard. I hired a wildlife specialist who removed 3 woodchucks, a skunk and a possum before the weather turned cold and the little buggers were gone for the winter.

I was pretty sure the issue was solved, until the weather warmed up and lo and behold, there were 3 more woodchucks in the yard again. Dan borrowed a trap from a coworker and successfully relocated 2 of them. Thinking it was only a matter of time before we got the third, we were rather shocked to look out the window and see that the lone surviving woodchuck was now a mommy to another 3! Though, at this point, I think they've all moved to the neighbors property. The trap has been empty for at least a week. I'm officially calling it a 'draw'.

Now, I have a new visitor. A cute and fuzzy little chipmunk. I've seen him scurry across the driveway a few times, and he's even tempted fate by darting in front of my tractor while I was mowing. At the time, I didn't have a problem with the little guy. Like I said, he's kinda cute. Dan, on the other hand, wasn't too impressed. He referred to it as 'a mouse with better PR'. Dan offered to 'relocated' him along with the afore mentioned woodchucks. After what I discovered this morning, I may take him up on that offer.

Notice how nice and full his little cheeks are?? The little monster has been emptying the bird feeder! Not only that... He's picky!! He's only eating the sunflower seeds, and dumping the rest on the ground in a very large pile.

Grrr.... I hope he enjoyed the birdseed because he's next on my list...

Posted by at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Short Blog Entry -

The town board meeting was Wednesday night, and went on for two hours. Several of the neighbors that I spoke with over the last few weeks were there and made it very clear that they didn't want another business in the neighborhood.

We'll see what happens with the town board in 3 weeks.

Posted by at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's 9:07, the kids are off to school and I now have a hefty chunck of videotape of the traffic on my road. I took some still pics with my digital camera, just for good measure.

It's a beautiful, though getting a bit hot, day. Blue skies, sunny -- this is a rare event in this area. We're more use to rain that goes on for ever, thunderstorms that start and stop and have distinct boundaries (it could be raining at my house, and the house across the street is dry), and then there's the SNOW. Dear Lord do we get a lot of snow. That's when traffic REALLY gets interesting.

Anyways, back to the rezoning issue. I was outside for about an hour with the video camera. I even had a few visitors, the most interesting of which was the guy who runs the daycare center who drove south past my house, turned around in someone's driveway and then came north past me again to get a good look at what I was up to. And yes, I got all that on tape.

I'm off to import this video and send an email to the town board. Then I'm going door to door again to get more signatures for my petition and to make sure people know about the Town Board Meeting tonight. And yes, I tell everyone about the meeting -- whether they're for it or againist it (or "Too old to care" as one neighbor put it), they should have their opportunity to voice their opinion instead of being told later what's going to happen.

Posted by at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's 8:19 AM and I'm sitting on the wall to my flower bed in my front yard (Yes, wirless rocks!) and watching an insane amount of traffic pass by.

It's impossible for me to turn south (left) on to the road in front of house because of the traffic. I don't even bother to attempt it anymore. I wind up turning north, and then doing a circuit through the development on the block behind me in order to get back out on my road facing south. Half of my morning commute is just getting down this 1 mile strech of road.

Anyways, there's a proposal before the Town Board to rezone the lot that is 10 houses down from mine. It is currently zoned residential, and there's an old, admittedly ugly (but salvagable) house there. The proposal is to zone it commercial so a 6300 sq foot daycare center can be built there (note : the lots on this side of the street run between 1/2 to a full acre - long narrow lots that run almost to the street behind us.) I don't have anything against daycare centers. I sent my kids to one while I was in college, and paid a very pretty penny for it too. But it wasn't on a horrendously busy road that is an accident waiting to happen.

So, I'm sitting out here now with the video camera. I want the town board to REALLY see what the traffic situation is out here. I'll come back in an hour with another update.

Posted by at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those who missed it, go here to read "The Rock (Part I)"

//First, here's a little 'back story' on how Dan and I met...

Back in early 2004 I joined the Southern Tier Young Professionals, aka 'STYP'. Which meant I filled out their membership form online and paid the membership fee via paypal without having so much as met another 'young professional'. It would be another 5 months before I got around to going to a 'STYP Event'.

At the end of June, my daughters had left for Saugerties to spend the summer with my parents and I had some free time to myself. A perfect opportunity to finally see what 'STYP' was all about. So I signed up (online, again - see a pattern?)for their mini golf tournament. I missed the first one, but the second one was at the mini golf course just a few miles from my office.

On the night of the tournament, I went directly to Skate Estate (skating, mini golf AND waterslide!) from work and was a bit too early because I stood there for about 20 minutes before anyone else showed up.

The next person to show up was dressed in hawaiian shorts, a pilsbury doughboy tshirt, and had REALLY curly hair. (Call Weird Al! Someone stole his hair!) . Once other people started to arrive, and I correctly guessed they were the people from STYP, I found out the 'curly haired' guy's name was Dan.

Though he didn't talk to me before, or during the golf game (I wound up in the group AHEAD of Dan's), we wound up sitting near each other at Friendly's afterward and talked for the rest of the night.

To make a long story even longer, we started dating a month later and have been together ever since. (There's another interesting story about that month in between when we met and when we started dating involving volleyball, an airshow and some drunken rugby players - but that's for another blog entry)

//Ok, enough backstory for now.

Once the school year started, I really didn't have time to go to any more STYP events. But when STYP planned for the dinner club to be at the Thai restaurant 4 blocks from my house on the day after my birthday, Dan and I decided to get a babysitter and make an evening of it.

The babysitter, Dan's friend Jessie, was suppose to arrive an hour early because Dan wanted to run some errands before dinner at 7. Unfortunately, there had been a massive accident on the highway that forced all the eastbound traffic on to the local roads, and resulted in Jessie arriving at 6:30.

Dan INSISTED that we still had time to run errands over in Vestal before dinner. But with traffic still tied up from the accident, I didn't want us to wind up late for dinner, and Dan grudgingly agreed to go directly to the restaurant.

I was enjoying dinner, though it was a bit on the slow side, and Dan seemed really anxious to get going. I asked him what he needed to do over in Vestal.

Dan : I need to go to Target
Me : For what?
Dan : Toothpaste. *pause* And a toothbrush
Me : ??? There's an Eckerd drugstore between my house and the restaurant, you can stop there.
Dan : They don't have the kind I like.

Now I'm thinking, "....of all things to be difficult about, he picks TOOTHPASTE. Fine, I guess we're going to Target...."

We leave the restaurant at 9 PM and I again suggested to Dan that he drop me off at home so Jessie didn't have to wait for both us to get back from Vestal. Dan insisted it wasn't a problem and pulled out of the parking lot going AWAY from my house.

"Ok...", I thought, "I can at least get some storage containers from Target if he absolutely insists on going.".

About a quarter of a mile from the store, Dan turns off the parkway on to a side road. When I question him about it, he said he forgot he had something else to do while we were in Vestal. As we were driving by Skate Estate, I said "Look honey! Mini-Golf!", at which point Dan pulls into the parking lot and up to the gate in front of the mini-golf course.

There on the gate, was a sign which read 'I *heart* Tera'. It had been 30 weeks since our first date. :) (Dan had put the sign up before coming over to pick me up to go to dinner.) I asked Dan if I could take the sign home with us and got out of the car. Mind you, it's the end of February, there's a foot of snow on the ground and the windchill is -20. I planned on making short work of removing the sign from the gate and getting back in the car!

Dan hopped out of the car at the same time I did, but went around the back of the car. By the time I had the sign off the gate and turned around, Dan was down on one knee (in the snow!) and proposed on the very spot where we first met. Obviously, I said yes. :)

We got back in the car and started back towards the restaurant (we didn't go to Target after all) Dan called his parents to give them the news. Dan had us on speakerphone, so I could hear his mother when she asked if I had said yes. Dan's response... "Well, she got back in the car..."

We made it back just in time to meet the last of the STYP people coming out of the restaurant. They assumed we were returning for our leftovers which we had left behind in Dan's hurry 'to go to Target'. Dan explained that it was our anniversary and wanted to take me back to the place where we first met.

After a few OOOohh and ahhhs, one of the female STYP'ers screeches and when questioned by the others, she responded 'He just told you it was their anniversary and you didn't look at her hand!!!?' . At which point they all spotted 'the rock'.

And no, it wasn't the green piece of quartz from "The Rock". But a gorgeous diamond ring that Dan picked out for me.

It's been 2 1/2 months since then and the wedding plans have just started. We've reserved the church and the reception hall for June 10, 2006.

And no, it's not at Skate Estate.

Posted by at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's not due to a lack of news or things to say, but due to a complete lack of TIME. I am severely bogged down with work right now, and I'll be at a conference all next week. Though the conference may allow me some time to catch up on my blogging.

Yes, there is NEWS. So stay tuned!!

Posted by at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Dan and I spent a good portion of the evening moving furniture around the living room and cleaning the 55 gal saltwater fishtank (Ok, Dan did all the fishtank cleaning, I just helped push it from one wall to the other). This was after 2 days of snow plowing/shoveling. Needless to say I'm pretty beat and coming down with a cold to boot.

After Dan left at 9:30, I took some cold medicine and was sitting on the couch watching a little tv. Out of the corner of my eye I see something moving on the floor along the baseboards.

It's one of the hamsters.

Oh, didn't I mention the hamsters? Yes, the girls each got their very own little hairball as a pet for Christmas. They live in separate aquariums in the family room (which is the back of the house, with the dining room in between the living room and family room). They sleep all day and run on their little hamster exercise wheels all night.

Anyways, I spent a good half an hour chasing this little monster back through the dining room, into the family room and then around every piece of furniture and toybox. He finally made the mistake of scooting into the side of the cardboard box that holds the LiteBrite. After dumping the LiteBrite and a few dozen LiteBrite pegs on the floor, I managed to get him back in his aquarium.

To get the full hilarity effect, picture me after taking cold medicine (feeling a little loopy), wearing Dan's oversized houseslippers, running through the house alternating between trying to keep up with the rodent and not stepping on him.

Is the weekend over yet? I need to go back to work so I can sit down and relax.

Posted by at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's about 7 PM EST on Saturday night and it is SNOWING here in the wastelands of upstate NY. Dan and I plowed out the driveway and sidewalk around 1 PM and they're covered again with a couple of inches. That's not including the end of the driveway which has been thoroughly plowed in by the County trucks.

For those of you NOT on the east coast, this storm is what is known as a nor'easter. In other words, we're looking at a foot or two of snow before it's all said and done tomorrow.

Normally, I wouldn't be too bothered about this. I've lived through more than a dozen Binghamton winters now and this isn't the worst I've seen. The problem is, we just got back from vacationing in Florida for 5 days where there temperatures were 60 degrees warmer! Which, by the way, is considered 'a bit chilly' by locals (whimps). Right now, with the wind chill, it is -5 here. It's 68 where we were in Florida.

That's so not fair.

Ok, time to go move some snow around the front lawn....

Posted by at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't do pork products. Anyone who has sat down with me for more than one meal knows this. Not sausage, not ribs, not pork chops and especially NOT HAM!! Not in 32 years have I liked ham (or coconut, but that's a different story) Even our office secretary knows this!!

So...wanna guess what Mom and Co. served for Christmas Dinner?? Yep, another &^%$ing HAM!! (which was also served, along with the Turkey, for Thanksgiving dinner) But this time with sides of macaroni salad and baked beans, which are my least favorite sides in the world, so I couldn't even have 'just the sides' for dinner. I wound up nuking a single serving of Stouffer's vegetable lasagna later in the evening. Yum.

I go home to visit maybe six times a year, tops. Of those six times, ham will be served for dinner for at least 2 or 3 of them. Complicating matters is the fact that my brother DOES like ham, and Mom seems to get the 'which child likes pork and which despises it' confused. Or at least, that's what she says..

Next year, I plan on having the 'rents up here for Christmas. And here's what I'm serving for dessert. Louisville Debuntante Frozen Fruit Salad

Merry Freakin' Christmas... Now eat your 'Frozen Thing'.

Thanks to Derek for sending me the link. I'll be sure to send home some leftovers for you with Mom and Dad. :)

Posted by at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been following a story in the news this week about a woman who murdered another woman in order to take the murder victim's unborn child. The baby girl was found at the murderer's home and was being passed off as her child.

I can't imagine what the murdered woman's husband and family are going through right now. You can read the details of the story at the linked articles. Needless to say it's very graphic and horrifying and you will be stunned by the pure evil a human being can inflict upon others.

What also caught my attention during the course of this story were two other related issues. First off, "a pregnant or recently pregnant woman is more likely to be a victim of homicide than to die of any other cause." . The article goes on to state that, suprisingly, very little research has been done in this area and there is corresponding lack of media attention. Though, the murder of Laci Peterson by her husband, Scott, is probably the most recently infamous example of this.

The second, and just as complex issue, has been the way the media seems to be struggling as to how to 'label' the crime committed and the resulting 'kidnapped baby'. The tag line for this story on Fox News is "An infant girl who was cut from her strangled mother's womb..." , yet the headline for the story is "Suspect in Stolen Fetus Case to Be Arraigned" . Well, which is it? Is it a stolen fetus or a kidnapped baby girl? Is it the same? What's the difference? If there is, what makes the difference? This sentence from the same article seems to be contradicting itself. "Montgomery, 36, confessed to strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett, cutting out the fetus and taking the baby back to Kansas."

And I'm not picking on Fox News. You can read similar AP stories on CNN.com and MSNBC.com . The article at CNN also jumps back in forth in the sense that it uses the terms 'fetus', 'infant' and 'baby' interchangablely, but the MSNBC article only uses the terms 'baby' and 'child'. In the very least, it points out there is some confusion (?) over what term is appropriate and how/when it is applied.

Just to add fuel to the fire, it's also interesting to note that "Montgomery faces a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in death". In this case the mother died, but the baby lived. Would the murderer have faced the same charges if the baby died and the mother lived?

Just something to think about. I'm curious as to what opinion other people come away with from this.

Posted by at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This article, Vestal lawsuit could put dodgeball on trial is from my local paper. To summarize, a 7 year old girl got hurt (fractured arm) playing dodgeball in gym class and now her parents are suing. They trotted out an "expert" witness who said that dodgeball was not an appropriate sport for children younger than 4th grade.

Wow.

I won't bother commenting on the absurdity of all this, because there's just way too many tangents to cover. Though it does give me an excuse to share some pics.

Take a look at this swingset....

It's located in a park in my hometown, some of you folks should recognize where. I played on that swing when I was a kid, my mother played on that swing when SHE was a kid... and yes, those are my daughters playing on the swings.

That swing set is about 15-18 feet high, with METAL chainlink attached to METAL seats. And as you can see from this picture...

It sits up on a small hill, that drops off a couple of pretty steep feet in the front. You know what's coming next.

When my friends and I played on that set we'd egg each other on with "higher!... Higher!....JUMP!"

And, So we did.

I'm also willing to bet most of us are still around to tell the tale and share the experience with our kids.

Just in case we didn't darwin ourselves out of the gene pool on the swing set, there was always (my favorite) the giant slide.

Big.

Metal.

And baking all day in the summer sun. (Notice the blinding glare in these photos?)

You risked life, limb and several layers of skin from your backside if you dared to attempt it in shorts. But first you had to climb up to the top (a good 20 feet in the air) on the metal GRATE rungs of the ladder. Which gave you plenty of distance to build up some serious speed before you went flying off the bottom, feet or bottom first into the dirt.

And yes, I know my daughters are wearing shorts in these pictures. Even after several disjointed 'rides' down the slide which were punctuated by the SQUEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK of their little legs on metal hot enough to fry an egg, they were very upset when I announced it was time to leave.

They adjusted their wedgies, and pouted all the way back to the car.

Do you think they build playgrounds like this anymore? Of course not! Do you know why? Go back to the top of this entry and read the linked article.

Notice I didn't tell you the name of the park. I don't want someone to come along and ruin our fun in the name of 'safety' (aka litigation).

Posted by at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The polls in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio have been closed for an hour or two now and things are still too close to call. It looks like it's going to be a long night/week/litigation.

I sent the girls to bed a half an hour ago and Dan is sacked out on the couch. I'm going to try to stay awake for the live Daily Show.

Posted by at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, is November 2, 2004. If you haven't already, go out and vote.

For those who already have voted, thank you and you are free to b*tch and moan about those who wind up in office for the next four years.

See you at the polls!

Posted by at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...oh my!

The battle of Tera vs the backyard critters continues. But now it has expanded to include dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks squirrels and...ugh... skunks.

The darwin-award-hopeful squirrel was found and released by myself before the wildlife-pro came that day to check the traps. I don't think I've ever seen an animal (short of a cheetah on one of those Discovery Channel specials) move that fast. He shot out of that trap like a bullet straight over to the stand of trees on the neighbors property (good place for 'im)

The first of the skunks showed up a few days later. He looked big, mean and highly put-out that he was stuck in that trap. It appeared he was heading into one of the holes dug under the shed by the woodchucks and instead found himself stuck in a very confining metal box. I left that one to the wildlife-pro. If Mr. Skunk was going to take his revenge on someone, it wasn't going to be me. I gladly shelled out the $35 for the pro to take his chances with Eau De P U.

Which brings us to today. Since it was the weekend and it wasn't raining, I figured I would get an hour or so of lawn work done. It was a good thing I checked the traps before starting the tractor, because there was Mr. Skunk #2.

This one was much smaller than the first. If he really wanted to he would have no trouble turning himself around to take aim and fire at will. All from the relative safety of his new home. And it looked like just that. When I took a closer look, it appeared that he had built himself a little nest and was napping before I had peeked in and disturbed him.

Ok, so much for mowing the lawn. That is, until Dan got here.

Dan offered to mow the lawn AND get rid of Mr. Skunk#2. I kindly pointed out that Mr. Skunk#2 probably didn't want to be bothered again and had ample room and opportunity to hose Dan which would just result in Dan getting sent home, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Dan insisted he could pull it off, and if he did get sprayed I would have first dibs as laughing at him before calling his brother for a ride home in the back of his pickup. Obviously Dan was intent on going through with it and all I could do was put 100 feet (and the back door) between me and his new pal.

So now Dan is out mowing the lawn. He managed to get the trap open, without getting sprayed, but the skunk has made no effort to leave the trap. He actually went back to sleep.

Round 2 Winner - Mr. Skunk#2

Posted by at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)