Christmas Makes Me Do Stupid Things

We're staying home for the holidays this year. My mom and her dog Coconut are headed down our way the Thursday before Christmas and are staying until that Monday. But we weren't going to see my father or stepmother or my sister, so we decided we'd meet up in Rockford on Sunday.

Sunday -- during the blizzard like conditions that existed between our home and theirs. And like crazy people, we piled in the car with our child and our dog and we drove to Rockford. We'd driven through crappy weather before. We remember one trip back from Chicago on our way to pick up the dog where we watched six semis, two RVs and four large pick ups fall off of Rt. 57 in the snow, while our plucky VW Golf got us home on the highway, and with some creative navigating got us out to pick up Riley at Doggies on the Farm and back home. That was a 4-hour drive from Chicago which was usually two  and a half.

Yesterday was the 4.5 hour drive to Rockford, which is usually 3. The worst of the trip was from Bloomington to Mendota. It's a long hour and 15 minute strip. Every time we went under an overpass, we'd lose any visibility. A couple times, we found ourselves a group of folks and just hung behind them using them to light our way like Rudolph. Then the wind would clear (because let's face it accumulation wasn't a problem the 50 mph wind was) and we'd pass them and then end up on our own again. If we pulled over, it was going to have to be at a hotel because we had the dog -- so we just kept going -- slow and steady.

MacTroll's response when we arrived in Rockford, "You're right -- we should have stayed home."

The one bright part of the trip, besides the fact that we still really love how our RAV-4 performs in winter weather was that I found the App called Glympse, which let me e-mail and facebook a live map of where I was so that family and friends could see it. I knew my mother would totally dig thing -- and she did. I can also apparently use it when I'm on my run routes, which could come in handy for things like running the half marathon in Florida next October with my friends Sara and Christa.

My sister gave Joel a book about sustainable meat for Christmas that he really likes. She also gave us some rabbit to go with it. I've never cooked rabbit, so I'm reading the book and looking in some of my other cookbooks for some ideas. Anyone know how rabbit tastes? It might help me decide how to prepare it.

Tomorrow is Errand Tuesday. You name it, I'm doing it. Recycling batteries at Anita Purves, donating towels to my vet, dropping off my petitions to be on the Tolono library board, finishing stocking shopping, donating some household things to Goodwill, buying a space heater... fixing the Christmas lights that the 50mph wind tore down from the front porch... and finishing MacTroll's Christmas gift, which requires a trip to the art store for a certain utensil.

Our possible trip to Calfornia in January just got canceled. The two-week gig MacTroll thought he might have to do got canceled. So, we're going to try to reschedule our 3-day Chicago trip (with trip to Ikea). I also bought a beginning climbing pass for the climbing place in Bloomington that I need to use. So we're looking at weekends to head that way. :-)

A special happy birthday to three of my favorite friends who are having birthdays this week. You're all younger than me, so you know, I'll save a place in hell for ya. :-P

Christmas Date

MacTroll and I went out on a date tonight. It was pretty fantastic. I had to get a quick run in at the Rec Center beforehand. So while I showered and got ready, he ran X-man over to their Parent Date Night from 5:30-9:30 p.m. It was his first one and he loved it because he had several friends from the neighborhood and apparently from school who were also there. I liked that it was $15 for the whole 4 hours.

Meanwhile, MacTroll and I headed to Boltini for dinner. We have two $25 gift certificates that we purchased some time ago through cusavings.com. They don't expire, but they're also for food and non-alcoholic beverages only. We had some stuffed dates that weren't as fabulous as the ones over at V.Picasso (so sad they're closing on Dec. 12), but were still pretty yummy. Then I had the Ahi Tuna salad and MacTroll had a Butcher Block sandwich. I did indulge in one raspberry truffle martini after dinner. It's my favorite drink around town so far. But there's a strawberry blonde there I need to give a go one of these nights. We used one of the certificates and got out of there for $15, minus tip.

We spent a lot of time deciding where to go. We were too dressed up to go do something like -- bowling. But we were hours too early for anything that might be exciting that was happening around town. And the truth is, when you have kids, everything has to be planned. You can't just call people up and say, "Hey, meet us downtown for drinks" like you could in your twenties. Yes, I know that I just referred to a decade of time period -- which makes me officially old at 34.

Instead of wandering around in the sub-arctic wind (Boy, am I glad I wore leggings and a sweater dress), we went back to the car and went to the grocery store where we did something we hadn't done in a long time. We bought a box of brownie mix. The leaded Ghiradelli goodness... We baked brownies when we officially became a couple. We baked brownies after prom night at his parents. We baked brownies after I got pregnant. Truth be told, there hadn't been any brownie baking in a while. I suggested it. MacTroll got excited. So we added some Ben and Jerry's to the top.

After our brownies were in the oven, we kept baking. We tossed out a bad bunch of dough to make Gingerbread Dinosaurs from Cooking Light. (I have NEVER gotten a decent dough out of them and I'm a pretty proficient baker.) And then, we made the sugar cookie dough forms. We decorated one batch and left the other for X-man to do after we picked him up.

Tomorrow, we're supposed to head to Rockford to see my Dad. Except between here and there is an effing blizzard warning. Great. Fabulous. We were supposed to go out with neighbors tonight who we'd invited out two months ago, but their sitter canceled. So it was just us and X-man was already excited about the Rec Center, or I suppose we could have just packed up this afternoon and driven up there. Except, in a trend that is continuing, I get completely worn out around 2 p.m. and only make it through the day by taking a 1-2 hour nap.

So, we'll see if tomorrow's family Christmas with my dad and my sister happens.

Lice, Mice and Elderly Animals

Four students in the Next Generation All Star building have lice. This is a big thing, apparently. Lots of parents with the willies over the bugs in the hair. Lots of crossed fingers hoping to avoid the medicated shampoo and combing involved by not only parents, but the teachers who are checking hair every day, particularly for one of X-man's teachers who had lice once -- when there was a breakout at school. And she got it from checking heads. :-)

Other annoyances that we're currently keeping an eye out at our house also include: mice. The temperature dropped to single digits, so we've found mice in the house. We back into a field of soon to be empty housing lots that backs into a corn field. Once they start building the neighborhood behind us, this issue should go away (it happened in our last house, too). But until then, I have Maya and Luke going after the suckers. Whenever we get a live one, it goes into the blue garbage bin. It'll either live off our garbage and find it's way to the landfill OR it'll freeze to death. I try not to think too much about the life/death situation and which would be less painful -- being toyed with by a cat until death or freezing in a garbage can. Personally, neither seem very exciting to me. But it also means, that I'm constantly washing out things that they figure out ways to crawl into -- like the drawer under the stove that is empty. 

Yesterday, I took Riley in for his first doggie dental. He'll turn 10 in April, so it was time. His teeth are now as white as when he was 4. And his breath has improved considerably. His gums are still a little tender (but he had no extractions), so I bought one of those fancy slice off a hunk of meat foods to spoil him with for the next couple of days. He has a heart murmur, and the x-ray they took of him shows no enlargement of the heart, which is good. But it could also limit his ability to "go under" for treatment in the future.

Clawdio also made the trip to Dr. Mary's yesterday. He also has a heart murmur, but murmurs with cats are very different than murmurs with dogs. With dogs there are all kinds of treatments available. With cats, not so much. On the scale of cardiac crappiness, Clawdio is a 2/6. He's had the murmur for a year now and has advanced one number. His x-rays also show no enlargement, which is good. He's 13 years old. The trick is that his creatinine level is now abnormal. He's got kidney disease. We're starting him on Pepsid long-term. But it looks like he's going to go down the same elderly cat road as Looseyfur. Now the question is: will his heart fail him before his kidneys do? Clawdio takes his nine live seriously -- I've almost lost him twice before. So, I'm not counting him out. But he is spending more and more time in his cat bed up on top of the cupboards in the kitchen these days.

Dear Santa:

I've worked hard at trying to be a good woman this year. I hope I blew whatever minimums you have about who is nice out of the water for the most part, but in other avenues, I know I still need a lot of work. I promise, I'm working on it. 

For next year, I'd like to figure out a way to balance my relationships. I seem to put a lot of energy into motherhood -- in fact -- most of my energy goes toward my son. I need to be a better spouse and an even better pet owner. Most of all, I need to work on being a better friend. I'm not around when people really need me. Not that they ask me to be around, but I used to be more involved. I've been disappearing too much into myself lately. 

I also need to work on making my home feel more put together. I've been focusing on updating and painting lately. Now I need to work on the cozy. It doesn't have to be the cleanest or most organized house on the block. But when we walk in the house, and others walk in the house, I want them to feel the comfort of the kindness of home. Home should be safe. Home should be welcoming. Home should be somewhere you want to spend the rest of your time.

At the same time, I don't want to lose my curiosity of the world. I want to travel and see new things with my family. Those are the plans for 2011. If you think I'm deserving of a gift, than I'd really like to get some energy back. I know that's not materialistic, but lately, I've been feeling very run down. Doc says it's a dietary deficiency, but the supplements and meal plan changing don't seem to be helping. I'm not sad or depressed at all. I just feel fatigued a lot. I could start drinking coffee, I guess. :-)

If something materialistic is easier, I understand. There's a black halo nude minidress at Needless Markups for an insane amount of money. If the elves can make a knock off, I'd be thrilled. I'm hoping to have the kind of legs that can wear that dress proudly. 

Have a happy holiday. X-man, MacTroll and I will miss seeing you when you stop at the house, but X-man's working hard on the cookie selection and reindeer treats. 

Sincerely,

Looseyfur

Magical Motivation

Anyone have any? I was supposed to run yesterday after taking X-man to visit the Crisis Nursery Holiday Shop. Instead, I came home and watched last week's Grey's Anatomy and a couple of episodes of Weeds on Netflix during quiet time. Afterwards, I made dinner and then went out and got all but one of the signatures I need to run for the library board. I had fun seeing all of my friends and neighbors to finish them off. When I returned, X-man and MacTroll had made sugar cookies from a package. MacTroll didn't realize you were supposed to put the sugar sprinkles on them before you baked them. And he didn't think they turned out very good.

I thought -WTF- they're cookies. And yes, a few of them were a little crunchier than I'd like. But I ate three while X-man was in the bath, so, um clearly they weren't that bad.

Last Monday, I sat with Amy and talked about my plan for the week. About how the holiday shouldn't be about celebrating with food every day. I need to realign my brain a bit, because even though I know and believe that statement, I haven't been making the choices to follow the concept.

And it's terrible, but I have two appointments on my list today that I don't want to do. I don't feel like going to weight management. And I don't feel like going to Tae Kwon Do. Oh, wait, I also haven't been writing down my non-HMR foods. So, you know, I have to go down and make my food plan for the day. Get my child to school, get to the gym, shower, go weigh in, get my last signature, go to Tae Kwon Do and then I at the end of my day, I get to the good stuff -- Seeing Special K and her family for dinner.

And then on Tuesday, I can get up and stick to my plan again, and the day after that and the day after that. Maybe it just feels a bit monotonous and that's why I started slipping. Maybe, I'm just a bit tired and lazy. Maybe I just didn't want to deal with it last week.

Back on the wagon. 

The Way We Roll

I love how life is like going to the grocery store. Nothing much is going on and then all of a sudden there's a zillion people in line at the same time clogging up the works and making me inefficient and, therefore, crabby.

First: We're headed back out to Cupertino again. MacTroll has a project he has to work on for two weeks. We'll be getting some kind of corporate apartment and X-man and I will be out for a week, and then will head home so we don't miss our first week of my volleyball league and X-man's first week of sports class at Little Gym. Neighborhoods that I've been told to check out include areas of the East Bay, which I think is too far, Mountainview, Willow Glen area of San José and Sunnyvale.

Second: The Loosey-Room of One's Own finally got the right floor. Flooring America next to Meijer ordered the wrong one, and then I didn't see that it was the wrong floor until it was almost done. So, the poor installers had to remove it and then the sales people had to reorder the right one. My painters come back next week to finish the trim and do another coat on the walls, so I'll post a photo about that then.

Third: In September, we put in the application to see if X-man could get into Next Generation for Primary School. He didn't get accepted. He got waitlisted. So, we'll be doing the Unit 4 School of Choice and I'm rooting hard for Carrie Busey. The trick to this is that since he's on the wait list, if they contact us with a spot and we say no -- they keep our application fee of $500. If there isn't a spot then they refund it to us. At some point, people will start asking X-man where he's going. And doing a "change-a-roo" on him would be weird, he's kind of sensitive. I'm also not sure which he'll be more twisted up about -- not going to a school where 1/2 of his neighborhood will likely go OR not continuing at the school he's known forever. Me -- I love the idea of both schools. And how many parents say that about choosing their child's school?

Fourth: The Christmas Tree. Since Jarling's is open longer this year (until December 11), we couldn't go there to get our Christmas tree this year. Preston's, the tree guy from Michigan that used to sell there, sold the business down here to someone new and moved it to the parking lot of Danville Gardens, Too. On the way home from Meijer the other day, I saw a sign for Moore's Tree Farm. This morning after we cleared the 5 inches of snow from our drive and walk, we drove over there. It's about 15 minutes from our house at 30 mph with all the snow on country roads, so it's not too far. I'd ridden my bike by it in the summer. Head East on Church Street in Savoy. Go past Philo Rd, and you'll see Christmas tree signs to make your next right. Then 1/2 mile down the road is the farm on your left.

We pulled up, got the shpeel and headed down to the far end of the farm to cut a tree. X-man picked a 6' tree. I cut it down and put it on a cool wagon and then MacTroll hauled it back. It is about 2' shorter than we normally get, but it was 50 percent less. The college kid who welcomed us was awesome. He and X-man were little chatterboxes. We hiked out into the "medium" sized trees (5-7') and X-man chose our tree.

Afterward, there was free coffee and hot chocolate in their barn, which X-man really liked. The weird part, should you choose to go and one of the owners invites your child to take a tree from the corner -- just skip it. I thought it was a potted tree that they didn't get int the ground or something before the ground fell. I took it out to the car in it's pot, where the guy stopped me and said, "Oh, I just meant the tree." And I'm thinking, "What?" And he plucked the tree from the pot (there were no roots, it was just a trimming from some other tree) and handed it too me and then took his pot back to the barn. --- MacTroll and I raised our eyebrows and spoke our amusement and horror through telepathy while X-man jabbered away, sugar cookie in hand.

When we got home, we put up the tree and decorated it while listening to Christmas music. X-man requires that all Christmas music have words he can understand. :-)

Fifth: The clean up. I took a carload of toys and household items we no longer needed to Goodwill on Thursday. Freak also came and took our basement cat tree. One of X-man's Turtle teachers came and took home MacTroll's elliptical. He spent six months on it the first year he bought it and then it's just been carried around with us ever since. We have a Savoy Recreation Center membership, so there's really no need for things in the house. After shoveling, getting a tree, putting up a tree and hauling the elliptical upstairs, my husband has hidden away. Apparently, he was hoping for a Saturday where we sat around on our asses on the couch.

Sixth: Last night KTDID and I took X-man to the Tolono Public Library. I collected nearly 40 signatures for my petition to run for the library board. I'll be stopping by some friends houses tomorrow night to see about the last handful that I need. X-man met Santa for the first time since he was 1. He freaked out a little like the boy in the Christmas Story when Santa asked him what he wanted, but he didn't lose it or cry. :-)

Sixth: Tonight we're headed downtown to do dinner at Farren's and then go to the Parade of Lights. If X-man holds it together long enough, we'll stop by the Orpheum Children's Museum afterwards.

Seventh: Tomorrow we've got to get up early and head out to Monticello for Santa on the Train. It's Christmas all weekend around here.  It also looks like we won't get to putting up Christmas lights until tomorrow.

Tis the season to be crazy busy, I guess.

A Shot in the Dark

At the conference we were at in San José at the beginning of last month, a colleague of MacTroll's from Sydney mentioned that one of the fruit's key brainiacs on that continent was going to be on leave for a year working on becoming a colonel in the Australian army... and perhaps some of the U.S. brainiacs might be interested in helping out.

At the idea of crossing the Pacific again, MacTroll's eyes widened, his ears perked, and a bit of drool slipped out of the side of his mouth. We looked at the calendar and indeed, we have eight to ten weeks this summer where we could, supposedly, skip town for a couple months -- during the Australian winter -- and spend some time in Sydney before X-man starts kindergarten in the fall.

MacTroll doubts that he'll be able to go. He has enough work on his plate. But he also spent 5 years in Europe when his Dad worked abroad from almost his birth until age 5. And although he remembers no French from his time in Geneva, and really only has memories based an a few images left over in his brain and the stories his parents and brothers have told him, he has always thought it would be fun to work somewhere else for a while.

And if he wouldn't have had to pay taxes twice by working in the U.S. when I wanted to reside in Montreal before X-man was born... he would have gone for that move in a flash, too.

Outside of the crazy long plane ride from here to Sydney with a child, I think it would actually be awesome, too.

I guess we'll wait and see.