(Denver -> San Jose) Home again home again jiggety jog

The trip back home was a bit easier. Nikolai was very well behaved and sat still and happy in his seat. I pulled another boneheaded rebecca move and got us to the airport 3 hours early. I pulled yet *another* boneheaded rebecca move and lost my driver's license. After some full cavity and xray searches they did let me on the plane with my spare/expired license. I saw a sign on our way to the termminal that said that on Frontier airlines if you booked online you get free DirecTV tv channels in flight (normally $5 per screen). Frontier has those really great seats each with their own private viewing screen. I told the stewardess we'd booked online but I didn't have a coupon, she gave us free TV for the trip.
We left for the airport at 2:00 pm, and arrived home at about 11. (+1hr).

(CO) Pa and Alice

Today was the day we planned to visit Pa and Alice. It was great to see them again, and to catch up. I haven't spent much time in my adult life around Pa, and it's always interesting to see him as a person. When i was a child he was always a frighteningly large individual, who seemed not to really want small children around. Nikolai and Melissa and I took our shoes off and ran around in the grass in the back yard.
There were 10 dwarves in the back yard.
The flowers were beautiful, almost too perfect.
Pa and Alice like to sit out on the patio. When the weather is nice.
Mac is a lonely doggy. Say hi to mac.

(CO) Dirtball eats Dibs

Well, today Nikolai finally won the battle. He's been lobbying to dig and drive his cars in a small patch of sandy dirt right by the walkway leading to the front door of D.Jo's and Sue's house. I've been resisting based on the volume of dirt he would inevitably drag into the house via pockets, shoes and clothing folds. Today he was allowed to play in it, and got lost for 3 hours. This 3 year old child entertained himself happily with two cars and some dirt for THREE HOURS. I didn't think *anything* could entertain a 3 year old for that long except sleep. And sleep doesn't typically entertain this 3 year old for that long either. Perhaps I should rethink replacing all the dirt in our yard with grass. I'll be throwing out a gold mine of entertainment for this child.
He also discovered Dibs today. If you've never tried Dibs, I highly recommend forgetting they exist. I can't stop eating them, and I don't even like ice cream. Sue was kind enough to bring some outside for him, and we haven't heard much about anything but dirt and dibs from the kid for a while.

(CO) Happy Birthday to me!

OK, so it's not my birthday today. But Aunt D.Jo, Uncle Sue and Mah planned a special dinner of hot dogs and hamburgers for me. For dessert they had gotten me a german chocolate birthday cake, and we all had a great evening. Nikolai seems to like it here, and has adjusted surprisingly well to the three dogs wandering around. Jo Jo is pretty much psycho, and barks randomly at us if we move suddenly, but Nikolai's reaction to this has gradually gotten better. Initially the barks would elicit screams and frantic crying from him, but now he just plugs his ears and runs.
I'm so excited to see everyone, and really really appreciative of the opportunity to spend some time with Mah before she moves all the way the heck up to Alaska.
I felt so blessed all evening, after Kelly had so generously paid for the whole trip for my family, then opening gifts and cards from all in Colorado. Melissa gave me a wonderful candle holder with some yummy smelling candles. I got some desperately needed and much appreciated monetary gifts from all the wonderful women there. It was a very special birthday, sitting on D.Jo and Sue's couch eating dinner at the coffee table and chatting with everyone.

(CO) I've always wanted to do that.

Well, here I am back in colorado. I'm having a great time so far, and I hope it stays beautifully warm.

When I have more energy and time I'll put more info in here about how the flight was.

(san jose -> Denver) Merely a 2 hour flight

It simply amazes me how what should be a 2 hour trip is really actually entirely too many more hours of adventure. We left for the airport 2 hours ahead of time, so departed at 5:00 pm. We checked in to the hotel at 2:30 am. Granted there's an hour difference (-1hr), that still makes for 8 hours of walking, running, hauling, comforting, entertaining, controlling, soothing, and waiting. Nikolai was about as relaxed as a fart on a skillet for every leg of that journey. When we would stop moving, he insisted on getting out of his stroller to run.
When we got on the plane he climbed right into his seat and buckled the seatbelt himself. I was impressed that he knew exactly what he was supposed to do, but even more impressed that he actually *did* was he was supposed to do. The airplane flight was absolutely fabulous. I was exhausted and going through my typical claustrophobia/airplane panic attack, but Nikolai was very well behaved and sat quietly and watched his shows. All in all it was a pretty smooth trip, it just takes forever to get from point a to point b.

test post...trying to fix picture

stupid thing doesn't like the picture url.

You know you're getting old when...

Your parents give you elderly cards for your birthday.

oh YEAH BABY!

I'm back. I'm back in black. I'm in business. I'm rip roarin'. I'm rockin' and rollin'. I now have no excuses.

T1's rock.

IM

I often found it amusing when I would talk to matt in the next room from my laptop via IM. It always seemed funny, and like my hopelessly geeky nature was inescapable. I always justified this to myself, though, by the very nature of IM. There are things you can discuss in IM without vocalizing and having others overhear. Don't even bring up Big Brother At Yahoo (who, I'm pretty sure, is rather unconcerned with who did the dishes last, or what color my underwear are).

I recently reached a new low, however, when after 5 months living in my new house I hadn't really had a good long conversation with my next door neighbor until I asked for his YIM ID and began some chatting at work. We have, officially, entered a new era. One where walking 300 ft next door is just entirely too much effort and we don't have the time for it.

If someone's not in my buddy list, they're just downright inaccessible.

Drawing a blank

I'm just at a loss for things to blog about. Everything I think about either seems too personal or inappropriate in some way. Sorry.

Going to Colorado!

Get to see my Gramma! Woo hoo! Thanks, Kelly, you rock.

Cats: 2 Mice: 0

This time Kitten dished out the final death act. I nearly stepped on the mouse when I walked out of my room this morning. I didn't notice it until I walked back towards the room, and when I did see it I thought to myself "holy cow, how did I not step on that?!" and then "holy cow, thank God I didn't step on that!"
Ugh.
I can't even imagine the feeling of cold dead mouse covered in wet fur under my bare feet. Serious heebie jeebies.

I think we're gaining foothold here in the war. I hope progress continues...

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful mother's day. I feel so lucky to have my children, they're all so wonderful. Yesterday marks a major milestone, in my mind. For most parents it wouldn't be a milestone (or do I mean most children?), but with mine, it is one. Melissa, my sweet darling-daughter-who-is-really-an-angel-disguised-as-a-human-girl-and-has-been-sent-to-me-to-keep-me-sane-and-happy-and-fulfilled created for me a very special Mother's Day Treasure Hunt (actually, according to the first hint it was a Treasure Ow, but we'll get to that part later).


On Friday I picked up Nikolai from Gail's, and he handed me a beautiful potted plant. I'm not sure what the plant is, but the flowers are yellow and smell wonderful. Apparently, the children planted them themselves. Gail says that in spite of Nikolai's obvious obsession with dirt, and digging in it, he refused to put his hands in the wet potting soil to plan the flower. Gail had to dig in it for him. The result was very sweet and beautiful.
Saturday I slept all day. Not sure what was wrong with me, but obviously my body needed sleep. Saturday evening I spent trying to get a printer hooked up at Melissa's request. It was so archaic that there are no XP drivers for it. It's possible it won't even install on win2k. it does work on NT4, however. Whew. I never got it set up, and Melissa said she could just do "it" by hand.
Sunday morning I woke up around 10ish, when Melissa peeked her head in the door to ask if I wanted breakfast. I figured Matt had made some breakfast for everyone, so I said "maybe later". I couldn't fall back asleep, and about 20 minutes later Nikolai came bounding into the room. I heard Matt say something like "did you wish mama a happy mother's day?" and so he looked back at me and said "Happy mother's day" and then muttered something mostly incoherant about flowers. I got out of bed and headed out the door and Melissa said "You walked right past it!" When I looked back around I saw there was a piece of paper attached to the wall.
You can't see the words to read them, but it read as follows:
(hand drawn portrait of Johnny Depp)
"Good morning!!!!!!
Time for your skavenger OW, sorry Tiggers killing me with his claws. Ok, back to the point, Time for your skavenger hunt thing...OK. You know what...just ... fine .. I don't know what ->
(on the back) it's called but that's ok because I think you need to pee."
The OW/hunt was on. Nikolai helped me find the next clue, which was in my bathroom and I can't remember where.


Pictured here is the second clue, which reads:
"HELLO AGAIN, IT'S YOUR BEST FRIEND, THE NOTE!!
So did you have a hard time finding this hard hidden note? I knew you would. OK, now go to one of the colors on this page. Oh but which color could it be?
? TAN
? GREEN
? RED"
Green, of course (this took me a while) was the color I should choose, and it meant the Green Room. Once in the Green Room I discovered clue # 4, which simply said "Look in the mirror." This led to clue number 5, which until just now I had completely forgotten about, which led to my car outside. If memory serves me correctly it said something like "it's big, it has 4 wheels, it's outside and it's visible." This could have been a number of things outdoors, thanks to Nikolai's obsession with vehicles of all shapes and sizes. At least she narrowed it down to the 4 wheeled ones. The big prize was found in my car on the driver's side. It said on it "This is the big one!", and when unfolded completely it was a long banner that read "HAPPY MOThERS DAY!", hand drawn by Melissa herself. This was such a thoughtful gift that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Melissa followed that on by playing my shadow for the entire day, making sure to make my life easier. Cleaning here and there, watching Nikolai whenever it seemed appropriate, and always there to make sure I had a great day.
Anthony can't resist humor. I don't know if he can give a serious gift, which is just FINE with me, because I fully appreciate the humor. I've never been one for sappy cards, and only very rarely give them, and even then only when they are simple, to the point and totally appropriate. Anthony handed me a card on saturday afternoon which I noticed was sealed carefully using tape over firmly and carefully applied staples. Yes, the staples were completely through the card, from one side to the other. When I opened the card (painstakingly unbuckling all staples by hand, so as not to tear the card before I could read it), I read the front which was very touching. It read: "To my Beautiful Mom, From your Grateful Son". On the inside it read "I probably don't say it enough but I hope you know how much you mean to me and how very much you're loved. Happy Mother's Day" (getting suspicious, this is entirely too sappy for Anthony)
Below this in his handwriting it says:
"With love,
bob (crossed out)
anthony"
It was obvious to me when reading it that it was meant to appear like he had stolen some thoughtful mother's day card from another son-to-mother couple, and then put his name at the end. I thought it was great, and got a good chuckle out of it. I told him "Thanks, Bob. I mean Anthony." It was well received.

My parents came over for a Mother's Day barbecue, which was great since I couldn't afford a card or present for my mommy. She brought me a lovely pot of flowers, and I hope I can honor the gift by at least keeping them alive. My history with this is not so great, so I'm really hoping I can manage it. If only plants would CRY, they might stand a chance in my care.
Melissa and Grandpa and Nikolai had a great time with water balloons. Melissa chucked a good few on my nice freshly washed car. Carl and Melissa had a balloon hurling contest, to see who could hit the trees. Melissa and I played "toss the water balloon". Once. Guess who lost.
It was really a wonderful day. I'm so grateful, I feel like it should be thanksgiving.

Testing

Sitting in class
Looking through glass
I am so bored
I see a computer cord

Things are covered up
Pencils in a cup
Playing with my hair
This is so unfair

Looking at a book
Now I want a cook
I am completely done
Puting my hair in a bun

Looking at the board
While I'm completely bored
I really want a noodle
Possibly a poodle

Looking at the clock
Birds outside in a flock
I see some strange posters
We need some big coasters

There is a blue umbrella
How ya doin fella?
Sitting in our chairs
No one really cares

Our class room is a portable
It must be very sortable
There are some magnetic clips
I'm naming my puppy Zips

The door has to be closed
Someone's picking their nose

Have no fear!
Of course I have an ear!
I have two in fact
That makes a big impact

He's still picking his nose
I really hate my toes
I'd really lik ean orange scrun chie
Please no one punch me

I see a light
I think I just might
Go towards it
But then the teacher might have a fit

-Melissa

Aahhhh

I love my house. Every morning when I wake up I look out the sliding glass door upon a heaven of redwood forest, listening to the creek outside my window and the birds chirping happily.

Ode to Wheezy

Last night I came up with another plan. This time I brought Kitten into the bedroom with us, and shut Tigger up in The Green Room. I figured at best at least the mouse/mice wouldn't be able to wander around freely in the rooms while we slept, frolicking on the bed and gnawing on our furniture.
The mice are indeed very clever. The mouse caught by Kitten has not shown its whiskers in my room (that I've seen) since its brush with PsychoKittyDeath a few days ago, but I did notice that the number of brownpoopiepellets found in The Green Room has increased dramatically since then. The mouse must migrate from room to room in the walls.
So, it seemed a great choice to have a cat in each room. I wasn't really thinking straight by putting Tigger in The Green Room instead of Kitten, since she seemed to be a more avid hunter (and generally less spherical). But I was also sort of weighing which cat was more likely to wake me (or worse, Nikolai) up meowing and scratching in the middle of the night, and figured that having PsychoticallyAffectionateButMostlySelfSufficient Kitten with me was probably a safer call.
Sometime in the middle of the night there arose a bit of a clatter from The Green Room. Matt was still awake, I think, and I woke up and asked him groggily "Was that Tigger?", to which he replied "Yup."
This morning I rushed to The Green Room, hoping and praying to find an inanimate mouse on the floor. Indeed, it would be a dream come true. For how long have I waited for some -- any -- measure of success in this war I'm waging against the vile (but darn cute) vermin in my household? When I opened the door I saw, tucked under the edge of my glider, a tiny little mouse no bigger than a log of cat poop (hmmm...coincidence? I think not.) He was laying belly up with his little furniture-damaging fangs hanging out. Tigger rocks. I wonder if he just sat on him? It would have been an easy way for him to kill the mouse, but given that all the mouse fur covering its little body was matted from having been wet, I think it was obvious that Tigger slobbered all over him.
Poor Wheezy. So difficult for him to breathe with his allergies, and yet here he is faithfully defending our home against the threat of adorable small fuzzy animals.
Poor little mouse. He must have thought he was being eaten by Darth Vader.

Woman's best friend

The mice are completely out of control now. They're clever little buggars, too. We've tried baiting traps, they won't go for it. We've tried just about everything we could think of, short of cats in the house. Due to the nature of our cats' cat box challengedness, we threw them out years ago because we were tired of throwing away our pee soaked stuff. We tossed 3 couches, some area rugs, countless pieces of clothing and bedding, you name it. On Sunday night, I had completely had it. I actually chose to bring the cats in the house and risk pee in my brand new house, because I am exhausted from the mice gnawing on my night tables all night keeping me awake.

Sunday night, we closed Kitten in our room. She seems to be the psycho rodent killer of the two (although we do have evidence that Tigger, in his less rotund days, has caught and killed small animals s well). She seemed to be the obvious choice, albeit a tough one since unfortunately I think she's the culprit of our pee nightmares.

She was *so* happy to be in the house with the family again. She lost her psycho-skittish demeanor and rolled around on the bed making biscuits in the air and kneading everything in sight (this did include Nikolai, and he was not pleased). After an hour or two the little bold mouse poked his head out and decided to come get his evening's fiber from my night table. At the slightest noise in the corner Kitten was immediately on the prowl. She tore around the room, much like the tasmanian devil. She was whipping around corners, knocking everything off the night tables, tearing around under the bed. It was a relatively short time she spent in active pursuit of the unfortunate grey furball, but the time she did spend was frantic. At one point she was under the bed tearing around and I heard a great big THUNK. I think she bonked her head on the bed frame or something, because for a few minutes it was totally silent under there. I said to Matt "I think she knocked herself out."

Moments later she started meowing that special "Mommy, I have something dead for you, aren't you proud of me?" meow. She came out from under the bed and hopped up on my side near my shoulder, carrying the tiny mouse in her jaws. There's nothing quite like a dead animal offering from a loyal pet. There's also nothing quite like a LIVE animal offering from the same loyal pet. Unfortunately, this offering was the latter. She leaned her head over my shoulder and dropped the prize right on me. The mouse (giddy with freedom) scurried away down the length of the bed and dropped off the end of it. Kitten followed it with her eyes, sporting an "oh crap." look.

The mouse is still terrorizing. We brought her in the room again last night, to no avail. I think she's the key, though. She's the solution for which we've been searching.

I suffer from second-hand insomnia

Have the effects of this been studied?