My Fresh Hell
Life in Scribbletown.

IMO James Brown & Gerald Ford

2006-12-27

Gee, what day is it? Both Dusty and I are both confused, without our normal routine, about where we are in this universe. Is it still December? For the first night in days, we had a normal dinner at a normal dinnertime hour. We�ve both had quite enough Christmas and I suspect she�s ready to go back to school. But, she�s got a couple more days before that�ll happen. So, I guess we�ll just continue to tidy up the world�s messiest house and try not to get hit in the face by Red.

Where to begin? When did I last write? Who knows.

The highlights of the last few days, for me anyway, boil down to these:

1. Dusty lost tooth number 8 on Friday (I think) night. So the Tooth Fairy got in and out without risk of bumping into Santa. That woulda been something to see.

2. Red deposited a small amount of poo in the potty. Which, is kind of a big deal. It�s been dry as a bone ever since but�baby steps, people.

Otherwise, we were all felled by disease on Saturday. All the slightly runny noses turned on full force and my sinuses exploded and one of us has a sinus infection, another one is back on the nebulizer so her coughing doesn�t bring down the house, and the rest of us are limping along. We�re mostly better now but it sort of took a bit of the �merry� out of Christmas.

Because I was unable to accomplish much on Saturday, there was a firestorm of cooking to do on Sunday. We then went to my sister�s house for Xmas Eve celebrations. Dusty glommed onto her favorite aunt (the youngest, ie the sucker for a girly kid), R, and Red wandered around eating potato chips.

We will speak of Red�s new �diet�. Good a time as any. There are new rules now. They are: Dinner will not be eaten. Any food consumed must look and taste like grated parmesan cheese, saltine crackers, blueberries, a sliver of pear, more cheese. Did I mention the kid eats almost nothing but cheese? Yeah. Breakfast consists of milk and a handful of golden raisins. Maybe some bagel and cream cheese, preferably mine. Maybe some waffle. Said additions to the raisin meal may or may not be eaten once prepared. Take the gamble!

Lunch consists of whatever she�ll deign to eat between breakfast and �naptime.� Which could be lots of half-eaten crackers, a bite of a soy butter sandwich (the rest thrown under the sofa and found much, much, wtf is this?, later, a small piece of banana, and a piece of red pepper from my lunch. Period.

Dinner is strictly optional. Tonight she decided to join us and had rice, cheese, a bite of pear, and two saltines along for the ride which were eventually summarily dismissed with a wicked upperhand. The kid�ll make a decent pitcher, lemme tell ya.

Duck and cover is our motto.

Monday was...oh, right!...Christmas day. Yes. It rained buckets and the kids made out like bandits what with the boomwhackers and slide whistles and L3go table and Barbi3 house madness. Red also enjoyed laying on her new foam almost-lifesize skeleton puzzle. Dusty�s having a ball with her magic kit, light-up globe, an I Spy game, books out the wahzoo (Santa ALWAYS brings books), and wooden pattern puzzle.

I got lots of CDs (Heat Wave! Donald Fagan! Corrine Bailey Rae {which kicks ass, btw}! Carly Simon!), some books and DVDs that will hold me in good stead for some time.

Speaking of books, I�m pleased to note that due to the recent smattering of downtime, I�ve matched last year�s number of books read. In fact, I�m working on #46 so I might, in fact, beat last year�s record. I am a nerd because this fact thrills me.

So, recovery is underway. Yesterday we visited the Grandpa and today the other grandparents were to visit but, alas, they are sick as well.

We are better and still working on leftovers. What, you may ask, does a Heathen Vegetarian serve for Christmas? Spinach lasagna, homemade whole wheat bread, acorn squash glazed in butter and brown sugar, green beans (a la Amblus), Indonesian rice salad (from Xmas Eve), and pumpkin pie. With vanilla ice cream. None of that chemically-laden crap in a tub for us! No sir! If it�s a holiday, just take your damn sugar straight up like Dog intended and like it!!

Some where in all that, I received lovely and much appreciated Xmas cards from Harriet and Violet (who I�m now too tired and lazy to link to but you can find them over there on the sidebar). Thanks, y�all!! You rule!

We also managed to pet neigh-neigh noses, feed them carrots and go rock grubbing (easiest done after a hard rain). I accidentally flushed out a bunny rabbit while walking through one of our fenced-off pastures looking for field stones.

Awww, bunny!

I�ll leave you with that image. Mainly because my time is up. Gotta go do my Dusty-bedtime-reading thing.

|

8:29 p.m. ::
prev :: next