Randomness

May Showers bring Whirling Heathers

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:42:00 +0000

Day 191 of 365: In which I play in the rain
Originally uploaded by hrw worcester

It's that crazy time of year. I really keep thinking I should update the blog, but besides all the life stuff, this self portrait a day project is a huge time suck some days. The photo taking is the quick part - the choosing, reviewing, editing, uploading, describing... that's the slow part. Then there's the keeping up with my contacts' photos. And half the time the stuff I'd write about here I throw into a description of a photo on Flickr, so the blog is sadly neglected.

We're alive and well, life is just whipping us around in a way this picture illustrates much too well. And now that it's 12:20 am, and I have to be up in 6.5 hours, I'm going to bed. Just wanted to give a quick "wave" of sorts to those of y'all trying to figure out where the Wellers went.

Anyone need a Heather?

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:19:00 +0000

Day 135 of 365: In which I'm torn
Originally uploaded by hrw worcester

yawn

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:47:00 +0000

I'm tired, and I realize I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.

No, really, this is newsworthy.

Good night!

A little update, a lot late!

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:55:00 +0000

Wow, it's been a while hasn't it? We've been to and returned from Texas, gone through Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, the time change (ugh), and the Saint Patrick's Day Parade (Worcester's was ridiculously early this year, on March 9th). We've met with the orthodontist four times, and set up Rowan's appointment to get the first part of her braces put on (April 2nd). All three of Rowan's dance costumes have arrived, at least one is cute. ;-) I've had at least 5 webinars/conference calls to attend at work, had to go into the office twice, and am trying to figure out how going away for one week has led to about 3 weeks worth of work piling up while I was away. In 15 minutes, we're heading out to a 4-hour long Girl Scout event.

In a word, it's been hectic.

But I figured I owed at least a brief hello to those of you who do read here (that just amazes me) instead of stumbling upon the blog searching for bizarre things ("daughter g" anyone?). There are photos galore from Texas over at Flickr - if you really want to see them head on over to my photostream and click on the "NovMoms Texas-palooza" set. I still have to add the photos from Texas while we were staying in Austin afterwards and from the train ride home, but all the ranch photos are up (including me on a horse, woot!).

I still need to give some info on the train ride to a bunch of people, but right after I returned I couldn't even think about it, and lately I just haven't the time when I have the enthusiasm or the enthusiasm when I have the time. Story of my life!

Reappearing

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:25:00 +0000

As the name promises - some random stuff from our home to yours.

Latest guilty pleasures: "Crowned - the mother of all pageants." And worse than just enjoying this train wreck of a TV show, I have to admit *gulp* I enjoy its ridiculously perky little theme song.

Not too long ago I found a book I'd been searching for for years. The reason it was so hard to find? I couldn't remember the title or author, only bits and pieces of the plot. And I'd read it when I was 12 (1986), and wasn't even sure if it was new then or older or what. I searched again and again over the years using all sorts of random words from the plot that I could think of, I posted about it online in a book search area, no luck. Someone introduced me to Google Books, which came out after I'd initially started searching, and I tried that and found something that sounded almost right, but I ordered a copy off Half.com and nope, that wasn't it. Well, a few months later I tried Google Books again and... success! The book was Now is Not Too Late by Isabelle Holland. So, anyhow, after having looked for this book for like 15 years, I zipped over the Half.com and ordered it (I hate this turn of phrase, but can't help it - I *heart* Half.com!) and it came several weeks ago. And then I put it aside. I'd like to say it was because I was overly busy or I forgot about it or wanted to finish another book first... but honestly, I was afraid to reread it. Not afraid of the book, but afraid that it wouldn't pack the same punch it did when I was 12. Over the past several years, I've reread and rewatched several books and movies that I remember from my childhood and adolecense and been disappointed or downright amazed at how little or how incorrectly I remembered things.

So, finally I started reading it the night of Rowan's sleepover party (more on that later) and finished it the next night and wow. I was in shock as I turned each page at just how many details had been etched into my head, exact phrases, the craziest little details. There were things I'd forgotten about until I started reading and then they'd come back as I was going along. Yet, you'd think that would have taken away from the experience, because there is a lot that is revealed over the course of this little book that packs a wallop if you're not expecting it, but it was still just as strong knowing what was coming. And knowing how it would all turn out made me notice all the subtle clues along the way that all fit into place perfectly but without screaming of what was to come. I will even admit I cried my eyes out at one point (and probably not where one would expect...). I think Rowan is still too young for this, but it's going on my shelf to give her in a few years. And I'm determined to read more of Isabelle Holland's novels, both adult and young adult.

Rowan had her sleepover during Martin Luther King weekend, but it actually just ended up being a late party. Three of the five girls she invited were able to attend, but of them only one was able to sleep over. But when she got here, her parents warned she'd never made it through the night at a sleepover, and sure enough, she went home at 11:30. Rowan was disappointed, but not horribly so. It was a chocolate themed party, so the girls all went home over stuffed and bouncy. The favorite activity seemed to be making chocolate lollipops in chocolate molds - messy, but lots of fun. They thought it was the coolest thing when they came out perfectly shaped. It was sort of strange, Rowan wanted to run the party for the most part, but she still needed some help with activities and getting the timing on things down. Just a fine line between when to step in and when to sit in the other room reading my book. My baby is a-growing!

The news is making me queasy - if the Patriots win the Super Bowl Sunday, they're going to have a parade and it will most likely be on Tuesday, which is also our state's primary election day. There is fear that the parade will block off polling places and... that people who have to choose between the two activities will choose the parade. Gag. There are days I really worry about the future of this country. The more devisive politics get while more people tune out entirely, the more everything turns into black and white, us vs. them, you're with us or you're against us... the less likely it seems our political system can survive indefinitely. And history does sort of lean to that way - what forms of government HAVE lasted indefinitely?? What haven't ended in some sort of bloody skirmish. Not to say that what comes out of it doesn't end up being as good or better, but it almost seems inevitable, and I fear for living through it.

I'm having an overwhelming few weeks at work and it's dragging my spirit down. I love that I work from home, but sometimes it makes it REALLY hard to "go home and leave it all behind" at the end of a day. And I enjoy the work I do, but it seems like some days there's just more that needs to be done than I have time for and no matter what I do, I have to drop one of the balls I'm juggling. This is probably part of why I've been so quiet lately, I just can't think straight without my brain bouncing all over to a bunch of things I need to get done.

This actually extends to real life, too. We're leaving for Texas in two and a half weeks and I have to figure out what to pack and what I need to buy ahead of time (another pair of jeans, I'm down to only one I like to wear; another memory card for the camera, I have a feeling I'll easily fill the 1 GB and 2 GB I currently have; who knows what else). And then figure out if I'm going to ship things back or drag a huge suitcase - actually duffle bag - on the train (which worries me - it won't fit in our sleeper car, so we'd have to leave it somewhere else out of sight. Then we'd have to drag it around Chicago when we have an 11ish hour layover, and I'm debating seeing if the train station is within safe walking distance of anything interesting in Chicago, plus it's just a pain in the neck). Though they probably have locker rentals at the train station if we really do want to. I'd love to get to see a little of Chicago again, I had so much fun last time I was there (good gravy, that was nearly 13 years ago!). Of course, that also probably would've been true if we were in the middle of Arkansas - it was the company as much as anything else, I'm sure.

I still hate Januaries. The end is in sight, but still... it's still dragging me down. But on the plus side, the days are getting noticably longer, so there truly is hope the month will end.

So THIS is 2008, eh?

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:38:00 +0000

It's remarkably like 2007, just a little harder to type. ;-) (I'm sure shortly my fingers will be used to the 2008 combination, in fact, I just *almost* did it without looking, but it's been tough to get them in the right order at the right time for some reason until now.)

I can't even remember if I last wrote before or after Christmas, so let's just say Christmas came and went in a whirlwind that leaves me not quite convinced it actually happened, except that I'm typing this on my brand new xmas present monitor and Rowan's room has even MORE stuff spread from one end to the other. She keeps making strides toward getting it clean, then somehow it all falls apart shortly thereafter. Well, I guess it's not "somehow" - I know the "how" - she just has too much *stuff*. It seems for every thing that goes out, two more things come in. It's never ending.

Her highlights were two more Webkinz (she'd also received one at her Girl Scout troop's holiday gift exchange) to bring the total to four and an mp3 player. Talk about a dichotomous age! Stuffed animals to trendy electronics.

We had a pretty quiet time of it, Grandpa Harry and Jody came out to spend Christmas eve with us, and Rowan made us all homemade (like from yeast and flour and water type homemade) pizzas which turned out great! On Christmas day we spent the morning at home (and for the second year in a row had a yummy egg, cheese, and bread strata assembled the night before - I think it's become a tradition now!), then headed to Grandma and Jim's in the afternoon. We all totally spoiled each other and were totally spoiled by family. Unfortunately, Gary had to work Christmas Eve (my office was shut down since it was a Monday; we'd given up Veteran's Day to get it), so we didn't get quite as much family relaxing time as we could have, but it was still nice.

We also had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve. Gary had to work that, too (grr), then we spent a little time at First Night (yes, time for me to make my annual complaint about how it's NOT First Night; it's LAST Night, and why does no one worry about this besides me?! And then I saw that mentioned in a comic strip and was both amused someone else saw it and annoyed someone stole my shtick. But I digress). We stayed through the fireworks, and then headed home to order Chinese food from Nancy Chang's, which Gary went off to pick up.

About 10 minutes after he left, I got a call from him saying he had to come back and get me. My first thought was he forgot his wallet or something, but actually *everyone* in Worcester, it felt, was at Nancy Chang's to get Chinese food. I mean, I know it's a common tradition, but this was *insane*. They had a special separate area set up for pick ups, a huge waiting area, and there were wall-to-wall people. The parking lot was full with cars double parked, police were arriving to direct things when we left. It was total madness. But the food was good! Rowan went to bed around 9 and Gary and I stayed up watching a movie we'd rented earlier in the week and hadn't watched yet before watching The Ball drop in Times' Square then stumbling to bed. Yep, we're old fogies. (Fogeys?) My birthday is coming up next week, but I'm just not up for celebrating. Seriously, I've just had enough holidays at this point. Besides, I'm turning 34, it's not some big party age.

Today was the Girl Scout cookie sale kick off at the Auburn Mall. Rowan's troop went, and I volunteered for a few hours in the morning (my exciting job was guarding the "face board" - one of those painted scenes with holes cut out where you stick your head for a photo opportunity. It was pretty wobbly, so they need someone there to make sure it doesn't tip when the girls lean into it). I guess we should start selling cookies now (she did get an order from Grandpa and Jody at Christmas - no, we're not cheating, we were allowed to sell to family only during December, then to anyone starting yesterday). I'm just so not into it this year, it's SUCH a pain tracking people down to deliver cookies after pre-sales. So, I think we're going to buy some extra cartons and just try to sell with cookies in hand once they're delivered in February. Our Girl Scout council merged with two others as of January 1st, so there were some big changes to the sale, and the incentives are pretty generous this year, but still... my heart's not in it and Rowan's not pushing for it, so I'm not bending over backwards. Which is making me feel horribly guilty, alas. Luckily *my* troop doesn't have to deal with this this year since they're Daisies!

I mentioned a while back that I started a "365 Days project" over at Flickr, taking a self portrait every day for a year (so, yes, it actually will be a 366 day project since this is a leap year, but oh well, the name has always been 365 and we're sticking with ti - the last day will just read "366 of 365 Days" no matter how crazy that looks. ;-) Anyhow, I started the day after Thanksgiving, which means on Thursday I'd completed 6 weeks (can you believe Thanksgiving was only 6 weeks ago?!). It's been a challenge some days, but I'm so glad to be doing it. There are a few good things - first of all, I finally have some decent photos of myself for my obituary or missing posters. ;-) Secondly, it puts my camera in my hands every single day, so I end up taking more photos in general (I'd gotten a bit lazy about that). I've also met several other people working on the project and it's neat following each other's journeys during this project. The down side, though, is that now I'm spending way too much time on Flickr trying to keep up with them all!

Anyhow, I guess that's how things are going. I didn't make "resolutions" because, well, meh. Who needs 'em; who keeps 'em? But I do have a few goals for 2008. First, learn to type it. ;-) Go to at least one local photographers' meet up. Get my $@@#()$*% license. Eat more pre-planned and well-balanced dinners as a family and fewer "what do you want? I don't know, what do YOU want?" last minute meals made from something frozen or that mainly comes from a box. Oh, and keep up with the house tidying - our house is ready for people to drop in without much notice most of the time now, something that's rarely been true, and I'm trying really hard to keep it that way. It's not magazine-picture-ready by any means, and there's still lots behind the spare bedroom door that I'd never let anyone see, but truly, it's a world away from where it was when I started cracking down in the summer and I'm trying to keep it that way.

Here's to a happy, healthy year of fond memories!

(Only 6 weeks until Rowan and I are in Texas!!)

If I knew then...

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 04:37:00 +0000

Watching an old Saturday Night Live episode intro, with Steve Martin hosting from the early 90's. I actually remember seeing this episode the first time around and the opening was pretty funny. Tonight, it's sort of twinged with this sadness, seeing Phil Hartman always makes me sad, and there was a line about Chris Farley going out after the show and getting totally trashed. . . And knowing how both died not too long after all this, it's just hard to watch.

But it was more than just celebrity death sadness, it's this whole feeling of how meaningless little comments thrown around at one point can later come back and be utterly haunting. How many things we joke about or take no notice of until it's too late. Wow, this is sounding morbid, but it's something I keep turning over and over in my head lately for no apparent reason, which is, I think, what makes it all the more troubling for me.

So, Rowan had a rocking good time watching Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers tonight. I put a little more detail on the Flickr pictures and am now too wiped out to recount, oops. But suffice it to say, she was on cloud 9, but as soon as we walked out the door, not two minutes later, was talking about how now she can't wait for Christmas. ARG! The child is never happy in the moment, that's for sure. I'm truly steps away from taking and donating all of her toys since she doesn't seem to GET the concept of appreciating what she has just for having it.

*sigh* Tired, only moderately coherent. Some days I really struggle over whether to even hit the "publish" button.

Stupid Blank Box

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:52:00 +0000

AGAIN! Again I'm sitting here and my mind has gone blank. But I'm trying to enjoy a little calm before the storm of Christmas totally sweeps me away. I can't believe it's two weeks from today; that's impossible to come to terms with. Never mind that there are only 3 weeks left of this year. I can't remember if there was anything I wanted to accomplish this year that I haven't (heck, I don't remember if there was anything I wanted to accomplish, period). I just went back to check last year's entries, and I didn't write a single one in December and the one in January didn't really focus on it, so I'll assume I set no goals for myself.

So, yay, I met each goal I set. ;-)

Er, or I failed at them all, I suppose.

I'm not surprised; I've never been a big new year's resolutions type. First, I'm much too realistic - what are the chances of someone keeping one of those things beyond March at the latest?? And secondly, because if I want to make a big change, I figure I should just jump in and work toward it where I am, not wait for some predetermined date. Of course, the flip side of that is that I usually don't decide to make big changes because, again, I'm a realist.

So, Rowan had a 2 hour school delay yesterday morning instead of another snow day. It was all because of ice, though, and it really was much worse this week than last, but they hate to cancel twice in two weeks (and always panic during the first storm). Walking home from the bus stop was a challenge to say the least - while the streets are plowed and sanded and salted well enough by the city, the sidewalks are the responsibility of the homeowners, and as such, end up untreated for hours or days in many cases. I have been walking down to meet her at the bus stop (she normally walks home with another older girl who lives further up the road than us and is enjoying that little bit of independence) just to make sure she doesn't slide into the road. That thought just panics me.

Then tomorrow is a half day when they're dismissed before lunchtime. Yep, like I said, tough schedule. I'm hoping there aren't any immunizations at a 10 year physical, then I'll never hear the end of how horrible her life is. (Ah, yes, the drama. I made her change out of her school uniform before heading to Girl Scouts this afternoon and she about had a breakdown because she couldn't decide what to wear and didn't like anything she had. WTF? Then I suggested a long sleeve shirt of sweater and you'd think I'd have suggested she wear a diaper and onesie. She was just beside herself to have to change. Then 5 minutes later she was bouncy and perky. Oy.)

Gah, is there anything more annoying than newscasters trying to banter about things like "w00t" being added to the dictionary?

Oh, right, Google Reader is more annoying. If you pay attention to the columns on the sides of my entries, you may have noticed on the left there are three little boxes that come via Google Reader, the bottom one being songs I enjoyed on Pandora (the Internet Radio station - if you've never tried it, you may want to consider it, I've found plenty of new music based on my preferences that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise). But Google Reader only picks up about 1 out of every 3 songs I bookmark. I thought I was going crazy at first, but I finally subscribed in both Bloglines and Google Reader; Bloglines gets every song, Google Reader still fails miserably. The problem is I can't get a handy little cute widget on the side there through Bloglines. So, bear in mind for each song up there, there are plenty more you're not getting to see because Google Reader is failing me. Which is sad, since it's the only Google branded thing I haven't had smashing success with. What's funny is that's the only feed it has problems with; I compared all my feeds with Bloglines, and they all come through fine except the Pandora one. *shrug*

The guinea pigs are being... active. They're chasing each other and bouncing and rumblestrutting all over the place (and sending tons of bedding all over the place). So far, no teeth chattering (or bloodshed) so I think they're just playing, but yikes. Go to sleep, guinea pigs, it's late!

So far I'm still keeping up with the 365 Days project (although I'm realizing it's going to be a 366 Days project, since we have a leap year coming). Today's photo was easily the most fun to take, though it actually is one of my least favorites photographically. Oh well, it's only 0.2% of the year's worth of photos; they can't all be winners!

Well, not sure if I'll post again before 2008 - I'm sure I'll mean to plenty of times, but whether I'll actually do it... don't hold your breath. Maybe I'll get a chance to look back on what I have accomplished this year and what I hope for the year ahead so NEXT year I can look back on something!

Staring at this blank box

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 03:16:00 +0000

I keep thinking I have things to say, then when I go to actually type, it all goes away.

I dumped Adobe Reader today (formerly known as Adobe Acrobat, in case you missed that update). It was fine for years, then the last upgrade was the straw that broke the camels back. The sucker was taking 85-90% of my CPU capacity if I scrolled where there were pictures. Considering I have to read several online newspapers each week that come in PDF format, that was just not acceptable. So, after searching to see if there was some sort of fix, I gave up and tentatively downloaded Foxit and haven't looked back. About 10 minutes later, I removed Adobe Reader from my computer and haven't missed it. And, ya know, Adobe, should I ever actually WANT to send my files to FedEx Kinko's, I think I'll manage on my own, thank you.

I've been working on a project over at Flickr, "365 Days." The concept is to take a self portrait every day for a year. It sounded so easy when I started, or, at least doable. I had thought about it on and off for months after seeing lots of great photos from people participating, but always figured I'd never be able to bring myself to do it. Well, I took the plunge starting the day after Thanksgiving and am up to day 12 today (if you're curious, you can click here to see the set). It's funny how hard it is to take a photo of myself that I'm satisfied with and upload it. Besides not liking many photos of myself, I am amid some *really* talented people in this group! It's so hard to do anything that hasn't been done over and over before or even to do something old well. But I'm persisting because not long ago, I was noticing that to look at our photos, you'd have little reason to believe I existed. Now I just look like an egomaniac.

Zach, Zach, he's a Lego maniac.

Yes, advertising is an insidious and evil thing.

Rowan had her first snow day of the year yesterday. It wasn't very snowy, really, but there was a lot of freezing rain so school was canceled. She had a half day last Wednesday and will have another one next Wednesday (when she gets to go to the doctor for her annual check up - I figure if the school is going to waste all these half days, I'll at least get some use out of them!), and snow day yesterday. Not to mention Thanksgiving the week before last. And the week after next is the last week before the holiday break, so not only do they have a half day that last Friday, but no doubt they'll not get a lot done at least half of that week. And the week before Thanksgiving they had Monday off for Veterans' Day. So that's 6 weeks straight of no full weeks, then a week and a half of vacation, half a week of school, and then *finally* two full weeks of school (assuming no snow) before the next shortened week. Tough schedule, eh?

Ah, well, nothing really exciting has been going on, so I guess I'll stop now. Then when I'm laying in bed tonight, I'm sure I'll think of the million things I wanted to mention now!

Biting the bullet

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:36:00 +0000

Bullet form, because my brain isn't at 100% right now.

I should not drink coffee after dinner
Thank goodness I had a newer meat thermometer; the old one never registered anything over 150 degrees. Our turkey would still be roasting!
Plymouth Rock is surprisingly small. I have known this for like 16 years now, it's not new info, but it seemed the right time of year to share it.
I'm getting better at using my new mouse with only minimal hilarity ensuing when I hit the wrong thing.
Seriously, it's 2:45am and I'm wide awake. I should just go shopping.
Actually, I just was shopping online. But do photos count as real shopping?
Gary's alarm clock is going to go off in 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Even if it doesn't, he'll wake up at 5am.
My alarm will go off for 2 hours and ten minutes and I still won't wake up.
I've fallen asleep sitting up in college classes while trying to take notes. They're hysterical to try to read later, random words that just end in a long line as my hand slipped to the side.
Blah blah blah
I wish I had a totally unlimited travel budget.
I really do need to finish learning to drive. No, really.
Television commercials get cheaper and cheesier looking the later you stay up
Thanksgiving dinner for 3 is just hardly worth the effort.
I felt all left out at church last weekend when the sermon was all about how to handle family conflicts that arise around the holiday table when you're with all the far-flung relatives.
Our biggest conflict was when Rowan refused to eat anything after it touched the pickled beet juice on her plate (can't say I entirely blame her, so I gave her a fresh plate of non-purple food and she was fine).
Yeah, I'd best go to bed.
Damn coffee.

But first, us:

Adjustments

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 01:58:00 +0000

We returned to church this morning after missing almost every service since they restarted in September (we did attend the church-wide get away to Maine in September, and attended one special service when Rowan's class was presented with something in front of the whole congregation, but that's it). Unfortunately, when I signed her up for a field hockey league which met on Sundays, I never dreamed they'd have it in the mid-morning. It just so happens that our church went to two services instead of one this fall, and sure enough, the field hockey practices were smack dab in the middle of both. The funny thing is that since it's a two service format now, no one really realized we were gone, I heard from a few people this morning that they just assumed we were attending the later service. Anyhow, so in addition to getting used to being up and ready to go to church in general, we now have to be ready to leave an hour and a half earlier since instead of starting at 10:30, our service now starts at 9am. (On the other hand, it was pretty cool to be driving out of the parking lot at the time we normally would have been just starting last year and having the whole day ahead of us).

We're adjusting to Rowan at 10 years old. Okay, so she's not all *that* different from two weeks ago, but she certainly is growing up. She's fairly well done with toys, preferring books, electronic gadgets, games (board, card, outdoors, etc.), and artistic endeavors. And chasing games, always with the chasing games. I guess the big sign of this is that her main birthday present from us was tickets to the Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) concert - she was ecstatic (check out the Flickr pictures - a link is in the upper right corner of the blog - for a play-by-play of the unwrapping). I'm having to adjust to turning out music I really can't stand (until now there's been stuff that I got tired of from her overplaying, but nothing that was like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. . . until the past month. This month has reaffirmed my opinion that Disney is evil incarnate). On the plus side, no lead or GHB in books or CDs, at least not yet!

I'm adjusting to a brand new (as of today) mouse with a thumb trackball instead of one that moves around. I keep getting my fingers tangled trying to use the thumb ball and the scroll wheel and push the proper buttons. Editing two photos took about twice as long as usual because of all this entanglement. But, I'm sure once I get used to it (darn adjustments again), I'll be whipping right around without a second thought (until I have to go use a regular mouse somewhere else). It's nice that I can just rest it on my leg, though, instead of having to reach for the mouse pad. Recently I've had to spend a lot of my work time pointing and clicking (instead of actually typing or, perhaps, thinking) at work, and my fingers and wrist were starting to ache, so this should help. Now if only I can remember to sit up straight!

I still don't think I've fully adjusted to daylight savings time; at 5:30 tonight, I was sure it was 7pm and was starting to rush Rowan through dinner to get her ready for bed. Thank goodness I looked at the clock first! Usually it only takes me a few days, so I am at a loss for why this year is dragging out so. I'm also having a very hard time getting up on time in the mornings, even when I've gone to bed at a perfectly reasonable hour. Don't ask what happens on the days I don't go to bed a perfectly reasonable hour! Thank goodness working from home has eliminated the concern of running to catch a bus or I'd be in worlds of trouble (or, well, just late).

This year we're going to be having a quiet Thanksgiving at home with just the three of us, yet somehow we are having enough food to feed a small band of roving jugglers or something. We each figured out what we need to make the Thanksgiving meal feel complete, so we have turkey (no way!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, pickled beets, gravy, plus warm appetizers and fancy cheeses and crackers and nuts for throughout the day before dinner, and an assortment of cookies and ice cream (and Cool Whip - my mother would twitch, I know) for dessert (in our discussion, it came up that while Rowan enjoys pumpkin pie, she can take it or leave it, and neither Gary nor I are big fans of pie in general, so we figured there was no reason to figure out a shared pie just for tradition). Hopefully this year I'll remember to take a picture of the turkey before we carve it!

And with that, I should get to bed, before I turn into the proverbial pumpkin - extra dangerous during this the pie making season!

Rowan at 10 years old

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:26:00 +0000

Rowan at 10 years old
Originally uploaded by hrw worcester

I've said it before, and no doubt I'll say it again: time flies when you're having kids!

Alive and kicking

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:53:00 +0000

Just in case you were concerned, again.

And the most amazing thing is happening - Rowan will be ten years old tomorrow. This is just so inconceivable to me. Ten years ago right now I was sitting in the hospital annoyed because the medication they'd given me to induce labor hadn't worked yet. It feels like just days ago.

Right now, Rowan is at dance class, and I should really be wrapping her presents, but I guess I can do that while she's at school tomorrow. I don't think I'll be awake enough to give them to her in the morning, the downside of her going to school so darn early.

(I'm having a hard time concentrating on this due to background conversation, forgive any totally random errors or jumps in topic.)

Since Gary's mother is visiting us this week, we're not doing a big party (I'm not very evolved on the hostess level and couldn't handle both a house guest and party at the same time. Martha Stewart I am not), though we're considering a sleepover on New Year's Eve. The problem there is she's afraid several of her friends will be away since it's vacation, but I seriously doubt that many will be gone by then - they go back to school two days later. I'm curious who she'd invite, we hear so little about her friends, despite much pumping for info, I can't even keep most of them straight.

Yeah, I'm a bad parent, I'm not in the school regularly, I don't know all of her friends by sight, their names all blend together for me. Of course, it's not helped that to Rowan a "friend" is anyone she speaks to once. ;-)

Oh well, I have lots of stuff to take care of, but I wanted to get an update posted so no one thought we fell off the face of the earth.

Oh, and I will be voting tomorrow, and I'm totally torn now on voting for John Monfredo. Before that awful flier I blogged about recently, I would've without question. But now, I just don't know if I can bring myself to do it. The thing is, the man has had an exceptional career in education, and I spent a year at Belmont Street Community(!) School so I saw this first hand (I actually remember him, which alone says a lot - I couldn't tell you the name of my 6th grade principal, or the one for 7-8th grade. I do remember Sister Ann from high school, but, um, ... 'nuff said). I remember reading a book about a girl who lead a strike at her school over lousy lunches (probably a Paula Danziger book, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. She wrote several books that moved me at that stage of life, and I still kick myself for not going over and taking the time to say that to her when I was in the same room as her at a scrapbooking event, especially when she died not too long after that. Note to readers: thank the people who made your life better when you have a chance, even if you think they're too important to want to be bothered by you telling them - I've heard since from several people who DID approach her and found her delightful and gracious each time). Anyhow, I remember reading the book and my friends and I all complained about our school lunches, so we wrote a letter to the principal about how we hated them and were going to lead a rebellion or something and instead of blowing us off or calling our parents for an intervention he did the unimaginable. He invited us 9-11 year olds into his office before school to discuss the matter. It's just a powerful statement of who he was as an educator. But I still can't get past someone sending out something so poorly written to campaign for the school committee (its vs. it's isn't rocket science).

Speaking of the election tomorrow, I am going to scream if I get one more telemarketing call from a candidate. I literally had three in a row on Friday, one would hang up and the next would ring (all from the delightful number of 000-000-0000; our answering machine announces the number of the incoming calls, when that one kept coming through, I was starting to think the poor little machine was either in agony or ecstasy). This morning Rick Rushton's aunt or niece or third cousin thrice removed called up to make sure I remembered the election is tomorrow. I told her if I tried to forget the auto dialers wouldn't let me. She didn't laugh, and right there, she lost my vote, at least if it hadn't already been determined. Then she asked if I'd heard of Mr. Rushton, and I said I had, and then she asked if I planned to vote for him?! I about choked and said "you know, I prefer not to discuss that with the candidates' families." Sheesh, it's like the 4th grade election when when Shannon would ask around to find out who was voting for Missy and who was voting for Jared.

Besides the pile of junk mail coming in each day, these phone calls are pushing me over the edge. I sometimes consider joining the very substantial majority in Worcester and not vote, just to stop the invasions of my day. Okay, don't fret, I'm not actually going to do it, but I'm sorely tempted to tell them that each time they call!

My Life this Week, Summed Up in Dilbert Format

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:32:00 +0000

Yeah, it's been a winner.

Next he'll promise us a good edukation

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:03:00 +0000

Oh my spleen. I just received a political flier in the mail this afternoon, encouraging me to vote for a local hopeful for the Worcester School Committee. Now, I get these things all the time and general toss them without reading (I make my voting choices based on slightly more objective sources as much as I can), but I like this candidate, voted for him the last time around even, and was curious enough to open it up.

It's a tri-fold number. The outside, where the address label is, starts off with a little tagline, "He's spent his life fighting for children!" Now, personally, I would have put the candidates name there, but since the return address ("Monfredo" - sort of like Cher or Madonna, I guess, no need to use TWO names!) was on the same section, I overlooked this.

Then you open it to the inside flap, which is printed upside down to how the majority of people would open the flier (when folded, one side has the address label, the back side is blank. You have to either be holding the blank side facing you when opening it, or be holding the address side facing you but with the opening on the left, like opening a book from the back). Okay, I'll overlook this, too, anyone can get confused in Publisher, I guess. . .

So, I flip this thing right side up and start reading that inside flap. And again, oh, my spleen.

How many mistakes can YOU spot??

"An award-winning principal!"

For 20 years, John Monfredo was a principal at Belmont Street School -with students from one of our city's poorest neighborhoods. The results he achieved, was nothing less than spectacular!

Belmont was recognized as a Governor's Honor Roll School
Belmont was selected as a Demonstration Site for other schools across the region by the National Follow-through Project
Belmont's innovative home reading program was featured on TV's Discovery Channel

For his outstanding leadership and vision, John received numerous prestigious awards.

Administrator of the Year
Worcester Public Schools Hall of Fame
Thomas Green Award
Worcester State College Alumni Award in the field of education

With his experience, its no wonder he's a great member of the School Committee.

(Here's a tricky one - the name of the school where he was the principal is wrong! The actual name is "Belmont Street Community School." I'll leave you to find the glaring grammatical errors on your own.)

I have a hard time voting anyone onto the school committee who can't send out a flier without mistakes a 4th grader should be able to catch. (Then again, part of the impetus for our taking Rowan out of Flagg Street School - yes, one of the best schools in the city as everyone gasps when we mention it - was the array of grammatical mistakes sent home each month in the "Principal's Newsletter." I sent one back all marked in red once; I'm sure they were loving me. But seriously, how do you expect the 3rd graders to care about the difference between its and it's or there/their/they're when the *principal* can't even figure it out (and I mentioned on that note I sent in all marked up that I realize it probably wasn't actually the principal writing the newsletter or even editing it, but if it's going out under his name, he should be sure the person proofreading it has at least a 6th grade education - the level the school went up to).

I'm sure my own blog is full of similar mistakes - they're easy to make when you're typing quickly and all (I actually know I've seen some, like where instead of wear in some entry I was reading recently), but if I were sending fliers of my blog to encourage people to vote for me to help run the schools, I sure as hell would do a better job proofreading it! (Heck, I'd *start* proofreading it, that would be the first step.)

Ah, well, at least they're not running Rowan's school!

Adventures in horseback riding (and other Weller adventures)

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:03:00 +0000

First, before I forget, I just noticed that this is going to be my 200th post to the blog. Which sounds like a nice impressive number until I realize that in January, I'll have been at this for 7 years. Unfortunately, Gary never took me up on adding entries of his own, but maybe someday Rowan will.

Anyhow, so this past weekend Rowan had the Best Day EVER, basically, as she got to go to a Girl Scout event all about Horses. This is her dream come true - she's been reading about and obsessing about horses for ages now. She has ridden in a circle on pony rides and at one of Jessica's birthday parties, but this was 2.5 hours of learning how to groom a horse, how to care for a horse, about different horse riding equipment, then the crowning glory - riding around a ring on a horse *without* someone else guiding it (well, the woman from the barn walked alongside to keep things under control and prod the poor thing along when it got confused by what the riders wanted it to do, but it was generally under the girls' control).

She had a blast. Of course, we finally had to say "ENOUGH!" about asking us for riding lessons every 5 minutes on the way home. It was so funny to watch her, though, as soon as they let them in the barn, the girls were all crowding around the horses, touching them, just wanting to be in their presence. While listening to instructions they'd just stand there with at least one hand on the horse at all times. Too cute.

There are several pictures - click on the photo below if you want to see more:

Otherwise, things are going well. Gary and Rowan went to a Peace Vigil at our church last week (I can't remember why I didn't go, just that I didn't). There was a drummer there that we'd (Rowan and I) seen at one of the services last year who is amazing (I explained it to someone like this - "he got our congregation to clap. In synch. In two separate formations at the same time. Seriously, that's a big accomplishment!"). I'm not really drawn to the whole "spiritual drumming" thing, but I could see where someone could get into it.

Because of the field hockey schedule, we've been missing church most weeks (we did squeak in and out one day since it was the formal kick-off of Rowan's class), and will continue to until November. It's so strange to not go, but it's going to be even rougher getting back into the habit of going in November since we're now on a two-service schedule and we plan to attend the earlier service. (Hrmm, maybe it's time to reconsider the 11am service!)

Rowan's enjoying field hockey much more now that she's able to move the ball (little things like that help your game ;-)), and has said she wants to do it again in the future after the session ends in November. I am thinking of taking her to see a game at my old high school this week (which kind of makes me twitch) so she can see what a "real" game looks like. I don't know if she's any good at it, but she's having fun and it gets her running around for the better part of hours on Sundays, so I'm all for it. She's also enjoying her dance classes; last week was the last chance to decide to drop a class before having to commit to the recital - and pay the costume fee - and she was enthusiastic about continuing. She would be willing to drop ballet and said she'd asked her teacher if they were allowed to since I'd told her she "has to" take it, but my rule is that if she is going to do any dance, she has to include ballet, too.

My Daisy Girl Scout troop started up 3 weeks ago; we've had two regular meetings (after one parent/girl meeting to introduce myself and the troop). Oh my gosh, they're SO cute. I enjoyed working with Brownies a lot because they're so eager to try new things, but that goes a million times more for the Daisies (they're in kindergarten - next year Daisies will be kindergarten and first graders). Rowan has been at the meetings so far helping out to work on her Junior Aide Patch and has been a good help once I've provided clear guidelines about what she needs to do (and after the first meeting where I had to remind her that she's there to help and set a good example, not to get the girls *more* riled up when they start going crazy). I gave out info to all the girls in her troop about the chance to earn the Jr. Aide Patch if they want to by helping me this year (they need to come 3 times and lead an activity each time), and while several sounded interested at first, none have followed up. Oh well, we'll see what happens. I need to contact the other Jr. troop in the area to offer it to them.

Ah well, time to finish the nightly duties and head to bed!

Yay, found time!

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:03:00 +0000

Little rocks my world more these days than an extra unscheduled hour - and I got just that tonight as a Girl Scout training I'd signed up for which was listed as being from 7-10pm was actually only from 7-9.

For the past week or so I've been spending more time at this computer than anywhere else between preparing Girl Scout stuff and working from home, plus just keeping up with my usual online time suckers. That is definitely one downside to working at home (that and the lack of people to talk to during the day, pity anyone who calls me! And this is coming from someone who hates the phone).

Which actually is an interesting topic - working from home - since right now I'm being given the choice of staying at home or moving back to the office when we relocate later this month. It's a harder question than most people would assume; I mean, all day long when I was on the phones I was fielding calls from people looking for information on how to find a job that let them work at home. But the reality is it takes so much mental discipline to stay focused and not let myself say "oh, I'll take a half hour now to do laundry and make it up later" and then be doing more work at 11pm at night. Some days I'm totally "oooh, something shiny!" distractable, and at least in my office there wasn't much to distract me other than another work project. I just end up hurting myself, of course. (At least I'm honest enough that if I take an hour off in the middle of the day for something shiny, I go back and do that hour later, but it is rough.) Oh, and I have to keep my desk cleaned off!

On the other hand, it's soooo much easier working at home - I don't have to worry about proper office wear, I don't have to leave half an hour before work to get to an office 5 minutes from my house because of the bus, I don't have to go through rain and sleet and snow. . . When Rowan has a day off, I don't have to scramble to find someplace to send her. I can listen to the music I like as loud as I like.

So, I told them I wanted to continue working from home, and everyone seems okay with that. Hopefully I can buckle down and just do my hours in a row and things will be easier. And now that the beginning of the Girl Scout year is planned out, that should also alleviate a little of the time I spend on this box.

Now if only I could get over all of those other time wasters!

Oh, and remember a few posts back I threw a little hissy fit over every thing about Rowan's school that's driving me crazy? Add one more thing to the list - they just sent home a notice last week announcing they've added 7 more half days to the year. It would be so much easier to just have 3 or 4 more days off, but nope, 7 half days. Seven Wednesdays across the year. Including a half day the day Wednesday after Thanksgiving (they already have a half day the day before Thanksgiving that was previously scheduled - every other school has that whole day off, but hers has a half day).

Why the big stink over half days? Because nothing gets done. It might as well be a day off, because all their classes are so shortened they end up playing games. I'm hoping that with this ridiculous addition they'll do more on those days, but I'm not holding my breath. They don't get anything out of the half days other than the power to say their kids go to school X number of days more than the public schools (hers is a charter school), but if you combined each of the half days to make single days, at this point I'm willing to bet they go fewer than the rest.

Google Image Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 01:52:00 +0000

What can I say, I was looking for something to post that didn't involve many words.

The Google Image Meme (variation #1 of the 3 I've seen) - go to http://images.google.com and type the items requested below into the search bar without quotation marks. Post the first image result below (goodness, I can't figure out which is worse - to link directly or to save it to my photobucket page... if you find your own image here, accept my apologies and let me know if you'd like it to go away!):

The city you were born in:

The city you live in now:

(Er, look up a line - it's the same)

Your first and last name:

Your Grandmother's name:

Your favorite food:

Your favorite drink:

Your favorite song (there are actually way too many, but this is the most recent favorite):

Your favorite smell:

It's just another manic Monday. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:09:00 +0000

Ugh, now I know I won't have that song out of my head for days. There really are times I wish I didn't think in song lyrics and quotes from "The Simpsons." (It would probably make me seem a lot less unbalanced to many people around me, too!)

So, Rowan's back at the 4-7 dance class block, I've cleaned the bathroom (my major goal for that time today, I'm such a go-getter) and it's too early to start dinner, so I figured I'd take a moment to write. Maybe this crazy schedule will at least get me back to writing regularly (maybe someday I'll write more than blog entries in that time. And maybe someone will arrive at my house and stick a diamond tiara on my head and make me Queen of the World, right?).

Week four back at school started off with a bang - from a slammed door - and a lot of tears. I'm not quite sure what the problem was as I was just getting up as it was reaching crescendo, but as far as I can tell, it involved cold clothes to put on, refrigerator doors that bump noses (certainly not the fault of the person opening the door), and no time to do the hair. Oy. And more tears out the door. Yes, folks, the bright shiny newness of middle school seems to have officially worn off.

While we had a nice time in Maine this weekend, I still feel like I could use a vacation - it just isn't long enough to really relax, stressing about making breakfast on Sunday morning kept me from really de-stressing entirely on Saturday, and it was pretty yucky weather on Saturday which ruined the "lay around on the beach reading all this great stuff I brought to read while Rowan plays" plan. It wasn't horrible weather, the kids at least could play outside, albeit getting a little wet in the process - but I remember the days that getting wet wasn't an acceptable excuse not to venture outside - but it wasn't quite what I'd hoped for. Sunday was sunny, but it was pretty cold and we left shortly after lunch.

If Rowan and I weren't already booked for Texas in February, I'd be investigating somewhere nice and warm to get away by myself, because it's only September and already I'm feeling chilled all the time - it's going to be a long winter, I fear.

And, again, since no one came and yelled at me and told me I wasn't allowed to play in their sandbox, another set of questions courtesy of Monday Madness (and a set of answers courtesy of Fred's two feet, er, or Heather's brain if you'd prefer).

1. What was your biggest challenge this past week?
Being in charge of that meal at Ferry Beach - I am great at organizing things (besides my house, as Gary would be quick to point out), but cooking is outside my comfort zone. I imagined all sorts of disasters (including massive food poisoning, forgetting a key ingredient, dropping all 70 eggs on the floor. . .).

2. What was your biggest accomplishment this past week?
Dare I say... the meal? It went well, no one got food poisoning, no eggs were lost, all ingredients made it safely (we ran out of milk for the cereal, but someone ran out and got some - since I was using powdered milk in my recipes, I didn't think about it ahead of time and there wasn't enough left over after Saturday). I had an awesome set of people working with me and I truly wouldn't have been able to do it without them (especially the one who had an innate ability to keep track of the timing on every tray of food that went into the oven at a separate time and know when to pull them out!).

3. What was the most exciting thing that happened in your life this past week?
Wow, this one is stumping me. It wasn't a particularly exciting week! I voted, I'm such a geek to admit this, but I still get a little thrill each time I vote (even if I'm not even remotely thrilled with the candidates).

4. What one thing made you the happiest this past week?
Reconnecting with various people.

Monday Madness

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:50:00 +0000

Well, it's the third week of school, but the real start of the mad rush that is our "school year lives." The first week is laid back, the second week has Labor Day, but now... now we're back to homework assignments and after school activities. We dropped Rowan off at dance class about an hour ago and won't go get her for another 2 (she has class from 4-5, a break, then 6-7, but it's just not worth getting her between them, so she's going to stay and work on homework and other busy work she brought to entertain herself - at least the studios have closed circuit TV's so she can watch the other classes if she's bored senseless. It's amazing how flickering pictures on a TV screen will mesmerize her).

So, basically on Mondays we see her getting ready in the morning, then she goes to school, I see her for about 10 minutes getting ready (quickly!!) for dance, then we pick her up at 7, eat dinner, finish the getting ready for bed routine, and that's it. It's kind of crazy.

Tomorrow is her first day of Girl Scouts; I've agreed to help out for the September meetings, so this should be a good reminder of why I'm a Leader in an entirely different troop. ;-) It's so hard, because I know I expect a million times more from her than any other girl.

I agreed to be in charge of breakfast on Sunday for our church's annual retreat to Ferry Beach in Maine. Um, wait, I hate cooking for 3 people, now I'm overseeing cooking for 125?! Okay, I don't know what I was thinking, but there we go. So, that's weighing heavily on my mind this week - making sure we have enough food, not too much food, transporting it, storing it... I may need a retreat to recover from stressing myself out about the retreat!

Rowan had her first field hockey session yesterday, and, well, it could have gone better, but I guess it could have gone worse! She was SO upset and frustrated early on because she was struggling to keep up, since most of the girls she was with played last year or at least had some experience beforehand. She literally had only touched a stick the day before for the first time to take it home from the store - I know nothing of the game to have helped prep her. She was muddling through but broke down when they were about to start relay races. One of the coaches was really wonderful with her, though, took her to the side, tried to calm her down and promised to work with her when she wanted to. She had to come talk to me a few minutes before getting back into the action, get a hug, be told she could NOT quit after 45 minutes, but she only had to last through November and if she hates it, she never has to do it again. I told her the best thing she could do was get back in and watch to learn what she needed to practice so she could do so at home. She did go back and at the end she said she was glad she went back and that she enjoyed it, but needed to practice. So, I guess it went well overall, but it was just heartbreaking watching her totally struggle to just move the ball forward while the other girls were running, turning, etc. around without problems. (Field hockey is an odd game to try to pick up, it requires you to turn your body in all sorts of odd positions to keep the stick in the proper position, at least from what I could see on the sidelines!)

And, finally, a little meme courtesy of another source of Monday Madness:

1. Do you have children in school? Haven't you been reading? ;-) Yes, Rowan is in 5th grade.

2. Are YOU currently in school (any level)? Nope.

3. Did you (or your children) attend a public or private school? Rowan goes to a charter school, which is a public school operated independently of the local school board - it's funded through the same funds, but administered separately.

I attended public school through middle school, then went to a private (Catholic, all-girls, heh) school for high school, just because I knew it would be a better educational experience (and one of my best friends was going...). It was a miserable experience in a lot of ways, but it really did serve me well educationally.

4. As far as formal education, what level have you completed? I have like 3.5 years worth of college credits, but never finished my degree. It annoys me every time I have to fill out a form that asks for my highest level of education because I want to say "Associates Degree" - since at least it sounds like I finished *something* - considering I have more than enough credits for one, but nope, I have to just say "some college."

5. Do you, or did you have loans out for your (or your children's) education? I did for college, finally paid them all off a few years back.

6. What are your thoughts on the cost of tuition for colleges and universities? Yay, expensive! Seriously, it's scary, but it's reality, so I don't give it a whole ton of thought other than wishing Rowan would become a virtuoso at something, quickly! ;-)

Me and Gary, nearly blowing away (photo taken by Rowan):

Oh, before I go, I have to share this link to the story accompanying funniest photo our newspaper has featured in a long time. Seriously, look at the picture - click on it to see it larger. I keep looking at it (it was on the front page, so it was one of the first things I saw this morning) and it *still* cracks me up each time. Some people take mushrooms very, very seriously.

We're Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:41:00 +0000

OK, so I've been a bit out of touch with some of y'all, really, all is well. Rowan had a fantabulous time in New York, came home Saturday (apparently sobbing and having a total hysterical fit when she had to leave) and went back to school on Monday. So far so good, though they've also had no real homework, so I truly expect things to get dicier as the year goes on! (I say no "real" homework because she did have to bring in "something related to social studies" one night and cover her books another night.)

Things that are annoying me about her school right now:

The supply list is rarely exact. For instance, they said the kids needed a zippered binder this year, I figured for paper and folders. They also have 6 class notebooks they have to have, which are expected to go in the folder, so basically, they needed 3" or more wide zippered binders (which are NOT cheap). We didn't realize this when we bought her a spiffy personalized zippered binder that was perfectly lovely. . . but doesn't fit her notebooks! Ugh. And the book covers. Did they mention them on the supply list so I could have bought them when they were on sale a week ago? Nope, of course not! (And Rowan nearly freaked when I mentioned perhaps covering them with paper bags - I guess that's just NOT done these days!)

The uniform. Now, don't get me wrong, I *love* that they are required to wear uniforms, but this particular uniform, ugh! Requirement for gym class: black sneakers with white bottoms. We went to every flipping shoe store in the area and nothing. We finally gave up and bought her Converse high top Chuck Taylors (which make me all warm and nostalgic thinking about my first pair), which are black and have a white band around the bottom, but the actual sole of the shoe is that natural rubber color. If they say a word, I will go postal on them. Or at least tell them they are to tell me where to purchase freaking black sneakers with white bottoms.

They are allowed to wear a sweater (from October 15 - April 15, heaven forbid they get cold on October 14th!), but it has to be solid... gray. Solid gray little girls sweaters? And it can't be a sweatshirt material. I finally found one on eBay but it was ridiculous. The uniform store they suggest purchasing from went out of business a year ago, and none of the others they recommended that I tried had it.

The bottoms have to be pants or a skirt that reaches the knees - no higher, no lower. It's 2007, even the places that stock uniforms rarely have that length, and even less likely are they to have it in black.

The shirt, until this year could be white or light blue, they changed it this year to light blue only. Now, I don't really care about this since we were new to the middle school uniform anyhow, but right on the same page where they announce this change is the same line that's been on all of our uniform lists for years: "The Principal/assistant principal reserves the right to make minor changes to the uniform guidelines to enforce the spirit of the dress code. The color and style of the uniforms will not be altered; however, provisions for jewelry and hair are subject to change." Um, no more white shirts seems like a color change to me!

In middle school, they're allowed to wear "tasteful" makeup and nail polish "as defined by the school." Wow, way to be detailed there. (Again, doesn't *really* matter to us because Rowan is so NOT allowed to wear make up anytime soon, but I hate wishy washy things like that).

Water. In the lower school, they were allowed to bring a clear water bottle to class. In middle school, they can only bring a water bottle to leave in their locker. What the heck good does that do? Especially on a day like today when it was 90 degrees and the fans in their class stopped working (the school is an old factory building and if it's like the elementary building, it's hot as hades).

Lockers with no locks. They're not allowed to bring locks or lock them. They're not allowed to carry anything with them beyond the books to class. The school isn't responsible for anything that's stolen. Do you see something of a black hole here?? I don't *think* they have much of a theft problem, but seriously, why not just let them have locks if they want them with the understanding they can be cut off if the school needs to get in. Weirdness.

Wow, I do hope her teachers don't stumble on this, they'll have me written off before I even meet any of them!

Well, at least she's still cute in the uniform:

As for me, well, life goes on. I spent the evening at a Girl Scout training - this one for campfire cooking. We got to try all different ways of cooking and a whole bunch of new recipes beyond the normal stuff we usually go back to with the troop. It was busy as could be, with two groups of 5 GS Leaders each making 5 recipes in a short period of time, but it all came together. And I came home smelling like a campfire, which always makes me smile.

We're all very much looking forward to this 3-day weekend, and I know I sure as heck plan to sleep very, very late on Saturday! :-)

It's over, whaaa

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 02:48:00 +0000

I am so not ready to "go back" to work tomorrow. Yeah, it's all of walking 10 feet across the room to get to work, but still... my mind is still in vacation mode. I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it.

Rowan's already at my mother's; they're leaving in the morning to spend the week at my grandmother's, and I'm sorely tempted to run off with them. I mean, if I could work from home, couldn't I work from my grandma's?? Well, okay, so she doesn't own a computer...

So, another week without Rowan. She's coming home on Saturday, then goes back to school Monday. As a 5th grader, she's considered in "middle school" now, new building (next door to the old one), new buses, new uniform, a locker! I can't get over her growing up, how does this happen?? She'll be doing an 8 or 10 week (can't remember, and I'm not going to go count right now) Field Hockey instructional league in the fall, on Sunday mornings, she'll be taking 3 dance classes a week (ballet, hip hop, and jazz), and another year of Girl Scouts, and already my Google calendar for September is a wild thing to look at. I always pick one day a week that we won't schedule regular things for, and this year it's Wednesdays, so the calendar is really funny, it looks like there's this tunnel down the middle. But, truly, it's my sanity keeper - at least one night a week where we're all home, eating at a reasonable time, and having a chance to catch up on stuff that got put aside the other days. I bought a new wall calendar - it's a 2008 but starts in August (I never quite understood this - so do I replace it next year with the next one in August or January??), and now I need to transfer the stuff from the current one to it. We're already scheduling 2008 stuff (oh, guess that's the answer to the next year question!), so I needed to get ahead. I swear I spend more time transferring stuff from one calendar to another, but Rowan relies on the wall calendar, I use the Google one so Gary and I can both access it almost anywhere, and I have one in my pocketbook so I can make appointments and plans when I'm not by a computer. Ah, well, at least I rarely forget things! (Blow them off, maybe, but forget them, no!)

We spent some time today hiking around in Moore State Park. I was sorely tempted to sit at home doing nothing, but it didn't feel right to waste our last day of freedom (it's really not the work thing that has me so overwhelmed, it's realizing how soon we'll be back on the school year hamster wheel). I'm glad we went, it was a beautiful day to be out there, cool enough to be comfortable, not too buggy. Rowan got to ride her bike around the road and a little on one trail, but then it got too steep and rocky, so we (read: Gary) ended up carrying it. I was amazed at how many people were there; the past times we've gone, we only ran into one or two other people or families. This time there were people everywhere we turned around once we were out of the hiking trails. Sadly, I realized most of the way there that we'd forgotten the camera (at least we we remembered the bug spray this time!), so no photographic evidence exists.

Oh, speaking of photos, the other night we had a huge thunderstorm, and it took a few hundred photos, but I did get one usable one of the lightning! (Thank goodness for digital cameras!)

Ah, well, vacation is over, bed beckons... Life is about to come crashing back down upon us.

Shameful Addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:40:00 +0000

My name is Heather, and I have a problem. I can't stop visiting Yahoo! Answers. Seriously, I have all sorts of useless info in my head, and now I can't stop sharing it. I'm embarrassed at how many points I've racked up this week! (On the plus side, I've had several "best answers" so yay me!)

Vacation has been fun, I really can't believe Rowan will be back at school in 10 days. Crazy, crazy, crazy! I also can't believe I have to get back into normal sleeping patterns, I've been staying up much too late (reading for fun, but now I'm out of reading material - and of course, there's always Y! Answers to occupy the time!), and sleeping until 9-10am each morning. It's going to be rough going back to getting up at 7, and I've been hoping to start getting up at 6 when Rowan returns to school.

Yeah, yeah, get yourself a hat and join my pity party.

Vacation: Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:50:00 +0000

Actually, it's Day 2, since I took Friday off to be extra decadent (actually, I took Friday off because back in Feb. when I was planning vacation, we were anticipating maybe going off somewhere and I wanted a chance to calmly prepare before the mad rush. Plans change, though...). I don't include the weekend, since I'd be off then anyhow, so don't worry too much about my addled self forgetting Saturday and Sunday.

So, Day 1 for the family vacation (Gary and Rowan did not have the luxury of Friday off)... We didn't go on any real trips, but we did have quite the adventure. We now (well, contingent on signing the final papers tomorrow and getting the keys) own (cue game show host voice) "a new [to us] car!"

Yes, that IS a station wagon. It's funny, a while back I mentioned that I would like our next car to be a station wagon and Gary got this queasy look on his face. I figured it was some sort of manly thing, but later probing determined that he actually was picturing those old 80s station wagons with the fake wood paneling and no safety features. Once I started pointing out contemporary station wagons, the idea wasn't as bad.

This is a nice compromise between the sedan (which was usually fine for us, but every now and then we just didn't have enough room - camping was a nightmare, we had to rent a vehicle to take Rowan and Jessica to camp since all their stuff wouldn't fit [at least, not if we wanted to take the girls, too!], etc.) and a minivan which would be overkill most of the time for a family of three. Rowan's very excited to someday get to sit in the way back, since this comes with (the world's easiest to) fold down/up rear-facing back row seats for two - WITH a shoulder belt! (She was a little annoyed she can't sit in the middle of the normal back seat since that only has a lap belt.) Gary's excited because it has cruise control, accelerates well, and has a CD player!

It's a 2004, and we ran a Carfax report on it which checked out okay and the dealership we dealt with has an outstanding reputation (the benefit of my job is I get a *real* idea what's going on at the local dealerships!). I feel so bad comparing this relatively easy experience (it's not all sunshine and lollipops, we're a bit stressed at having to adapt to a car payment again among other things!) with Hessie's misadventures in car buying!

It's like the planets aligned, though, because our current (for the next 20 hours) car is nearing the end of its natural life and its decline has been accelerating rapidly in the past week. I've been keeping an eye out for the Taurus wagon at an affordable price on and off for a while, and they're NOT easy to find (especially with the features we wanted - and this one had those and then some!), and suddenly the week we have the time to actively invest in this process, everything fell together. (And Rowan was quite the trooper sitting through all the boring adult conversations about titles and financing and such.)

I had my first driving lesson this past Saturday, so a new car is quite exciting to me, too. I didn't partake in the test drive, but I did sit in the drivers seat while we were parked and made sure I could see okay (don't need a phone book to see over the steering wheel ;-)). The feature that made me know this was meant to be our car? It has adjustable pedals, so I don't have to sit ON the steering wheel to reach! Yay!

Now, hopefully we won't go around spending quite this much EVERY day of our vacation, but it's off to quite a start. On the down side, since we knew this was coming, we decided not to do the major getaway we'd planned, or the camping we considered as well, but are going to visit some area attractions and state parks we haven't been to in a while or at all, and spend lots of time at the pool. It's supposed to be a gorgeous week (knock on wood!), so outdoors, here we come!

Rub his head for good luck

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:03:00 +0000

Before & After
Originally uploaded by hrw worcester

(Just testing the "Blog This!" tool on Flickr, I can't believe it never dawned on me to try it before.)