Over The Hedge
Now Playing: Not much of anything.
Topic: Family Fun
This afternoon my friend J and I went to take our rugrats to go see the movie "Over the Hedge" at the dollar movie theatre. This movie was hilarious. The animals were cute for the kids-but there was a lot for the adults to enjoy as well.

The basic premise is that this somewhat self-centered loner raccoon, RJ, ticks off this big bad bear by stealing all his food. The bear catches him in the act and tells RJ to replenish his supply in one week...or else. So RJ wanders off and finds this new subdivision populated by humans, and runs into a group of animals (2 possums, a porcupine family, a hyper squirrel, a skunk and a turtle named Vern) just waking up from their winter nap. He introduces them to trash cans, outdoor picnics, Girl Scout cookies (although they are not Girl Scouts in the movie) and other sources of "people food" and manipulates them into helping him gather food to pay back that mean ol' bear. However, the president of the homeowners association (who reminds me quite a bit of some adjacent landowners I used to know) hires this mean ol' exterminator to hunt down and destroy these cute animals (even the skunk is cute). At the appropriate time, mayhem ensues and everyone gets what they deserve in good ways and bad.

I fully intend to acquire this movie for my very own. On one level, my kids really digged it. Even Chowhound sat through about 3/4 of it before getting squirmy. On another level, though, I absolutely got a kick out of the animals' perception of how people live. There is a line in the movie about SUV's and how many people drive them that was dead-on. Meanwhile, my kids loved the squirrel popping out of a kid's birthday cake.

It's a Meterological Miracle!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: The kids are watching the Chipmunks movie and I'm ignoring it.
Topic: A whole lotta nothin'
The temperature today did NOT reach 100 degrees! Let's celebrate! I actually turned OFF the A.C. and OPENED a window and it's bearable! Pleasant, in fact. The faintest whiff of autumn is in the air. Anyone want to bet me that on Tuesday, pumpkins and Halloween stuff starts appearing in the stores?

I am so happy about this. The last two months the AC was on non-stop. Our electric bill was over $500 last month. Can you believe that? And that was with a new, more efficient AC and a new, more efficient hot water heater. I was stunned when I saw it. I sat at my desk with my mouth hitting the floor. I remember when a $300 electric bill was high. Now I'd love to have one that low. Just like I'd like gas to go down to $2 a gallon instead of the $2.71 it was the last time I got gas.

I Forgot The Cardinal Rule of Computers.
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: The Cube Farm
Which is....THE MORE COMPLICATED THE PROJECT, THE MORE FREQUENTLY YOU SAVE YOUR WORK! Every two minutes is good.

I was on fire today. I mean, I was chugging on the shapefiles for this map I was making. Everything was working the way it was supposed to, for once. The trace tool wasn't locking up, the colors were looking good, it was fantastic. I had such awesome momentum- I forgot to periodically go up to the "SAVE" option and save the darn thing. It was a beauty, let me tell you. Gorgeous.

And then the computer hiccuped....and bye, bye gorgeous map. Bye bye, two hours of hard labor. Oh, I was so mad. But what can you do- nothing! Suck it up and start over. It was an event that called for drowning frustrations with a chocolate chip cookie, only that's not an option right now. So I drowned my sorrows with a bottle of water.

After that, I attempted to recreate my masterpiece...but it just wasn't the same.

Psst.....wanna buy some wrapping paper, cheap?
Topic: Family Fun
Nuggets of RangerGrrl Commentary:

Well, the wrapping paper is not that cheap...ha ha...if school has started, that can only mean it is time for one thing- FUNDRAISER TIME! Groan! Moan! No! Support your public schools- buy some wrapping paper from the Banana.

It's also time for Overpriced School Portraits. And, since I have both Messy Monsters in public school- you can just double the cost of everything. Although, if those school portrait people can actually get Chowhound to sit still long enough to get a picture maybe I should gladly pay their fee. The kid has two speeds- asleep and Olympic Sprinter.

Watching a 6 year old write thank you notes is possibly one of the most agonizing responsibilities of parenting. And, to make matters worse, the kid criticizes the way I write my letters! Evidently, I am doing it all wrong! Wow, who knew? Apparently there is some newfangled method of printing the letter "K" and my old-fashioned way just ain't cuttin' it.

Enough commentary, time for rest and relaxation.

I've been deauthenticated.
Mood:  lazy
Topic: A whole lotta nothin'
I'm back at work full time, and I'm absolutely exhausted. This surgery business is definitely not for wussies.

When I log out of a certain program I use at work, I get the message "You have been deauthenticated". This cracks me up. Does this mean I am really someone else now, instead of the authentic, one and only, RangerGrrl? What's wrong with "You have successfully logged out"? Or, "Goodbye"? When I read that I'm deauthenticated, I feel rejected in some way, even though I'm the one who logged out in the first place. It makes me want to log back in and tell this program, you are not the boss. I am the boss. You cannot deauthenticate me, you are nothing! But then this particular program, which is known to hold grudges and balk when it is not coddled and treated like royalty, might take out its revenge on me. So I let it go.

Now, on a completely unrelated topic- the Banana had a fun birthday party, but it didn't work out the way we had planned, because 30 minutes before the big par-tay a big gray storm cloud shows up and throws down some thunder. So the spray park is closed for that reason. We move the festivities over to a nearby playground and pavilion and the girls proceed to throw ice and bottled water on each other, run around, and get a soccer game going. It never actually rained, and an hour after the park was closed the sun was out and the heat was on high. Emma was thrilled because she got, as a present, Fairytopia. If you have a 6 year old girl, you know what that is. If you don't, it's an annoying video/doll/book/etc. about a fairy who doesn't have any wings and she does some heroic deed and gets some, or something like that. I thought it would never be possible to find something even more cheesy and annoying than Strawberry Shortcake but it is!

Back to Work
Topic: The Cube Farm
Today was my first day back at work since my Gallbladder Gone Bad adventure. Only a half day, per the surgeon. It felt good to get out, sit in my cube, be productive for a short time. By noon I was ready to lay down and take a snooze. Actually, I fell asleep on the train going to work. Some kind fellow cube-farm dweller woke me up at the right station. I am forever grateful.

Now that I have abdominal scars, I seem to have joined some unspoken but omnipresent cube farm club called "Medical Adventures of the Common Man". For example, I had no idea that my co-worker M had lung surgery or that my other co-worker B had throat surgery. All morning I had visitors to my cube and after the initial courtesies it got down to substance, which invariably included statements like "when my sister had that surgery, it had ruptured and they had to cut her open and take all her abdominal organs out and clean them off" or "Then we had to go back to the hospital because the incision reopened after the cow head-butted her abdomen and it got infected". Where I work, what usually happens is that people in other cubes will overhear your conversation and wander over to chime in on the pretense that they're going to the coffee pot or coming over to ask you a work related question that needs an answer RIGHT NOW! and then they manage to get "sucked in" which was the intent in the first place, so these conversations generally take several detours- you start out talking gallbladder removal and the next thing you know, you're on the subject of Kim Jong Il and nuclear weapons development.

I also noticed that e-mail seems to have evolved into a living organism with the ability to multiply exponentially- even though I'd been checking the important stuff at home I still had 100's of unopened messages to check. It made me remember when I returned to work after having Emma to my in-box filled with over 2300 messages! It took me days to plow through that. What did we do before e-mail? Does anyone remember those days?

The pile of work was high but not unsurmountable...I think I can manage. Of course right now another crisis looms, which is the annual parenting experience known as the Offspring's Birthday Party. There may be a vent in the making....stay tuned.

Here it is...ta da
Mood:  hungry
Topic: Yummmm!


The Date and Dried Fig bread from Cooking Light August 2006. A little dry, quite dense- I'll probably make it again although I don't think it will be a staple.

Recipes I plan to try from Cooking Light
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Yummmm!
Today was not a good day, in terms of recovery- I think I overdid it yesterday and I woke up hurting. However, I did peruse my latest issue of Cooking Light and while there are not too many appealing recipes in there this month, I did find a few that look tempting:

Fig, Date and Walnut quick bread
Banana Cream Pie smoothie
Grilled Shrimp and Spinach salad with Honey Vinaigrette
Seared Tofu with gingered vegetables
Broccoli and Parmesan casserole
Potato, Corn and Leek chowder

I think I might try the seared tofu tomorrow night for dinner. It looks easy enough and the picture looks delicious. Of course no one else will eat tofu in this house (maybe Angel the Mutt will).

Think I'll pass on the Super Size...for now
Mood:  lazy
Topic: A whole lotta nothin'
One aspect of recovering from abdominal surgery- you lay around the house a lot exempt from most duties because you cannot lift anything heavier than a glass of water. It says so right on the post-op instructions. Woe be to the woman who attempts to violate that stricture before healing is complete...just trust me on that one.

So the other day I was laying on the sofa watching a movie called "Super Size Me". I'd seen it before but now that I've been advised to think twice before consuming food high in fat content (and there's a good reason for that one too...just trust me)the whole commentary on how fast food has contributed to obesity and other health problems in America was of renewed interest. I don't blame McDonald's for my Gallbladder Gone Bad...I blame that on genetics ;-) (Just Kidding, MOM!).

As I watched it, I was swearing to myself- no more fast food. No more nuggets and fries (sorry kids...but don't worry, you can probably talk Daddy into the nuggets and fries place)I was also feeling guilty because I admit it, on a busy night I'm the stereotypical middle class American working mother pulling through the drive-thru with that grinning clown welcoming me and my kids screaming in ecstasy "NUGGETS AND FRIES! NUGGETS AND FRIES!" Now I am wondering, what have I done to my offspring? Will they be cursing me in fourty years when the liver is shot and the kidneys are fried? (by then I'll either be planning parks for Heaven or touring national parks in my RV, so their cursing will be in vain...but still).

I think they do put something in those nuggets that makes them addictive- I say this because Chowhound, who has his speech issues, has nevertheless picked up "Donalds" for his vocabulary, along with his other faves- "go swim", "chockit milk", "fire truck" and "go outside". He never says "carrots, please!" (too bad those Aggies can't isolate the agent in nuggets and apply that to carrots and broccoli so the next generation of preschoolers grows up craving cruciferous greens).

So I lay there on the sofa with my achy abdomen, swearing, no more crap. We will say YES! to organic veggies, tofu, fruit, whole grains and lean meats. McDonald's and Domino's- take a hike. Of course, I say that now. When I'm back at work and Steven is in class and the kids are whining "what's for dinner?" then we'll see. Can I resist the lure of fast cheap food? Will the young'uns wear me down? Stay tuned.

It's hard to believe she's 6.....going on 16
Yes, 6 years ago last night I was yelling at Steve to drive faster to the hospital so I could get my epidural. And now here is the Banana, all of 6 years old, standing at the kitchen table with her friend R trying to get a Pegasus Barbie out of the impossible plastic packaging they put those toys in.

Last night we took her and R (and Chowhound) to the Rainforest Cafe for a special birthday dinner. We ordered her a volcano dessert for a special treat and her eyes lit up when she saw that huge mound of ice cream and cake with the sparkler lit in the middle. Ten minutes later, in the bathroom, I looked at the Banana and realized she'd used a sparkle pen to put "eyeshadow" on her eyelids.

Yep, the Banana is now 6- first grader, soccer player, ballerina, soon to be Girl Scout, swimmer extraordinaire, queen regnant in training. Future veterinarian/doctor/engineer/high maintenance girlfriend (boys, save your money- she likes expensive shoes and high dollar restaurants). The girl has personality X 2 and big plans. Watch out world. She's on her way in her Sleeping Beauty dress-up and high-heel Belle shoes with her missing front tooth to kick some serious butt.