The weather is cruel. All day yesterday it was cold and windy. It dropped back down to the 20s. I think our high yesterday was somewhere in the 40s and maybe a bit lower with the windchill. Today is supposed to be better. It will get into the upper 50s, whoo. By tomorrow though, it is supposed to be back to the 70s. Thank goodness for that. It's April tomorrow, it should be a bit warmer, lol.

Today has been a fun day of catching up on tasks so far. Thank you notes, bills, college savings plans (lol), the list goes on. I need to get to some javascript that has been bothering me. I still want to find a vacation to take too, but I haven't had the patience to really dig into it. I tried a few times over the weekend, but I just wasn't excited about it. Probably because I am so bogged down with my schedule.

Speaking of which, we have the first class of training next week, and rehearsal tomorrow night. I think from now on, we will be having rehearsal twice a week at least. We will miss the week of my birthday because we will be in Peoria, but apparently that's okay. The next week after that is the dress rehearsals, then opening. It feels like it is tomorrow. : ) See? April is already over for me before it even starts. Might as well get started on May. ; )

Okay - nap time on a Saturday. The question is: to nap or not to nap - will he or won't he? We went to Savoy for the free kid's matinee; it was Ice Age. Cute movie. Even cuter is when Jack laughs without realizing how freely he is laughing. I don't think I will ever get tired of hearing that.

His cheeks were so red (from being tired) by the time we left though, that I decided we would come home and try for naps. He probably won't sleep though. I don't know how he does it. He's tired, he's in a bed - for 2 hours - and doesn't fall asleep. Just wait til he hits high school and college. I guess the love of sleep doesn't kick in until then. I've always had it though. ; )

Yesterday was a very dull day I guess. I got to work, and I was the only one there. I guess everyone else decided they were on spring break too. It was very quiet. The upside, I got to listen to my music without headphones. Yay!

Oops, I need to go see who is at the Barge. That's where a lot of my UPN linear buds went after UPN pulled the messageboard off of their site for Buffy. I haven't been there since then because of life in general, but with the show ending, I want to make sure we stay in touch. UPN Bronzers rock my socks! ; ) Tutus, tiars, masseus, bartenders, the gutter couch, the potted plant by the back room door, the computer desk, Bob Barker the coffee table - all good times. : )

Ah well, the mike-uhler.com web site went live last night. So far, the reception from the crowd at the Common Ro board has been pretty positive. We'll see where it goes from here.

Just got done with training someone, which I had given an hour timeslot for, and I am back in 30 minutes. That's always nice, when things go smoothly.

Jack was in a pretty good mood this morning. He got to have a paper towel roll for crafts, so it doesn't get much better than that. ; ) We also had two toilet paper rolls empty, so he was able to make some binoculars again. The other pair he brought home from school last week, he had forgotten at the family information center when we went to register him for kindergarten.

Speaking of kindergarten, I was comparing notes with my friend Lisa last night because her son Drew is already in kindergarten this year. She made it sound like one of the schools I chose may not be the best idea, but I am hoping for the best. It has had some troubles before, and test scores are low (but all the schools seem to go down in their scores according to the school reports), but they are piloting a gifted program starting in kindergarten this coming year, and I would like for Jack to have that as early as possible. That school was our second choice, and our first choice was a school that emphasized music and arts, but it is one of the most requested schools, so we most likely won't get that one. The last choice is the school that offers foreign language. Maybe it is naive, but I am thinking that no matter which school Jack ends up at, as long as I am very involved, he will get the attention and challenges he needs. I don't plan on letting his education slip, regardless of what school he attends.

I really, really want to take a vacation. I feel so tied down because of the .NET classes and, less so, the play. I know I *can* fit a vacation in, but the task to plan it is daunting, so I just haven't sat down with my schedule yet. Maybe I will do that this afternoon. And, I want strawberries. What kind of evil grocery store has strawberries on sale for $1.38/lb but then has run out of them by 6pm?? Grr. Oh, and those dratted squirrels must've jumped on our new birdfeeder because the string it was hanging from broke, and I found the little plump critter chowing away at all the seed that spilled everywhere. Argh.

Yay for downloads! I was able to download a fairly small version of the new Buffy episode and watch it last night. : ) We had play rehearsal to practice the intro/dance scene for all the characters (except mine since I don't come in til the very end). The kids did a great job considering their ages range from 3 to 14 or so. The youngest is a little diva too. It was all very silly, but they ran through it about 5 times over the hour or so that we had, and by the end it was working pretty well. Unfortunately, they introduced the backstage door to the kids so that they could go backstage instead of crowding the sides after they were done, and Jack decided to get hurt. It never fails, lol. He just *had* to run back there, slipped, fell, hurt his tush. He's just lucky it wasn't his head. *sigh*

We got home a little before nine, and he was very tired. I keep encouraging him to take naps, but no luck so far. We are only going to be having more and more rehearsals and late nights, so I hope he decides he likes naps again soon.

Shelly was on IM when we got home, ready to talk Buffy, lol, but I had to put her in pain by making her wait til I watched the download. It was so good! Even at half-quality it was worth it. I can't believe there are only 5 episodes left now. Then it's over. Big time over. It's like Roswell all over again. ; )

I added the pictures from the digital camera to Jack's page just now. There are only a handful, but you get to see the food, gifts, Jack, etc. He really did have a great time. Uncle Frank's package came in the mail on Monday, and Grandma Joyce's arrived yesterday. Jack just loves getting mail, so it was a special treat for him to check the mail and see there was some for him. He loves the book and trucks. He also got an educational space toy from Aunt Trudy made by Scholastic. The funny thing - it has an error. It tells you that Jupiter has 16 moons, but Jack counted the moons on the illustration, and there are 17! *lol* He's such a smartypants. The galloping pony is still a favorite, as are the Jack Stone Legos of course. We've already read his new books (Thanks Bev!), and he likes to walk around in his art backpack and hat (Thanks Aimée & Craig!) even though the hat is a little small. He is on a school kick because I gave him my gown and cap for my graduation ceremony to play dress-up with. He likes to play "college." : )

Today is normally show-and-tell day for him, but he doesn't get to take anything. He told me he wasn't listening yesterday, so his teacher said he doesn't get to participate. So, we talked about consequences and things again. He knows when he does things wrong, because more often than not, he confesses or brings up the subject to me. I don't have to pry too much to find out how his day went and if anything bad happened. Hopefully, that won't change anytime soon.

Work is work. There doesn't seem to be anything special going on right now. I have a small training session to give tomorrow. We have the first of the .NET classes in the second week of April. My own classes start close to the end of April. We will be spending that week in Peoria. Our Director's retirement party is that Friday though, so I may have to drive home and back again a couple of times. Ick. I'd hate to miss it though. They still haven't found a replacement for him. That is not good.

Time to get back to it ...

Tuesday is definitely looking better than Monday. I don't know why, but yesterday just sucked.

I posted an article I really like on the main page of the site today. It appeared in the Daily Illini a while back in the Opinions pages. It's from a writer in Texas of all places. I was just amazed to see in print the things I think on a daily basis. It was so cool. I need to remember to send her a note. She rocks.

Jack and I got some more plants yesterday for the bigger flowerbed. I couldn't believe how many rocks and roots are over there. I dug and pulled, but I had to just be satisfied with its current state. The plants from last year are started to come up, and I am afraid I will destroy them if I keep at it. So, from here on out, it's weeding the stuff out that I don't want and hoping that the new plants survive. I also dug up the peony plants at the corner of the house. I really, really dislike those. Just like shrimp. Mom would understand. For some reason those are two things that I really dislike after living on Loren. But then again, it could also be due to the ants they attract and the fact that I am just not a seafood person. ; )

Mike's site is still coming along. Lael and I are trying to get the finishing touches up there. And guess what, I think I am already tired of the current design! *lol* Oh well. Hopefully that means I will be struck with some inspiration for the next one.

We have play rehearsal tonight. At least, we should. The schedule says "dance," and I believe that includes Jack because it is the entrance of the entire casts in the early scene. We will have rehearsal again on Thursday for his lines. This is the week we are supposed to be off book, and Jack has no problem with that. I need to make sure I will have no problems too. ; )

Ack, almost lost my post there. Need to see about getting the new Buffy since I won't be home to see it tonight - and no VCR. Maybe someday I will give in and buy one, but for now, I refuse to go backwards! *lol*

I am so tired! The party was fun. Shaila's mom called to say she would be here, but she was the only friend that came. That's okay though because Jack and Shaila have so much fun and energy together that I don't know if the poor house could've handled more kids! *lol*

Everyone liked the cake, even though preparing it was something of a disaster. I baked it in a round bowl since it was supposed to be an igloo, but I don't think I let it cool long enough, or maybe I was supposed to turn it upside down sooner or something because when I went to get it out of the bowl, it fell in half! I could still use it, but icing was not working too great - chunks of cake kept falling off with the icing. Thankfully, the marshmellows served to cover up the mess that was the structure of the cake, and it actually looked okay. I made rice krispie treats with coconut and blue sprinkles on top. I also had added some coconut to the white cake, and that made it taste really good. The blue koolaid was a hit with the kids, and Jack had a blue moustache the whole time, and Shaila had a blue tongue, hehe.

The kids played back and forth betweem the livingroom and his room. The adults had some conversation and listened to "The Big Fear." During Prime Time, I had Jack come in to dance with me. They were so silly. Oh, and the tent as the igloo was a big hit. We had spread the blue easter grass everywhere, and I put about 10 balloons in the tent too - which immediately came out. ; )

The mailman came, and at first we thought he didn't have any packages (most hadn't arrived yet), but then he stopped the truck and Jack went running out to get the box, lol. It was too cute.

The penguin masks were funny, and Jack even showed us his waddle. I made him a baton out of one of the wrapping paper tubes, with stickers all over it and easter grass sticking out of one end. Oh! And, the bubble machine was on the front porch sending bubbles through the nieghborhood. The weather did stay dry, but it was very breezy, so we stayed inside.

Man, I am yawning here. : ) I guess I'd better get back to cleaning before I get too tired and skip it for the night. Will get those pictures up soon.

Oh, and I should have pictures from the party on here soon enough afterwards because I have a digital camera on hand. : )

Ack, I haven't posted for a few days. We've been very busy, trying to make sure I have everything for his birthday party and working outside when it is not raining. It's still pretty early, and I have gotten about 1/3 of the party stuff done. I am thinking it will all be done on time. Unfortunately, we are at war. It started Wednesday night, ironically enough, after I had posted that morning about thinking I had missed it starting. In fact, they interrupted a new episode of Angel, very pivotal one mind you, at the last 10 minutes to cut to CNN (when this is a WB show, eh?) and tell us to wait for 30-45 minutes for a 4 minute statement from the president. Okay, that couldn't have waited 10 more minutes, and tell us to wait for 20 minutes? Argh.

Work is going fine. I have been working on a few random ideas, and new stuff is always fun.

Mike's web site is coming along too. I think Lael and I will have it ready for launch tomorrow. Although, I am already growing tired of this design. I have a feeling we will move on to Step 2.0 soon enough after launch. Not that I have any idea what Step 2.0 looks like, but still.

Okay - time to go check on the cake, etc. : )

Rehearsal last night went really well. It was rather painless despite a couple of boys being just a little bit too goofy. Turns out they are brothers, so that explains a lot. : ) We even finished before 8:30, so that was nice. We had a few family calls on the way home and later for Jack's birthday. He had a message from Aunt Aimée, Uncle Craig, and Ethan on the machine at home. He had a post waiting from Aunt Trudy, and maybe even an ecard in his Inbox, but we didn't have the computer on last night, so he will see them today. He even was serendaded on voicemail, lol! Lucky guy. He had a great day.

We did do Chevy's before rehearsal. Jack wore his crown in from school. They made him this really neat hat that had 5s along the top wear the points of a crown would normally be, Of course, there were five 5s. He handed it over when it came time for the sombrero naturally.

This morning I thought maybe I missed the war starting because I don't watch the news very often, and the radio station I happened upon was taking calls from people to talk about the "situation." Apparently, we have 300,000 troops moving into position to invade Iraq, and they are backed up by fighter helicopters I think they said. I don't know if I just don't understand it all, or what, but it seems like we are just asking for trouble. No other countries are really supporting this, the terror level has been brought up, and one of the advisor even said that these actions will likely encourage a terrorist attack. There are pictures of troops guarding areas, police checking cars, etc in the media, and I can't help but think that in the end, they won't be enough. Someone who wants to pull off a plan will get around them, somehow. There is just no way in my mind that we can cover every inch, every person in our country to protect it. Hopefully I will be proven wrong.

Well, that was depressing. Must be the grey, rainy day we are having. I need to go have my lunch.

Today is Jack's birthday! Yay! He is now a big 5 years old. Hard to imagine I am sure. : )

The day started off great. We gave the Grandmas calls, talk or left voicemails, and I sang him a silly rendition of "Happy Birthday," which you know he enjoyed. The silly is often better than the normal. : ) I didn't have any muffins, so I grabbed 5 marshmellows (from his cake ingredients for this weekend's party), put them in his cereal bowl surrounded by his cheerios, stuck in a candle in each, lit them, and he blew them out with one try! He even got to have one along with his usual breakfast of cereal and a breakfast bar. I figured the teachers would like it if I sent him to school on a breakfast of 5 marshmellows. The rest are safely tucked away in a ziplock so he can enjoy them at a later time. What fun is celebrating your birthday if you don't do it all day long ... or, for multiple days? : )

I got his clothes ready this morning, red sweats, and plain Hanes t-shirt. I decided he needed to wear a birthday shirt today. So, I grabbed his markers, put a book inside the shirt, and began doodling. I added a big 5 in the center, a smiley face, and star. Then, I handed the reins over to Jack so he could make the rest of the designs while I got ready for the day. He was very excited at this point.

We ran to the store on the way to school and picked up some treats for his class. We decided on these cookie face sandwiches from the bakery. They are really cute, made of two small chocolate chip cookies, with frosting in the middle, tilted to look like a mouth, two eyes on top out of frosting, and sugar confetti sprinkled all over. His friends were so cute when we got there. They were all saying "It's your birthday?!" - "Happy birthday Jack!" They just couldn't believe it, lol.

I also grabbed some strawberries, oranges, and bananas for the teachers and staff. I got them a card and wrote them a note. Jack has been at this same day care since he was 5 months old, and I wanted them to know how much I appreciated them all. Parenting may be a tough job, but teachers are the second wave, trying to model for our kids and help them be better people. I try to remember that and say thanks once in a while. I can't believe Jack will be "graduating" and saying goodbye in just 5 months to go to kindergarten.

Tonight, we have play practice, but I think we will go by Chevy's for an early dinner. Last year, Gma Rose was able to go with us and witness Jack's awe at the dessert and sombrero you get there when it's your birthday. I'd love to make it a tradition, at least until he tells me it's embarrassing, so we will be going there tonight before play practice. ; )

His party is this Saturday. We will be having a penguin/winter/ice/water theme this year. So far, I have planned an igloo cake, blue/white snacks, igloo building, penguin coloring, penguin mask making, bubbles, and goodies for the kids to take home like bath fizzies, stickers, and capsule animals (they expand when placed in hot water). Hopefully the nice weather will stick around so we can even do some of the party outside.

Well, that quick note turned into a long ramble pretty quickly, lol. Hope you are having a good week so far!

Happy Tuesday, Happy "day-after" St. Patrick's Day, and (most importantly) Happy Jack's Birthday Day! : ))

Wow, I can't believe I didn't post anything yesterday. We spent just about the entire time outside in the great weather. Jack got to play with the neighbors grandchildren, while I dug around in the smaller flowerbed. The person who owned the house before us just threw trash everywhere in the yard and elsewhere. He had also put plastic liners in the flowerbed, then dumped tons of rocks on top. I got rid of a lot of the rocks last year, some of the plastic, and added soil, but nothing could grow, except for weeds of course. So, I spent from about 10am until 4pm digging up the dirt and junk, tossing out rocks and garbage, relaying the border bricks along the border, etc. Jack was a big helper too. : ) We must've filled up his bucket about 30 times and taken the rocks to the end of the driveway to dump them out.

I thought this week was a new Buffy, but apparently it isn't. That's a good thing. We have play rehearsal tomorrow night, and I wasn't looking forward to missing the new episode, or waiting for it to download. The show is ending! It's important to catch the last 5 episodes, ever! *lol*

Oh, Happy St. Patrick's Day too. Jack was supposed to wear green to school today, and the green turtleneck wasn't good enough. He had to wear his green sweats too, lol, so he is just a big green fuzzy boy today. I hope he doesn't get too hot though because it's supposed to be upper 60s again today (Yay!). I spent my lunch outside, which was nice. No big emergencies so far today at work, and that is good. Oops, just remembered one more thing I needed to do this morning. Call Lisa. : )

Okay, home again. Had a nice lunch with Amy at Chevy's ... love that place. There were a couple of birthdays going on too, so I need to remember to take Jack, only we have play rehearsal on Tuesday night. Bad. New Buffy and Jack's actual birthday. Hm.

We went to the store, again, and got a few more things. The bubble machine works fine with regular bubbles, so I got an extra big jug. We still didn't find any rock candy or clear sugar, but we did get the marshmellows, one more present, and cereal to make rice krispies. I am going to use the extra marshmellows for that, then use blue food coloring or the blue sprinkles to make them have some blue too. Blue and white foods are the thing. I am thinking apples might work well too, peeled and cut, then soaked in a blue sugar water? We'll see. I would like to have something that isn't pure sugar to offer. We hadn't thought about ice cream yet, and I am thinking we will just skip it. Of course, I say that now.

Kitchen is just about done. I can't keep Thyme from jumping up on everything. She has already been on top of the baker's rack. From the floor to the ceiling. She is an odd cat. Time to finish up the table (floor is all mopped and drying) so that I can get dinner on the table. Need to clean the stove and counters too. Uck.

A block of Steve Miller Band is always appreciated too. Random Dana fact: Fly Like an Eagle was the soundtrack to my being born (no, not conceived, born) thanks to my Uncle Dave. Thanks! : )

And now, he wants to make goggles out of a sick pan thing the doctor sent home once, lol. You should see him when we go over to Lisa and Drew's. He puts on these green swimming goggles, wears a gardening glove, then goes around with the invisible dog leash or vacuum attachements on a search. They are so funny. : )

I've been bitten by the cleaning bug, lol. So far today, in an effort to get ready for Jack's birthday party next weekend, I have done: 2 loads of laundry (one more to go probably, rugs and all), swept and mopped the laundry room and kitchen (bathroom to go), gotten rid of the 2 end tables in the livingroom that I don't like, gotten rid of the old microwave that is big, heavy, and loud (need to buy a small, quiet, new one now, lol), started the dishes, cleaned off and moved (then moved back) my baker's rack thing, moved the table around, and got together more things to donate. And, we are listening to oldies rock this whole time, lol. Great cleaning music, had a block of classic Aerosmith. Lovin' it.

Still to do, which Jack doesn't want to do since it means going to the store again, lol, is ... go to the store. We need marshmellows and some snack cake things for his cake, and rock candy. I need that microwave eventually. I am thinking of moving the white shelves from the livingroom to the laundry room since they are just those plastic ones, and I hate all the furniture taking up space in our livingroom. Pretty soon, all we will have left is the shoe rack, the 2 book shelves, the rocking chair, and the small coffeetable. Good enough for me, we are never home anyway, and it leaves more room for dancing and playing. Jack was playing hockey in tehre earlier because he has a Little Tykes hockey net thing leaned up against one wall (no room in his room for it). I was going to get these wooden shelves last night, but I wasn't sure if I would like them once I got them home, so I didn't. Plus, the ends were open, so I wouldn't be able to use them for books or photo albums which is what I have the most of.

Our other tasks today are to get the presents wrapped and make the gift bags for the kids. My friend Amy (Chief! :p) is coming down from Chicago for the weekend. Engineering Open House is this weekend, but it is overcast today, and it only goes until 3pm. We may still get out there yet. It's only 12 now, and Amy thinks she will be here around 1pm. I need to feed Jack, lol, one peanut butter and jelly is not enough to tide him over. That's no big surprise. ; )

Okay - I found a bug in the guestbook, but it is minor, so after wasting last night trying to fix it, I just might leave it be for now. Bigger things, remind myself of that. TGIF. : ) I had some weird dreams last night. Mostly this morning as I kept waking up, then falling back to sleep. They left me with that "I'm running late for everything! Argh." feeling. I hate that.

Jack slept in, so I started to get ready for the day. Of course, I knew this would be a bad decision, as when Jack knocked on the bathroom door, I opened it and was greeted with a grumpy - "You didn't get me cereal!" *lol* He got into the habit of me placing a bowl of cereal and glass of milk in the fridge for him to get out if I was up earlier than him, and I hadn't done that this morning. But, I kept my cool and told him that it wasn't a very nice greeting for the morning, and that if he wanted to help make it better, he could go grab new clothes from the dryer. Of course, this led to a knock 1 minute later with a cry that he could only find 2 socks and they don't match. Woe is me! *lol* "Look on top of the dryer, honey. There are socks already matched up."

Of course, when I went to my room to get clothes, Jack trailed me to apologize for throwing a fit - it was because he'd had a bad dream according to him. Something about Zurg from Toy Story. Yeahhh. Uh-huh. ; )

You know, there isn't much cuter than watching your little guy taking out the recycling. I take out the garbage, and he will take the little bags of recycling out. Squinting from the sun in his eyes. Too cute. Then, yelling down the street to talk to our neighbor walking his dog. Still cute.

This cold has almost let go of us.

Very cool. I finally got that guestbook to work, and I transferred it over to another site without any problems. Of course, that site is not even set up yet, so problems could arise, but I am not too worried. One feature down, about 10 more to go. *lol* The good thing is though, I have developed enough things on my own site that we can reuse, and not depend on third parties. I like that. : ) Time for some breakfast ... finally, at 10:20am, at work ... Hm. Oatmeal? Don't mind if I do. This cold is almost over! Yay.

Yay, my certification hassles are almost over. Then on to the classes and exams. Hehe. No problem ... right? ; )

Well, for a second there I thought it was Thursday already. Today is only Wednesday, phew! I had to pick up Jack from day care yesterday because he was just miserable. Luckily, he wasn't running a fever. We went home and took a good long nap. Today, he seems pretty good, even though we are both technically still sick, so he went back to school. Wednesday is his show and tell day, and he took a Bob the Builder book since they are talking about machines. I wonder if his teachers actually give him the time to read it to his friends or not. I swear they can really underestimate the kids sometimes.

No meetings today which is nice. The weather is up to a sweltering 50 degrees today, which is even better! I went for my lunch run outside, in shorts no less. Even though I am sick, that felt good. Pretty soon, all you will see here is me complaining that it is too hot, lol.

Our play rehearsal the other night went okay. Jack wasn't feeling great, so he was a bit fidgety. It was so funny because the little boy before his lines, would say "This is the perfect spot." and instead of saying his lines, Jack would say "Thanks." and then start his lines, lol. There was a part where the director wanted the little kids to pretend to fidget too. Pretend? It is not going to be a stretch. I can't believe all the work it is going to take to get this play together. So many kids, and so many lines. There will be kisses (and giggles) and cake (with food fights), so it should be very interesting.

Ick. I am still sick! We went to Peoria this weekend, which was nice. We had a little bit of time to visit with my Gma (Nana) and Aunt Amy. My mom and I went to see "Bring Down the House" which was surprisely offensive and politically incorrect. I think they were trying to go for "this isn't PC and that's why we are making fun of it" but tell that to the people I saw leave the theater. : \ We had a baby shower to attend today, and that was nice. There was a beautiful cat at the house. Male, long-haired, grey siamese with the bluest crystal eyes ever. So very friendly. The mom-to-be (twice now) got some really cute things. They already have a little girl who is 2.5, and they are expecting a little boy, so their little family will be completed nicely. : ) Of course, that doesn't mean they will stop at two. ; )

Jack and I have play rehearsal tomorrow. I really wish we were both not sick by then, but I don't know if it will happen. Right now it is time to curl up under the covers and read, then sleep. : )

Yep, it was too dark, I knew it. But the good news is, I finally figured out where the controls were for gamma correction and such in TMPGEnc. Yay me. The bad news, it takes about 4 hours to convert a 2gig avi file into a (probably) 40mb mpg. : ) I think I will just check on it in the AM.

Nothing like encoding video to suck up your time. One hour before I see if it even looks good enough to keep. *sigh*

I am feeling a little bit better today. I was getting very warm and tired by the end of my day at the office, but I managed to pull through. I went to get Jack, and then we met Lisa and Drew at the park for a little while. It was only 35 or so, but it was sunny and not too breezy, so we took advantage of it. Lisa was cold, so we didn't stay long. Me with my fever though, it felt great.

Jack was balancing on one of the wooden beams that connects everything in the play area, and, well, let's just say he forget to jump off to the side when he lost his balance this time. Ouch! I felt so bad. I remember trying to keep my balance on things and thinking that I could hold onto it, but nope. That was his first real experience with that I think. One he won't be forgetting soon. Then, as we were getting ready to leave, he was walking under another part of the structure and didn't pay attention to how low it was. *Bonk* Walked right into it with his forehead. Sometimes I can't help but chuckle because it's just so silly. At least that injury wasn't as bad as the first.

Let's see, we came home, took out recycling etc, did dishes, had dinner, on and on, he's in bed, and now I am tackling that video ... again. I really want to get this off of my list of things to do, you know?

Okay, new Angel tonight. Faith returns. Good lines: Wes "5x5", Faith " Like riding a biker" --- BAD ending! I knew they were going to do that as soon as Cordy sat Connor down to "tell" him something. I looked at the clock (8:55pm), and thought "Don't end the episode with that!" Argh!

What's with Faith's accent? Hmm, cool preview. We all guessed that evilCordy was the Beasts master. Too bad he had to go this episode. I thought the phone call to Dawn was hilarious! I wonder if they will keep that consistency over on Buffy or if it will turn into another dead horse for people to kick around the Beta. *eye roll* Okay, I am sickly still, so I am heading to bed. No late night html work for me tonight.

Well, I spent way too much money today. I hate that. I think I have a "Rachel" syndrome right now. Except, "there are not enough stores in Manhattan." I feel horrible, and shopping isn't making it better. We got things for Jack's party, things in general, and groceries. Not very exciting, and maybe it isn't supposed to make me feel better, but right now the *right* side of my throat is hurting instead of the left, I feel like I am running a fever, and I have a headache. What fun.

Yuck. I am home sick today. I felt awful this morning, and as typical for a winter cold, as the day goes by I feel deceptively better. The weather really took a turn for the worse too. It was very windy this morning, and it sounded like there was icy rain beating against the windows. I kept Jack home because he has a cough too, and I just did not feel like going out in that weather to take him to school. If I go out for that, I may as well go to work too. And they hate when you bring germs to the office, well, knowingly bring them at least. ; )

Not that I am sitting here not doing work. Once I checked my email, I found 3 requests that hadn't been done, and one project that needed resolved. I got all those taken care of. Makes me feel like I should've just gone in for the day. Oh well. Time to go do some other things I guess. We might go by one of the Kmarts in town later that is closing. I forgot all about it, but we might be able to find some things for Jack's birthday party, Ethan, or other things.

So Jack and I attended the first rehearsal for the play tonight. It's called "Aurora: The Sleeping Beauty." We basically got our scripts, the rehearsal timeline, and read through the whole thing. Jack will be playing the role of Servant 2, and I am Mother. Poor thing, his two lines are at the very beginning practically, and my scene is the very last page, so he had to sit (relatively) still and stay (relatively) quiet for about 1.5 hours. And, it was way past his usual bedtime. I have a feeling he might take a nap or two this week since this means he will be up later than usual.

It appears my crisis with the MCAD classes and the play can be diverted though, so I am glad. The first class I have to take is the second week the play is open, so the only thing is I have to be back in time for the show on Friday. My hope is that I can ask the guy in Chicago to push that class back one more week. That way, there would be no conflicts at all.

Shannon's baby shower is this weekend. I think we will be heading up to Peoria to visit family and do that. Hopefully the weather will be nice. Today was half-decent. Mid-40s I think for the most part. Further north though, they were supposed to get up to 12" of snow. Yuck. Down in Carbondale, it's still over 50. That must be nice.

Now, what is left on my "To Do" list: Shannon's gift, play rehearsals, Jack's birthday party (invites, presents, gift bags, food, cake, drinks, decorations, activities), New York trip (because Chicago is now out due to the play; not too disappointed about that), MCAD classes here and there, my birthday, Easter, the actual play, Mother's Day, Aimée's birthday, Rose's graduation (yay Rose!). That will take me to the beginning of June. Then I just get to add a bunch more stuff.

* Don't forget the house, the car, the cats, the laundry, the day care, the kindergarten, the fitness center, the piano lessons, WORK, Buddha's web site, a *social life* (yeah right! I crack myself up sometimes), SLEEP, downtime, Jack time, mommy time ........

Nevermind, I am taking it down. I was going to have some stones and post something in the Obligatory section but I changed my mind. Please disregard, lol.

Another long day. This morning instead of having our first Tuesday monthly meeting, we had a "Diversity Training," which I will now capitalize happily because it was definitely worth my time. The speaker was fantastic, Maura Cullen. My first thought about having to go to this meeting was ... it's 3 hours long. But, it wasn't 5 minutes into it before I was glad I was there and topics were being discussed. This wasn't just a simple, "We should be PC about caucasian and African American people around us." kind of talk. Here is the blurb they sent around in our emails telling us we will be attending, but like I said, I am glad I did. ----

"Dr. Maura Cullen, Educational Consultant

Maura teaches with such passion and conviction audiences are left with no choice but to act. She has a unique ability to capture people's attention but more importantly to keep it. The spirit and enthusiasm Maura creates aides others in making the bridge between their heads and their hearts, changing the "I can't" to "I can."

As a full time educational consultant and motivational speaker Maura provides training programs and keynote addresses on multiculturalism and leadership throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. She co-created two games focusing on issues of diversity: COLLIDASCOPE and ALTERNATIVES. Having worked in residence life for six years, she is familiar with the challenges facing higher education today. She received her master's degree from Springfield College (MA) in Counseling and Psychological Services and her doctorate in education at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, in Social Justice and Diversity Education.

About the Presentation:
"Toto We're Not In Kansas Anymore"

How do the Wizard of Oz, magic, cars and puppets help us to understand diversity? We are caught in times of political correctness, where "saying' the right things are worlds away from "doing" the right thing. Considered one of the most inclusive sessions on diversity, participants will explore race, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic class, religion, ability, and size discrimination in an interactive format. By using this approach, we can build coalitions, not blame, with groups who never thought they had anything in common with one another.

And that's all I have to say about that for right now.

Oh my goodness, what a long day! I finally got my email form to work. That was a task and a half. But you know what, I still managed to figure it out without bothering anyone. *hint hint Junior* Not that Junior will ever see this. Anyway, that's working. I got the family page up too. I am going to add some more Jack pictures tomorrow sometime. I found the ones from Christmas and his spiky hair ones, so I have to put those up. I also think I am going to get him a blog so that he can write things, click once to post them, and everyone else can go there to read it. That is much simpler than trying to help him write emails to specific people.

Tomorrow we have a First Tuesday meeting, but it is being substituted with a "Diversity Training" session. I have no idea what it will entail, but it's from 9am until 12 noon.

I still don't know about the MCAD classes or the play. The first rehearsal is tomorrow night, so I guess we will go and get all the information. I hate to wait until then to tell the Director if we can do it, but ... Oh well. To bed with me. : )

Okay, I got very little done tonight on the pages for some reasons. Mostly because I can only work at about 20% when Alias is on. I am not too into the whole "Mom/Dad" thing on there, so that made it a little easier to not pay attention, but there were some good Sid/Vaughn things to pay notice, and not to mention Will's scenes! Uh-oh city coming up for him.

Finally got in touch with Lael about making a web site for someone. Top secret until we know. And if they say 'no,' well, then you never heard any of this. : )

Must get to bed soon. It's only 11pm but I started to quit about 20 minutes ago, so we're only halfway there. ; )

Mondays are so much fun. Yep.

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig. As Jack and I are so fond of saying ... sometimes. We haven't done that in a while. Today was fun. We went to McDonald's so he could play, and there were no injuries. Always a bonus. Then, it was still snowing, and I didn't really want to go home for the rest of the day, so we went to the mall. I tortured Jack by making him look at a total of 5 stores I think before he could go play. We were looking for party favors for his birthday party and a watch for him. Yet, *I* was torturing *him.* ; )

But, we came away with a watch, Dr. Seuss in fact. The clerk had to punch a few extra holes in the band, but he is happy with it. We also found some party favors at Dry Ice and Claires. Weird things that the kids will like. Now I just have to get the major decorations and food stuff down. Oh yeah, and games, lol. And invites. And wrapping....

Dinner's on the table. That's easier than thinking about the party. : )

Why is it we can spend (females at least) way too much time browsing through shelves and aisles of stuff we may or may not need just because it is on super-clearance? I spent about 30 minutes without even realizing it yesterday digging through basket things of clearance makeup etc. in Target. I don't wear much make-up, I rarely go outside my basic daily stuff, and yet here I was digging for great deals, lol. I came home with about $5 worth of $0.50 items: some glitter, some liner/shadow combos (I love these chubby sticks), some chapstick/lip gloss, and lip liner. Lip coloring is so odd for me. I almost always hate the way it looks because it just looks fake. And I suppose it should since it *is* but that's not the point.

So, the chapstick I came home with said "sheer" which once on is not entirely true. Still, it was very subtle and actually worked extremely well with the one lip liner I came home with (from a different brand, I'm so risky). Yay me. It only took me 25 years to figure out what color of makeup looks good on me.

Now, if only I could figure out what to do with my hair.

We are getting ready to leave the house. Jack inspected the new make-up in the mirror (because I guess just looking at me isn't the true test, lol), and he oohed and aahed appropriately. He's going to be a great partner to someone some day. I know that sounds odd, given he's only almost 5, but I've seen him exhibit more sensitivity and less blatant ignorance about body image and appearance in the past 4 years than most adults I see on a daily basis. I'm proud of the fact that he's grown up, so far, not concerned with how we/others look, or what our body shapes are. To him, they are what they are, and that's what makes us individuals.

Okay, where did that Mother Hen speech come from?

Things to do the next few months: Jack's birthday, Aimée's anniversary, Shannon's baby shower, NYCB Meetup(?), Easter, my birthday, MCAD certification classes, RTG play (?), CR NYC show (?), Rainbow Trout show (?), Mother's day, Flashbackweekend (?), Aimée's birthday. That's March, April, and May. Then, throw in the regular job things, house thing, cat things, Jack things, my things. I will never complain for lack of something to do. I reserve the right to complain that I don't want to do what I have to do though. ;)

What to do on a bleak, rainy Sunday? Well, at least it's 30 degrees and not -30.

Ha ha! I can't believe it! I just got the email from the Director of that play, and not only did Jack get a role (Servant 2), but I got the role of the mom! How crazy is that?? I didn't think they needed adults, got there today, saw that they did, wasn't sure if they were reading for that, but they were, so I did, *and* I got it? How crazy. Okay ... now I just have to figure out if we have the time committment for this. It could conflict with the MCAD classes I need to be in Chicago for. Eep. Okay, and *now* I really am off to bed.

Yeah okay, so I didn't quite make it to bed. Hint: Don't go check "one last time" on boards or email. Good advice there. Somewhere in there. This is why I am not in bed yet. Quizilla. *lol*

You are the steamy fantasy kiss! Which Spuffy kiss are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Okay, tired. Done now. I was tempted to do my animal page first, but it's just too darn late. And I thought of all that code I would have to finesse. Meh. No thanks. With that, I bid you goodnight to the sound of "Princess of Venice" by Common Rotation. I highly recommend checking them out. Their 2nd cd is now out, and the NYC cd release show is April 12th at the Bitter End. Not to mention, that Rainbow Trout will be playing a midnight show that same night so that they don't overlap. Jordan Katz from RT plays with CR sometimes when they are in NYC. That should be a great night of music. If I can get there, I will. I have friends from CA trying to get there. If that doesn't convince you to at least give them a listen, I don't know what would. Cher? Celine? Think of the alternatives people. It's like lima beans or kidney beans .. wait... it's ... bed or code. There you go!

Ugh. Getting tired. Why is it I can get so much more into random developments of my personal web site that pretty much no one will ever visit, but I can't come up with a darn creative thing for projects where I need to? It's just past midnight now ... really should be in bed given that Jack will be up around 6 or 6:30. Pretty soon ...

Hi CeCe! :p

Well, supposedly they will send out an email to those people they want to accept a role in the play sometime tomorrow or Monday. That is cool. They were actually looking for a couple of adults for roles as well, so I went ahead and read for the part of the mother, which hadn't been written yet (I had to read the Grandmother's lines, lol). This should be fun, and hopefully Jack won't be too disappointed if he isn't picked. The director might not have been too impressed with his concentration. But, they had him up on a stage with a full set for the "Glass Menagerie," their current play. He couldn't help but gaze around. I tried to remind him on our way there about looking at the person while he was talking, but oh well. I told him that if he isn't picked, we can always try for the next play. He seemed okay with that. It was something new.

And we are off to the audition. Jack looks all handsome. Even though it's just a little production, I wanted to get him all snazzy. Make the moment more memorable. Keep your fingers crossed! *g*

So having an online diary kinda sucks. I am trying out the blog thing because it's basically the same, but I can put it on my site. They've got the right idea - free if you want to put it on your server, not free on their server. I looked around Diaryland, but I couldn't figure it out, so I am not even going to bother. I will probably go grab my entries from there and put them here, or not. Can't wait to try out the audio blog. That sounds "super fun!*"

* I dedicate this reference to anyone and everyone who ever had a psycho roommate in college - you know the one, who played Celine Dion and Cher non-stop? Yeah. Good times, man, good times.