Christmas Time is Coming

And so, before I lost all my initiative, I decided to get started on the decorating today. I want to clean up and decorate my livingroom in general, but also, I wanted to get Christmas stuff out this year. We got a lot of things at the end of the season last year, and we never decorated in this house before, so this is the year to start.

Of course, this means I now have to fend the cats away from the tree for a month and a half (just about). So far, Fulgie has been in her cage once and Thyme has been in the cage twice. I think Fulgie has already learned to leave it be, but Thyme might take a few more trips to the cage to get it through to her that this is not some new, really big, really shiny toy for her to jump on and knock over. Argh.

I took some pictures as we were doing things tonight. I had Jack stay in his room for the last touch - the train that I purchased on the sly last year. He had to close his eyes and not come out til I said okay. He was surprised. :D



The rest of the pictures start here, including a very pretty shiny tree. We haven't even added the ornaments yet. I have two or three more boxes to look through that have ornaments, craft supplies, our wreath that we made last year, etc. Fun, fun.

Time to wrap a few presents and hide them away. ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my family who can't be home with us today. I hope you are having a warm and fun celebration too.

And to all my friends here and elsewhere. Have a great day, even if it's not your Thanksgiving. :-)

Here, have a list:

Thankful Five:
1. Family (given and chosen) that loves and supports us
2. Friends who stick with us despite our 80s hair and leg warmers phases
3. Pets to keep us company when people are just too strange
4. Music to get us in and out of whatever mood we need
5. People who inspire us through their lives, their creations, and their dreams

Common Rotation

Yeah, they rock, and now something that Eric mentioned to me the last time I was in NYC for a show seems to be coming to fruition. This was posted on their messageboard, so spread the word. Hopefully it will be coming from the Street Team or Matt soon so we know the word is indeed true.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone has a place of their own. A place to breathe freely in a somewhat claustrophobic world, a place to kick your shoes off and crank up your favorite folk music, a place to drift off into the seemingly endless abyss of the internet or digital cable television, place tolose and keep track of exactly who you are, a place to get some living done. Some might call it a home. It's only when we share this home with others (whether it an apartment, a house, or a cardboard box behind the supermarket), that we finally develop an intimacy unlike any kind. With a lover, a friend, a family member, or a foreign exchange student from Saudi Arabia, we instill these feelings by sharing such a personalized confined space. By opening your home to even a mere visitor there in return opens a new meaningful relationship.

With all of this in mind, Common Rotation has adopteda new campaignplan. In light of there recent success as a folk duo, Adam and Eric,foresee a new future for their U.S. tours. By way of avoiding hostileclubs along with their obscene admission and drink prices the boys would like to forge onto un-folked territory across this great land through the months of February, March, and April of 2004. They want to cut out the middle man and bring their undeniably entertaining show to your living room.

Many fans attending their performances have been driving or flying unspeakably long distances just catch Common Ro in their element and this is still encouraged and appreciated. The one question these travelers always ask that always stumps CR is "When are you coming to(insert small town far away from the Northeast or L.A. let's use Kalamazoo just for fun)?" Well NOW the answer to this is simple. On a strategic date scheduled between the folk club/coffee house engagements of there winter/spring tour Adam and Eric will come to play an intimate performance in your living room. They will bring all of their songs and road rage straight to your couch.

They know that you're thinking there must be a catch. An evening with the CR boyz, in my own home! This is too good to be true. It's not and in fact it is far from complicated. To host a 2 hour Living Room set all you would be required to do is open your door at specific time to 15-20 people and let Common Rotation take it from there. The performance will be of the quality expected at a folk club if not more intimate. Common Rotation will accept 5 to 10 dollar donations to keep them moving from show to show while selling merchandise during and briefly after the set. Immediately following the show everyone will be filed out accordingly leaving you to your humble abode.

All you have to do to schedule a Living Room performance is e-mail us at: bookings@commonrotation.com

In order for Common Rotation to bring their music to you and create unbreakable ties between them and their fans we need volunteers. Help your favorite folk band reach more people and establish homes in small towns on the east and west coast and everywhere in between.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweet.

Another Day, Another 9

Seems like this month is flying by. I am a bit glad, but it's making me very tired. Especially this week I have been having a hard time starting the day. The alarm starts going off at 6am, and I just wish I had a sledgehammer. ;-)

We had Family Reading Night at school on Thursday. That was interesting. Jack won "My Friend Rabbit" and lots of other smaller books. The book fair went really well I think for the school. Jack took $4 on his day and got a book for himself and a gift for Ethan. He had $0.50 in change that managed to not make it home. Oh well. Mrs. C says she taped it to a pink piece of paper that Jack had in his hand when he left for the day. I can only imagine where it ended up during the afterschool program. I know I checked his bag the first thing when I picked him up, and there was nothing resembling change in or around it, so I didn't ask right away if Jack spent all of his money. So then when I do ask, I find out that there should've been some change, and yet there wasn't. Again, I say, oh well.

Sarah came into town yesterday, and we met for lunch w/ her mother-in-law, Barb. Jack was semi-well-behaved. A bit goofy, but then it was only Steak-n-Shake, lol. After that, they went shopping, and we went to the mall. I managed to get a few things crossed off my list, so we headed to the library. We sure spend a lot of time there. The other day, we stopped by after school, and I didn't want to stay too long since it was so late already, but Jack and I played a game of checkers, and an older boy watched then wanted to play a game too. It didn't look like he was there with anyone, so I knew if we left, he wouldn't have a game partner. Instead of leaving, I let Jack have his time on the computer (they have a sign-up sheet), and the boy and I played a match. I won ... um, but he still had fun. I didn't try to really, really win. Gave him pointers and such. I hope he took something good away from it.

Now it's yucky weather again. The past 2-3 days have been almost 70F again. Craziness. But, it's very windy and supposed to start raining again today. Ick. On the day that we need to go grocery shopping too, of course.

Play rehearsal on Monday and Tuesday is a full run-through. Next week will be full run-throughs with costume and make-up. Almost over. Thank goodness. I am too tired of driving back and forth when it is already pitch black out.

Okay - time to get distraction-boy moving in the right direction ...

New Pictures

I just added some pictures from my roll of film I got last night. I wanted to get the pictures on a CD, so I asked the clerk if they could do that for 1-hour development. "Sure," he says. So, we go to pick it up before rehearsal only to find out that the cd maker for APS film is broken. Oh, well, gee, nice. So, this morning I am scanning in my downtime. :-)

There is a shot of me and Jack from Homecoming weekend; some pics from Curtis Orchard; and some of the cats. Hehe, I had the urge to take their pictures because Fulgie was doing her cute rolling thing, and then they decide to play. So, that last picture of them "hugging" is too funny.

I will also have pictures up from the Common Rotation show at the Bitter End soon. I only have a handful on this roll. The other roll isn't finished yet. I was trying to watch the show, not capture it frame by frame. ;-)

I Won!

I just won Angel Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD from the radio station! :D

Scratch those off my Christmas list. *Yay!*

Going to bed now ... way tired ...

Yay for Community Helpers!

;-)

A heating and cooling guy came by yesterday to fix my furnace. It is very quiet now. I have more confidence that it will not blow up. And, it didn't cost me as much as a new one. Oh the little joys in life.

A friend on a parenting message board got berated on babycenter.com (a place I never visit) for ending up having a C-section this past week. Child #2 for her, and the little girl was breech, tangled in her cord, and all sorts of bad things. It was even difficult to get her untangled once they had started the C-section, and other mothers (?) on that site are telling her she "copped-out." What right do they have? They've also said that breast-feeding is gross and disgusting. *sigh*

As one person on the friendly board pointed out - "Breast feeding is gross, but natural delivery isn't?" As if it isn't bad enough that we have to deal with non-parents voicing their opinions about birth/parenting/etc, now we have to deal w/ backlash from people who seem to "know it all?"

Transition - Jack's teacher said this morning that she was shocked at the amount of bitterness and meanness towards her on Monday. They had no school for a school improvement day, and I guess she attended something that included staff from other area schools. They found out where she worked, and the way they treated her changed. Why? Is she administration? Is she on the board? Did she do anything other than find a job that she loves and wants to do well? Hopefully, that is exactly what these other teachers did too.

I mean, how can you condemn a school, saying it is the worst place in the world, and then be mad at someone who works there because of decisions that higher ups are making to make it a better place? Would you rather see it fail horribly? Of course they are going to make great efforts to succeed! Although, I haven't seen extreme cases of preference at Jack's school. As far as I am concerned, he just has a great teacher, and I hope the rest of the school is doing well too.

I keep forgetting that people are petty. No matter what age or maturity. What was it we decided on the Barge? That for all our trying to be good, treat eachother as we would want to be treated, that come "judgment day" we still expect there to be some sorting order. We are human, and I think this will always be our flaw. Something, somehow should've made us better/more important than "them."

Sad, isn't it? But the good thing in this post is that the 9-12 year old in the play realize the rottenness of society already. I had a talk w/ two of them the other night about kids in their schools, their friends' other schools, and parents. They offered up a lot of opinions that makes me think they will be okay in the future. Sad that they've already learned these lessons, but in the end, it's a good thing too. You have to learn it sometime.

Okay, time to dive into work. Been gone for 3 days while Jack was out of school. Uck.

A Funny from Shelly

Good Questions ...

Can you cry under water?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?

Since bread is square, then why is sandwich meat round?

Why do you have to "put your two cents in"...but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?

Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

If you drink Pepsi at work in the Coke factory, will they fire you?

Why are you IN a movie, but you are ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

How come we choose from just two people for president and fifty for Miss America?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.

Updated Lists

Okay, I have been thinking of a few more things, so I figured I'd better update our gift lists before I completely forgot. Not that that ever happens. ;-)

Oh, Christmas lists. That's right.

For Jack

1. "Finding Nemo" DVD (Santa's helpers informed me that this has been taken care of.)


2. "Monster's Inc" DVD (Amazon, Buy.com)


3. painting supplies - smock, big paper, paints


4. Photo albums for his pictures


5. No activity books, crayons, other craft supplies - he has sooo many. No clothes since we are overflowing with those as well. No computer games because we don't have time for them.

For Me

1. Buffy DVD - Seasons 3(Amazon, Buy.com) or 4(Amazon, Buy.com)


2. Angel DVD - Seasons 1 or 2 (Yay for radio contests!)


3. Firefly - the Complete Series DVD (Amazon, Buy.com)


4. Stephen King's "Wolves of the Calla" (Amazon, Buy.com)


5. Photo Albums


6. Grey gloves, Isotoner-type, not thick but still warm


7. Gift certificates to Lowe's, Target, Best Buy

Happy Halloween!

I know, I know, I am late, but still!

This weekend was pretty, wait, no, it was only okay. It started off badly, and ended badly. Halloween was fun, but I was grumpy that night afterwards. Jack was too cute, and I was cracking up watching him walking around in his costume. It was too amusing that he decided after only 1 house that he should've been a ghost. All I could think of was Willow's ghost costume. ;-) So, we managed to go to about 5-6 houses in the immediate area of our house. Jack has never really liked wandering for ages on Halloween. Pictures are already up.

Saturday we went to Peoria because AOE was having Day Away at Sarah's house again. Now *that* was fun. I was up until 5am though, so I was tired and had a headache on Sunday. More grumpiness.

We headed on home - Jack was semi-difficult about it. I can't quite pin down what his new attitude is. I don't think it's about establishing himself as an individual, but it's definitely of the "I am going to do what I want" vibe. When I ask him why he makes the choices he does, it usually comes back as "because I wanted to." Well ... how many times are we going to talk about how that isn't a good enough reason? Your wanting to doesn't tip the scales into actually doing something. *sigh*

Today at school, Mrs. C still seems stressed out. S was throwing a fairly hefty fit. I don't know why all of a sudden S has more problems in the morning. Jack is in a new spot on the rug, so I hope it doesn't cause problems. He used to be next to S and one of the quieter boys. Now, he is on the end of a row, but the boy next to him is much less quiet.

We have play rehearsal tonight, and the thought of that and all the work I need to get done this week is making me feel tired. A friend had a fairly upsetting night last night, and I wish I could just sit and talk with her over coffee about it all. I am so ready for a vacation, but I still can't take one. I *will* be going to NYC for Common Rotation's show on Friday, but it's a 20-hour trip in total. Then, Jack and I will have some quality time off from work and school. All this means that when I get back to the office on Wednesday I will probably be tired, stressed, and playing catch-up. Then, there will be Thanksgiving and Christmas to deal with, and since I have to take so many days off for when school is out, we still can't take a real vacation. Oh, and there is still play rehearsals meanwhile, and then the performances the first two weekends in December.

Fun, fun. I didn't intend to make myself even more tired in writing this. Blah.