an update on the sledding accident

For those who are worried, he is doing much better. He lost that one tooth that wasn't ready to come out, and now the one on the bottom, on the opposite side is very loose, but I think that one actually was starting to come out.

I still think his nose and face are pretty swollen on the left side; it just doesn't look quite like it used to. His lip is almost 100% better though.

Pretty soon I will have much more exciting pictures to share .... my new kitchen floor project. ;-)

sledding is supposed to be fun

Poor Jack went sledding with the neighbors last night and got hurt. It was his first real sledding experience, and I didn't tag along because they said they'd be fine. Well, of course then he gets slammed into by a bigger kid. I sent off a perfectly happy and healthy little boy and received a sad, upset, banged up little boy.

We ended up at the ER just to be safe after he threw up four times and was very lethargic. They did a CT-scan and everything, but other than a concussion, they didn't see anything serious. Yeah, just a concussion. His first real injury.

He is much better this morning. The tooth that was knocked loose came out, but thankfully it wasn't a permanent one. He threw up at the reception desk at the ER as we were trying to leave, but then proceeded to have a conversation with the two ladies there about what he wanted to be when he grew up, so you could say he was starting to feel better. He came to the office with me this morning, and he has been socializing with everyone, so he is definitely feeling better. I didn't want to send him to school though, just in case. The swelling has gone down a lot, too, but not completely.

Snow!

I can't believe we got snow on December 1st this year. =)

It was exactly 30° out though, so I don't know how long this will stick around. I am actually hoping we get a lot of snow this year. It's been a long time since we've had a "real" winter.

For fun, because he has gotten so big.

First snow.

Before we left for school and work.

My building on campus.

Looking north up 4th Street.

From my office window.

Sprinkles!

Say hello to our newest friend! I am thinking of calling her 'Rink' because Sprinkles just does not roll off the tongue. ;-)

Sprinkles enjoying some attention.

"I like my little bed."

She's only 8lbs to Fulgie's 12lbs and Thyme's 14lbs. She has this light cream on her face, the tip of her tail, and a couple of random cream-colored toes. She also has one of those tails that you know is going to get longer and all furry like Fulgie's. =)

The box/pillow is the bed Jack made her, along with a welcome sign, the other morning. Hee.

She's going to spend a few days in the computer room while the other two get used to the idea of a new cat. Hopefully it won't take more than a week because I don't like leaving her in there.

Wish Lists

Music
Prodigy: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (me)

DVDs
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2-disc special edition (Jack)
ALIAS Season 4 (me)
Roswell Season 3 (me)
Veronica Mars Season 1 (me)

Books
Dark Tower: A Concordance I, Robin Furth (me)
Dark Tower: A Concordance II, Robin Furth (me)

Other ideas: Jack loves comic books right now. He has a subscription to Marvel's 'all ages' Spiderman comic, but they also have a Fantastic Four 'all ages' comic he does not have a subscription to. He is also into drawing and origami. He especially likes drawing books with step-by-step guides. Clotheswise, he is wearing a size 8 in tops and bottoms. His shoes are just about to size 3. As far as what he needs, he could probably use some boots, a spring jacket, and maybe an extra winter hat and pair of gloves. The easier to get on, the better, for the gloves. I'll try to think of some more fun things for him soon.

Serenity

NY Times review. Nothing in there will spoil you for the movie. You should definitely go see it this weekend. The second weekend is always telling for a film, and if the underdog ever deserved to win, it's this one. ;-)

In other news, of a political nature, a friend sent me this link. Very interesting. Time to rework the international PR.

Serenity (2 days!)

Some words from Mr. Whedon:

"Well boys and girls and boys dressed as girls and girls dressed as Kaylee, the time is almost upon us. This Friday we take that old rust-bucket out of the shipyard and see if she can breach atmo. It's been a long (to paraphrase a band I like) strange trip, and it'll be nice finally to show everybody what it is we've been tinkering with all this time. You already know you have my thanks, from the hardcore fans to the softcore... fans.... let me try that again. From the people manning the booths, buying DVD sets for their friends, getting banners seen everywhere on Australian TV, raffling artwork for ticketholders (Adam Hughes, take a bow), to the most casual fan who just wants to see the flick and won't ever even read this. You guys are the fuel in the engine, the Fire in the Fly, the weird green stuff coming out of Serenity's butt. (Hmmm. Forget that last one. I'm a little bit out of control here.)

Everyone needs something to keep them going. Mal has his ship. Zoe has her integrity. Jayne has Vera. And I've got you guys.

So what now? There have been so many posts about seeing it, seeing it again, the first weekend, the second weekend, being enthusiastic without being obnoxious (and yes, it IS hard to see over the pom-pom of a Jayne hat), buying tickets in advance, making a noise... I honestly wouldn't know what to add. I can tell you this: the movie will play in about 2200 hundred theaters, which is a good number. Too many, and you get empty theaters with no energy -- not enough, and you get, well, not enough. It may be hard to find in some areas but it'll be out there. Leave no multiplex unturned! This is going to be a ground war, peeps -- we have to hold the valley for a long while. However it opens, it needs to HOLD. Instead of the Alliance we'll be fighting viewer apathy, fear of something new, the urge to wait for DVD, and Jessica Alba in a bikini. (Although I have it on good authority that she spends 90% of the film in a huge wooly parka. Make sure that gets out.)

The day this puppy opens, I'll be seeing it with my family (don't worry, there's a lot of them, and they're all paying) and then I'm off to Europe to learn the word 'Browncoats' in nine different languages -- 'cause like I said, it's all about holding. I'll never be far from a computer, though, so I can check in with y'all. Thanks for every damn thing.

And remember, amidst all the urgency to make this an event, all the work and the worry, to take two hours and just enjoy yourself. That is, after all, what all this fighting's about.

-joss."

Here We Go

* CAMPUS WELCOMES FRESHMAN
The Class of 2009, a record-setting class of 7,650 freshman, will be welcomed to the UI's Urbana campus with a variety of activities and programs known as Illinois Celebration 2005.

http://www.illinois.edu

storms and trees

Well, we've had a fun couple of weeks. Mom and Dave have been helping me put up a fence in the backyard, and no sooner do we get it done than thunderstorms and high winds come through. On Monday night, we had some pretty gusting storms go through, and my neighbors willow tree decided it was finally time to split in half and topple over ... into my yard. Luckily, it missed the fence.

This is pretty much how our night went:

7:00pm fix dinner, sky is normal looking, temperatures right at 90F
7:30pm eating dinner, notice storm clouds in the north
7:35pm sit down at computer, lights flicker, big noises, lights go out

I went into the kitchen to check out the storm and see my neighbor's willow tree laying across their little wire fence, into my yard, and my power and cable lines ripped off my house as result. About 2-3 weeks ago, we were having a big storm, and I called the power company because a branch of that willow tree was laying on the lines, so they came and cut it off for me even though technically they didn't have to/aren't supposed to. Well, a lot of good that did me! *L*

This tree was probably 40 years old, was rotting (my neighbor knew this as he had already cut down the other one in his yard, he just hadn't done this one yet since the power lines run to their house in the 'V' of the trunk), and the trunk branches into two trunks in a V about 4' off the ground. So it was maybe 25' of tree toppling over into my yard. Argh.

I was reading by candlelight for a while, but the weather had mostly calmed down, so I went to bed around 11pm. Plus, at that point, the automated system for the power company was saying 2am before power was restored.

11pm bedtime
1am more storms! huge noises, pouring sheets of rain, woke Jack and I both up
1:30am manage to get back to sleep after listening to the radio say "flash flood warnings" not in my area

4am the power company guys arrive to start using their chainsaws on the tree!!
4:05am moved Jack back to his room to try to sleep, good thing he got that new futon
6am wake up, still no power, get ready for the day

When I called the power company from work, they said it looked like they were planning to have it restored by 2pm. I don't know when it came back on exactly, but it was back when we got home. The cable lines were still on the ground though, so I called them and they came out to fix it very quickly. However, this morning my internet was back down. So odd. I didn't turn the TV on, so I don't know if it is all of my cable or just the internet.

I had 3-4 pieces of the underside of my eave ripped off, but I fixed those last night. My neighbor had family over to help him cut up and haul away some of the tree. There is still quite a lot there though.

Here are the pictures I took. It's hard to see things if you've never been in my yard. Hopefully, you can get the perspective from the other trees.

Tomorrow ...

My birthday crept up on me very quickly this year. I don't really have plans to celebrate. Like I told mom, it's not like I have a favorite cake that only one family member can make for me that I *have* to have. It's just another day. Maybe I'll just start celebrating on the big years, the 10s. Maybe.

If you still need ideas, here are a few more cds that I thought of. Or, just check them out for yourself because they are awesome. :-) Oh, and if anyone can find me the cd by Something Happens "Alan, Elvis & God" that would be fantastic.

"Alan, Elvis & God" by Something Happens

"So Jealous" by Tegan and Sara


Okay, time for work!

birthday ideas

Because if I don't note them now, I will forget when someone asks me.

Music
Zero 7 - Simple Things

Dandy Warhols - Welcome to the Monkey House

Franz Ferdinand (Bonus CD, Special Limited Edition)

Catie Curtis: Dreaming in Romance Languages

Catie Curtis: My Shirt Looks Good on You



Movies
Shawshank Redemption

Farscape Season 1, Collection 1, Starburst Edition

Farscape Season 1, Collection 2, Starburst Edition

Farscape Season 1, Collection 3, Starburst Edition


I'll try to add other things as I think of them.

More birthday pictures ...

Please log in to Flickr to see all of them. For now, here is Jack in front of the Spiderman wall.

Rasterized Spiderman.

And one to grow on ...

We went out to eat at Chevy's for Jack's birthday last night. It has become a tradition of sorts because he loves that they sing and bring him the sombrero. Here are a couple of pictures. The rest of today is getting ready for the party, then the party in the afternoon, then rest!

"No pictures, please!"

"That was a good dessert!"

And here is the beginning of the decorations for inside. I used the Rasterbator to create this large image, then put it up on the living room wall. It takes about nine feet across by six feet down.

That's all for now!

Jack's Birthday!

Jack will turn seven in only two days!! How is that possible?! =)

I am trying to get last minute ideas ironed out for the party this week. I have a feeling this will be the year all the friends we invited will be able to make it because it's already going to be a full house with family in attendance. I think next year I will have to plan much further ahead and find a location for his party or do a separate one for family and friends.

I guess I never posted the images of my red room on here, so here they are:





It's hard to really see the color because of the size of the room and the light. Since I took those at the end of January, I moved the furniture around. I have the desktop in an armoire, the treadmill in a different spot, and I have a little cart and cabinet in there too. I still haven't decided if I am going to get a sleeper couch for in there or just a futon sort of thing. We don't need anything right now, so that will wait.

I also put a fresh coat of white paint in the kitchen and modified some roller curtains for the windows in there. I desperately need to rearrange the livingroom furniture because the TV is hogging some valuable wall space. I want to move it to the opposite end of the room, but I don't know if the cable will run there, so I need to check into that. It will have to wait until post-birthday though.

School has been fine for Jack. He had the testing for second grade gifted a few weeks ago, and I think he scored 99% essentially, so we should be getting more news about that closer to the end of the school year. He has been loving playing basketball for a while now, so I just might have something like that on my list for his birthday.

What else is new? The cats are the same as always. Ornery.

Work is busy as usual. We had someone leave, so it's back to the drawing board as far as filling all the positions here.

I guess that's all! Time to get some more things done with my day before leaving.

Projects everywhere!

Once I made it home from Christmas, I had a terrible urge to do something. Thus was born my neverending need to do projects. I've had quite a few items on a list in my head for a while now, and I started tackling the list with the bathroom floor and toilet repair the other week. Since then, I have painted the spare room, put together some storage for the bathroom, bedroom, and spare room, moved the TV out to the livingroom, made chair covers for the dining chairs, and bought paint for the kitchen. I should have pictures of the spare room in another couple of days. I painted it red and did a cool border using a little trick Rose and I did down at her place. Jack took a peek at it and his reaction was "That's TLC colors!" Heh. Which is scarier - that he knows the colors of TLC or that he knows what TLC is? ;-) I think it's cute, not scary, but that's me.

Items to tackle next will be painting the kitchen and creating a border with either the ribbon I have or tiles of some sort. Once I paint, I plan on tearing up the floor and replacing it. It's the same terrible linoleum that was in the bathroom, and it has started peeling up in places. Very annoying. I sold my tall white pantry thing the other day, so now I have more room (but less storage) in the kitchen. That's okay though because if I am keeping the big table and more chairs than we need, then I'll take the room over storage. I can always trim down on what is in my cabinets.

Here are a couple of pictures of the chair covers. They aren't the greatest, but at least you get the idea.

..



We had some rain and freezing temperatures the last two days, so everything has gotten a layer of ice over it. It's very pretty to look at, but very dangerous. The roads haven't been great, and the power was going out randomly everywhere because the wind picked up today and caused lots of the trees to fall down. The duplex down the street had what looked like a whole tree in their driveway. Good thing they (and their car) weren't home.

I took way too many pictures this evening right before sunset because I wanted to capture some of it. Here is a link to the gallery. You have to be logged in to see them. I've given you your login and password information before, but if you need it again, just email me. You can register, but that particular gallery is private for family and friends. I have a few more that I haven't put in there that are a broader view of the house and trees. The branches are so weighed bown that some are almost touching the roof, the ground, and sunk into the water that was flooding and is now frozen over in the backyard.

I guess that's everything for now. I need to go ahead and get some sleep. Go figure needing sleep.