6 months ago

crawl
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Our holiday preparations are pretty much in place: we leave for Oklahoma to my dad's place this Saturday. It will be us three, my sister and her husband Eddie, and brothers Andrew and Jonathan (dad and Ilu's kids. I say kids but they are both grown too). With all them kids you think dad would have more grandchildren. All of us are slackers!

Brenden and I had a rough weekend. He was sick with a cold and a lot of coughing - he would wake himself up then wake me up. I could get him back to sleep with a little water, rocking, and meds, but then it would take me forever to get back to sleep. I have some kind of bug now - so far I'm not sure what it is, maybe another sinus infection.

Speaking of my sinuses, I am occasionally experiencing good days, where I can smell without loading up on medications. This development is encouraging. I'm sure it has a lot to do with getting rid of the carpeting. I'm also trying to be scrupulous when it comes to my meds.

I also have a quick "what we're watching" update: the Discovery Channel has been showing a 6-part series "Everest: Beyond the Limit" which has been fascinating viewing: apparently Mount Everest has become so damn popular to try to climb that the most dangerous things are the traffic jams. The series, of which the last ep which airs tonight, follows one group as they attempt the climb - the coolest things are the Sherpa-cams. The entire series will be shown concurrently starting at 5pm (eastern, I presume) New Year's eve, if you want to set your TiVos. If you read "Into Thin Air" you might like this series.

Yippie-kay-yay!

yahoo
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

A meme from Nancy:

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence
3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog
4. Name of the book and the author
5. Tag three people

The Book: Dynamic HTML, by Danny Goodman

The text:
For Internet Explorer 4, the TextRange object and related functionality is guaranteed to work only on Windows platforms. The macintosh version of I.E. 4.0., for example, does not support the TextRange at all. Plan your deployment accordingly.

I'm not going to tag anyone. My dear sweet Neptune, I need to read something for fun!

Big B, little B, what begins with B?

Big B, little B, what begins with B?
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Short butts- I mean bits

Last night Jon and I watched Super Size Me, an amusing/scary documentary about fast food. He didn't tell me anything I didn't know, except he went into explicit detail about why fast food is bad, mmmkay. But remind me, when it's time for my son to go to school, to investigate for myself what kind of crap they're feeding him. I remember what our high school served: starches, covered in starches, with a side of starch. And ketchup, which was our vegetable.

Brenden is 18 months old and was given several dozen Hotwheels as a gift. Yes, I let him play with them, under my supervision. Really the only danger they pose is for us adults. Hotwheel + slick floor = twisted ankles.

I'm losing weight again - I have been dieting since the end of October with mixed results. I am happy that I'm still on it despite the holidays and the abundance of free candy left over from Halloween at work. I now weigh 135, which means I am now taking off the weight that I gained just before I got pregnant. I have been exercising by walking and Jon and I have started back on weights. While one of us does our reps, the other one plays with/corrals/bribes Brenden.

Family Portrait

Family Portrait
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What we've been watching:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: Not as good as the first one, but a welcome addition to our DVD collection. Why? Pirates! Sword fights!! Monsters that gave Jon and I nightmares!!! No, really. We both had seriously vivid dreams about Davey Jones and his crew the night after we watched it.

Nacho Libre: Rented because we both like Jack Black, who should receive an Oscar for the actor having the most fun with his career. The movie itself was... odd. It's helpful to know about Mexican wrestling (which is a hoot, especially if you have watched only WWF in the past).

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Nifty concept (retro sci-fi), but Meh execution. I like Jude Law, but he's a bit too androgynous for some of the roles he takes especially this one. The movie has some nifty Giant Freakin Robots, which is always a plus.

In the series world, everything seems to be on hiatus or in repeats. Battlestar Galactica is still showing first runs and this season might be the best one ever. Last night's episode, where Kat's past catches up to her, made me cry, and the episode before that where Starbuck and Apollo resolve some old issues by literally beating the crap out of each other was terrific. And I'm glad to see Colonel Tigh back on the job!

Veronica Mars shifted format slightly for the 3rd season (don't worry, no spoilers here) and I think is still trying to adjust. Veronica's in college now and instead of one big mystery per season, the writers have changed it up into 3 mystery arcs. The first mystery was put to bed and I have mixed feelings about this arc. Still I'm going to stick with this show because the first two seasons were so awesome.

Mememememe!

Using our new kitchen
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Hey, One word Meme time:

1. Yourself: lazy
2. Your spouse: hyper
3. Your hair: long
4. Your mother: retired
5. Your father: grilling
6. Your favorite item: camera
7. Your dream last night: Ugh
8. Your favorite drink: Guinness
9. Your dream car: Mustang
10. The room you are in: cubicle
11. Your ex: gone
12. Your fear: incompetence
13. What you want to be in 10 years: rich
14. Who you hung out with last night: family
15. What you're not: organised
16. Muffins: chocolate
17: One of your wish list items: robe
18: Time: fugit
19. The last thing you did: read
20. What you are wearing: jeans
21. Your favorite weather: warm
22. Your favorite book: worn
23. The last thing you ate: cheese
24. Your life: nice
25. Your mood: active
26. Your best friend: husband
27. What you're thinking about right now: coffee
28. Your car: Saturn
29. What you are doing at the moment: coffee
30. Your summer: fun
31. Your relationship status: better
32. What is on your TV: Pirates
33. What is the weather like: cold
34. When was the last time you laughed: seven

Brenden being Curious

Brenden being Curious
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Short and perhaps not so sweet this month:

Letter to Brenden 18 Months
Hooray, my sweet little fella; you are now a whole year and one half! Many websites, blogs, and discussion boards state that the terrible twos often start early and you are no exception. What you are displaying is frustration, often because you have to deal with the word "NO!" many, many times during the day. You attempt to vent your frustration by throwing or hitting things, or hitting me - you tried to pull that on your dad once.

Once.

Naturally, these actions invoke another spate of "NO!"s from your loving parents and you don't know what to do. Welcome to Earth.

Up, up and away!

Squee!
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What we've been watching (the Good, the Bad, the Ugly but not in that order:

The Bad: Strangers With Candy - this movie may be the straw that broke the camel's back. I had to review it and I am still trying to come up with 700 words to say "It's not my cup of tea". Bleh.

The Ugly: BloodRayne - I know better than to watch an Uwe Boll film, but I ended up watching this because of an unfortunate exchange of information with my husband. He was going through the OnDemand movies, reading the descriptions and stopped on Bloodrayne. I said "Hey did you know Michelle Rodriguez and Kristina Lokken are dating?". Bad move - he immediately turned on the movie, despite my assurances that it sucks. I really don't know if they are dating for real, they might just be best buds. Still, more power to them if they are.

As for Bloodrayne, it was actually entertainingly bad, with a whole bevy of embarrassed actors including Sir Ben Kingsley. The Queen is going to take his knighthood away if he keeps slumming in crap like this. The best was a perfectly miscast Micheal Madsen as some sort of medeival vampire hunter. Rodriguez and Lokken are simply unfortunately here, but at least it looks like they got more out of the movie than a paycheck.

The (really, really) good: Superman Returns I loved this movie! I'm very glad I saw the 2 original Christopher Reeve Supermans recently because this movie takes up where they left off (thankfully ignoring the 3rd and 4th movies). Superman has been away for 5 years, unsuccessfully trying to find remnants of his homeworld. When he returns he finds things have changed radically - Metropolis and Lois Lane have moved on, having found a way to live without the man of steel. Bryan Singer directed - he did the first 2 X-Men movies and I don't blame him for dropping X-Men for something as iconic as Superman (although the X-Men franchise suffered from his loss).

Singer plays off the original 2 movies like I mentioned as well as the comics, and he gives the movie his own touches. The one I liked best are all the characters (except perhaps Jimmy Olsen) have more dimensions. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) benefits the most. He's still the evil genius buffoon, but he's actually somewhat scary in this movie. Lois Lane is still your standard feisty reporter, but she is prickly and hurt as old wounds open when Superman returns. And Superman himself (played by Brandon Routh who is spooky in his resemblance to Christopher Reeve yet doesn't do an impersonation) seems so lost and alone even as he saves countless lives. Singer gives Superman an ethereal quality (as well as overtly touching on the Christ/Atlas/Prometheus imagery). It also doesn't hurt that Routh is almost disturbingly beautiful.

If I have quibbles the movie drags in places, and my biggest problem with the movie I can't really discuss because that would be spoiling it. Let's just say that Jon and I had a mini-argument about why Superman can't have a relationship with a human woman and it degenerated fast into territory that Kevin Smith would be proud of.

File this under "No shit, Sherlock!"

Giggle Break
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Your Movie Buff Quotient: 88%

You are a movie buff of the most obsessive variety. If a movie exists, chances are that you've seen it. You're an expert on movie facts and trivia. It's hard to stump you with a question about film.

Are You a Movie Buff?

New living room

New living room
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

If you take a surf on over to my Flickr account you'll see a whole passel of pictures of the house. I hope Helly doesn't gnash her teeth too much: getting it done so quickly cost us pretty close to five figures, way more than we wanted to spend. Nonetheless, I'm loving our living room. It looks like a living room now, instead of an Inquisition tortute chamber.

All rooms except now have laminate floors, and now is a good time to compare and contrast laminate vs. carpet:

Laminate flooring is good because:

• Easier to keep clean
  
• Easier to spot and avoid stepping in cat puke
  
• Children learn the laws of physics quicker
  
• Good excuse to buy bunny slippers
  
• Looks wonderful and isn't as expensive as hardwood flooring
  

Laminate flooring is bad because:

• Harder to be lazy and ignore the dust drifts and cat puke.
  
• Child's lack of understanding of the laws of physics leads to more bumps on head.
  
• Sound isn't absorbed as well so house is now noisier.
  
• Cold on the tootsies.
  
• Cat hates cold floor therefore takes up residence on pillows or head.
  
• Cat spins his wheels madly when trying to run away from small marauders.
  

70's brown shag carpet is good because:

• Hides spills, cat puke, cat hair and dirt well.
  
• Warm on the tootsies.
  
• Child somewhat protected from spills.
  
• Cat can fall asleep wherever he wants.
  

70's brown shag carpet is bad because:

• Won't find the cat puke until you step in it.
  
• Will destroy your sinuses and cause you thousands in medical expenses, even if you have insurance.
  
• Looks like crap.
  

So there you have it. I have noticed little effect on my sinuses yet because I still have a sinus infection (appointment w. doc today), plus I'm still taking meds that keep my nose clear so I don't know yet if I can ease off on taking them. Once I get completely infection-free we'll see.

Brenden's room

Bs room
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Well my estimate on getting the house finished was optimistic. Maybe Friday. Ugh, it will have to be Friday because after that we will have run out of money. Jon and I have successfully avoided credit card debt and we're not going to start now.

I never did comment on the elections, did I? Well I was disappointed when Daniel Craig was selected. When the Broccolis were talking about a 'younger' Bond, I was expecting very young, like mid-20's. I was hoping they'd consider Mathew MacFadyen. Technically Craig is younger than Pierce Brosnan, but he's still not what I pictured. Oh, okay, Daniel Craig is not very good looking. At least he doesn't do it for me. I have to admit, though, no Bond ever did it for me except maybe Timothy Dalton and he lasted for only 2 movies.

But the reviews for Casino Royale indicate that this might be the Bond movie I've been hoping for all my life. I'm not really exagerrating - Dr. No came out 2 years before I was born and I can recall seeing every Bond movie that came out in the theater since The Man with the Golden Gun. Yes, I saw every single Roger Moore Bond, the best of which was The Spy who Loved Me. It was all downhill from there but I sat through them all.

When Dalton took over, I was so optimistic. The Living Daylights is still one of my favorites - the script seemed to care about the story and characters (well, in the context of James Bond movies). License to Kill, however was a total mess so exit Mr. Dalton. Pierce Brosnan I like so I was happy to see his Bond movies starting with Goldeneye but they slowly deteriorated and he lasted for 4 movies - I saw every single one of these in the theater, though.

So here we are at Casino Royale, a new Bond with reportedly all the crap jettisoned and I'll probably have to catch it on DVD because Monkey boy is just not ready to sit in a theater seat for 2 hours.

Stripped Room

strippedroom
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Bare nekkid walls!

This process is going much faster than planned. This shot was taken Monday; Todd used the panelling you see here as templates because the wall panelling is the same dimensions as the drywall. They were able to hang almost all the drywall yesterday and even got a good deal mudded (whatever that means - all I know is they aren't far from painting which should be happening today).

This photo also doesn't show that most of the rest of the carpeting is gone (hooray!).

More photos to follow eventually.

More writing

writing3
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Oh! I should add: yesterday when I picked him up from daycare, I led him to the car holding his hand, opened the door, and he got in all by hisself and sat down in his chair! He patiently waited as I buckled him in. This might not sound important, but I have always carried him to the car and placed him in his seat. He's been fighting me lately and now I know why: he wants more independence.

This coming Monday Todd our contractor is coming back and he and Jonathan are going to tackle the living room. This part of the job includes taking the panelling up and putting up drywall. Brenden and I will be banished to the bedrooms (which I need to take photos of because they are beatiful! If not a little stark. I need to put some pictures up, or something. Maybe some dogs playing poker.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

writing
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden likes scribbling. Note to myself - stock up on crayons and drawing paper. I haven't seen him sit still in once place for this long since he learned to crawl.

This is the kitchen floor, by the way, which I know looks filthy. It's because of all the home improvement stuff. I can't wait until this floor is replaced!

What we're watching:

Brenden tried to feed his cookie monster doll a vanilla wafer last night. We TiVo Sesame Street for him and it's showing. I can't get that frickin' song out of my head: "La la, la la! La la, la la! Elmo's World!"

Battlestar Galactica continues to hurt: Starbuck and Tigh were playing "Who's the biggest asshole in the fleet" when Admiral Adama called them on it. Starbuck couldn't take having her surrogate dad refer to her as a "cancer" so she is trying to pull her crap together. Tigh, who was forced to kill his wife, is apparently going to try to drink himself to death.

Catch Me if you Can is a movie about a teenager in the late 60's who conned and wrote bad checks all over the U.S. and Europe. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks star. This movie is only worth seeing because it's based on a true story. And a performance by Christopher Walken that wasn't phoned in (for once).

Speaking of Tom Hanks, I saw Big a few nights ago. Damn he was young. Fun movie.

We saw Mission: Impossible III last night. It was the best of the 3 movies, but I know that's not saying much. Still it wasn't bad for an overblown action movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the bad guy and he does so awesomely. I must say the IMF agency is the worst government agency ever! Every movie has featured a bad guy who was a member of IMF. They're even more compromised than the Los Angeles division of CTU, and that is saying something.

Letter to Brenden Month 17

eating
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I came to the realization recently, Brenden, that you are a highly active child and will need many different places and things to roam, investigate, and climb upon. Sometimes I wish you would just sit down and watch some TV quietly, but then I feel guilty because the last thing the world needs is another couch potato. You do like books, which is great - especially books with photos in them. You like to point to a picture and I'll tell you what it is. You seem pretty hung up on that picture of an airplane. I wonder why?

You aren't adding any new words to your vocabulary but I'm guessing that language hasn't really clicked with you yet. You do like to imitate hand gestures and facial expressions - no, I'm not going to teach you sign language because your daycare provider wouldn't know what the hell you were trying to say so that could only be confusing.

I'm really not sure yet about what I'm going to do about finding more outlets for your active nature. I take you outside when I can, but it's so hard to keep you away from things you want to investigate but really shouldn't (pools, cars, sharp pointy things in the garage, barking dogs, etc). The world is your jungle gym.

Program Notes:

surfing
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Warm up your TiVos:

Iron Chef America will feature a battle featuring Giada Di Laurentis versus Rachel Ray. I just bring this up because of some comments on someone's blog about these two. They will be paired with Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Mario Battali, respectively. The ingredient is cranberries (November 12th @ 9, 8 central ).

Spongebob until you drop - Nickelodeon will be counting down the top 100 Spongebob Squarepants episodes, ending with the premiere of the Spongebob Squarepants movie, which I loved. This all starts Thursday at 8.

Mom with Brenden

Mom w B 6
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Do you like the parallel in this picture? You would think it was staged. Trust me; no one stages Monkey boy and gets away with it!

Speaking of - he has a head cold, plus an ear infection in both ears. That explains why he's been shoving things in them. D'oh!

He's taking an antibiotic and a decongestant. Fortunately I don't have to fight him to take those - I feed the meds to him through a syringe designed for dispensing medication and he cooperates happily. Matter of fact, I usually have to wrestle with him to get the damn thing out of his mouth.

Fall in Oklahoma 4

Fall in Oklahoma 4
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

This is just my entry to keep up with the Nanoo Nanoo blog more month. Not much to say. Brenden is sick so I'm going to pick him up in a little bit - hope I can get through to the doctor's office today. Poor little monkey boy.

Attack of the Monkey Boy

Attack of the Monkey Boy
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Blog more, huh? What do I have to blog about today? How about how everyone on the face of the planet underestimates how much they will spend on large home improvement projects? I don't want to talk about it.

Here's a haflway decent view of the north side of our living room.

Hello!

Hello!
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

November is write more month - many bloggers are pledging to post at least once a day. I'm not sure I'll be able to do that much but I'll take a whack at it.

I bought 5 bags of candy and we still ran out last night. We watched King Kong, Peter Jackson's remake of the highly beloved and rarely seen 30's film. The good things: lotsa kewl action, Jack Black, and excellent CGI work behind the animating of the 25-foot ape. He was a very sympathetic creature. The bad things: it was too frackin' long!!! Usually I don't have a problem with butt-numbing films unless you actually notice that your butt is numb before the movie ends. I hate to say it Pete, you could have cut down your story and it would have been just as effective. The movie was just an onslaught and I was worn out by the time Kong fell off the Empire State Building. Sorry if I spoiled that for you.

The work in the house is going slowly but steadily. Jon has put the flooring down in the back bathroom and the bedroom and it looks good. I was very surprised at just how dingy the ceiling looked when it was painted and I could contrast the old with the new. the ceiling was old-dishwater grey. Blech! Both Jon and Todd, the contractor, are getting all of the rest of the house finished before tackling the panelling in the living room. At the rate the rest of the house is taking, they may not be getting to it until next week. It's worth it because the care taken with everything is worth it. Photos are forthcoming, because the transformation of the rooms done so far have been astonishing.

Despite Brenden's sugar highs last night, he slept pretty well. His sleeping patterns had been disrupted because of the time change so none of us had gotten enough sleep the last couple of days. Brenden is officially a Smartie junkie. I may never get him to eat a green bean in his lifetime (not that I won't try).