OK, I think I am getting the hang of this new Blackberry, mostly by using Google mobile apps to run it instead of the proprietary junk it came with. It already looks and runs better.
Oh, and the new gadget means I have a new phone #. If I didn’t already send it to you, and you need it, please e-mail me and I’ll hook you up.
C. is finally getting teeth. Today is her first birthday, and within the past week, several started coming in all at once.
She’s drooling, her nose is running, her eyes are puffy and she is miserable. She wants to nurse all night. Poor little monkey.
This pain that comes with getting teeth seems a bit of an evolutionary glitch. I mean, growing hair and fingernauils doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt to get taller or gain weight. So what’s up with the teething thing, Ms. Mother Nature?
I don’t recall E., J., or H. hurting this much from their teething.
So today I picked up a Blackberry Curve on a 30 day trial. Apparently they are pretty eager to sell the things (given that iPhone is kicking them to the curb), so the deal was great, and again, I have 30 days to evaluate it and see if it’s the gadget for me.
So far, I am really frustrated.
Internet is sloooooow, and the browser is impossible. Navigation is driving me nuts. Lots of stuff simply won’t load at all, giving me the “searching for script” message for ages.
Ugh.
I like animals, and people know this, so folks frequently e-mail me links to You Tube clips of critters doing interesting or heartwarming things. Generally, I remain mostly unimpressed.
But THIS one is different. It’s really something, although I highly recommend that you watch it with the annoying Whitney Houston soundtrack turned off. Why couldn’t they have used the far superior Dolly Parton version? But I digress…
Anyway, it’s pretty nifty stuff. Go watch it.
The two guys in the video are just as entertaining as the lion. I love their 1972-era pants and hair in the video of them meeting up with the lion in Africa.
So after MONTHS of trying to figure out which one to buy…..
I still can’t quite decide.
So convince me. What do you love/hate about your gadget? Which one should I go with?
Ssssshhhhhh! Don’t tell the birthday girl (she’ll be one on Thursday and her party is Saturday) what she gets to wear for her big day.
Sweet Miss Georgia sent this ridiculously cute birthday dress and hat! I can’t wait to see C. wearing that hat!
I kid!
I kid!
But seriously, I think it’s her new teeth coming in (finally), but C. has just flat stopped sleeping. She wants to nurse every 30 minutes all night, and she whimpers the rest of the time she’s supposed to snooze. During the daytime, she’s perfectly jolly.
It’s interesting, because as hard as it is, the sleep interruptions really do get easier with each baby. When H. went thru this phase, I thought I was going to die of sleep deprivation. Now, once I get up and get going, I am fine (although perhaps a little crankier for the first 30 minutes.).
I also find sleep deprivation easier to handle when I am getting up and going to my job than I did during the years where I stayed home wth the children. At work, I feel perfectly energized and peppy. When I stay home and am super tired, I get lethargic and whiny.
One of the great joys of parenthood for me is reading books to my children at bedtime. H. and J. are obviously past wanting me to read at night (although J. occasionally still joins in with E. and me). But E. at age 10 still really loves it.
H. and I read many, many, many books at bedtime - mostly history - when he was younger.
Last night E. and I started another Narnia book: The Last Battle. I know he’s on the cusp of adolescence (although he’s currently still very much a little boy), so I am savoring every moment I have left of the bedtime snuggles. I like to breathe in his little-boy-at-the-end-of-a-day-at -summer-daycamp smell, and have his fuzzy little head rest in the crook of my arm while we read…
Sweetness.
You know how some words just get under your skin? “Momtourage” is one that is currently irking me.
I am sick to death of people using “green” and “mom” as substitutes for parts of otherwise perfectly good words. Like how “entrepreneur” has become “mompreneur.” Shudder And renovate has become “greenovate.” Ick.
But “momtourage” is the worst of the crop. And I hate it even more now that it’s the catch phrase for a new Wal Mart ad campaign aimed at women with children.
And I wonder who is in the “momtourage” of the Guatemalan and Indian mothers making 25 cents an hour who churn out the stuff we buy at stores like Wal Mart?
Please keep Julie and James and their children in your thoughts today.
This is a difficult day for them, and everyone who loves baby Ward. It’s hard to believe that it has been three years.
So I’ve mentioned before that my neighborhood, about which I love most things, has this one teensy little problem: lots o’ vagrants and in-your-face panhandlers. Although putting a simple white picket fence around the yard has cut down on the problem quite a bit, we still have a fair amount of panhandling arrive on our front porch. Yes, these folks actually come knocking on your front door asking for money.
When we first moved here, I always gave them some. But then I started realizing that a good many of these folks were likely casing my house and my neighbors’ houses for the petty property crime (people have things like house plants and dogfood bowls stolen off their porches) that sort of plagues the ‘hood. So I stopped. Plus, they generally come after I’ve gone to bed or ins ome cases, in the very early morning hours, and I think that’s really rude.
A few months ago, a woman who looked to be in her 60s came by one day while I was out in my yard. She was limping, and carrying some really bizarro, sequined shirts and dresses. She asked me whether I wanted to buy some of the stuff, because she needed money. I said no thanks, but I did give her $5, which was all I had on me. She shuffled off down the street, as I felt sick and guilty for my own good health and many blessings.
Then, a month or so later, I was out strolling C. around the neighborhood, and the same woman was out in the front yard of one of the more rundown houses at the end of our street. She came to the fence to admire and coo over the baby. I asked her if her leg had improved, and she said yes. She told me she lived in the house with her sons, and that she had all kinds of health problems, and no one to help her, etc, etc, etc. At that point, a very thuggy looking young guy came out on the porch of her house and openly glared at me, so my impulse to maybe offer to help her in some way evaporated, as I realized I in no way wanted to invite awareness of my family’s existence down the street by that guy or his brothers, who also apparently live there. I felt really bad about it though. The woman clearly needs some help.
Then, last night, at about 11pm, the doorbell rang. Jon was already in bed. I went to the door - not opening it - and saw that it was this same woman. She was sweating profusely, and carrying what appeared to be a metal box and two VHS tapes. I could hear her and she could hear me through the leaded glass that surrounds our door, so I asked her what she needed. She seemed very anxious as she told me she was hoping some neighbor would buy the two VHS tapes plus a tape rewinder (that was the metal box) so her husband would have enough money for gas to get to work in the morning.
Ummmm…no.
I was afraid to even open the door to give her any cash, even if I had had any in the house - I literally did not. I was concerned that one or more of her “sons” might be waiting outside to get in the house if I opened the door. And what of this husband? She hadn’t mentioned him before. Does she even have one? And are her “sons” abusing her ins ome way, forcing her to do strange things like bang on neighbors’ doors at 11pm to sell VHS tapes so they can get drug money or check out potential burglary sites?
Who knows? I don’t. And I don’t know what our neighborhood can do about these night visitors. I’ve never lived anywhere - any sort of neighborhood - where these nighttime porch panhandlers are so pervasive. It’s very disturbing.
I probably should have called the police, but I find it hard to send the authorities after a sick, impoverished woman who hasn’t actually done anything illegal.
What would you do about this woman? What would you have done?
Oh boy, this is a funny list. This one is my favorite:
Gay children’s children - Dick Cheney proved that even Republicans can love their gay children’s children. Thanks, Dick.
What would you add to the list?
Tonight I had a really good time leading a workshop on blogging for writers at Pellissippi Community College. It was sponsored by the Knoxville Writer’s Guild. Thanks to those who came!
When I got home, I learned the exciting news that C. sprouted her first little tooth today! On the bottom. I guess that explains her sleep troubles the past few nights…
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