well, yeah.

 From Entertainment Weekly's top 100 movies of the last 25 years. Go through their list, BOLD the ones you have seen, and underline the ones you own on video or DVD; put an asterisk next to the one you love. Italicize the ones you want to see.  Strike through the ones you hate/don't want to ever see.

If I'm counting correctly, I've seen 89 of the movies. Of the 11 I haven't seen, I want to see 5 of them. If it's filmed in shakey-cam, then no thank you. I get seasick from that.

Went to Ikea today (with the fabulous bookworm!) and they were out of something that I need for my summer camp. 

Anyone near an Ikea, willing to go shopping for me? It's easels, and they are out of them in Atlanta, Orlando and Washington, DC area Ikeas.

If anyone could do this, I will overnight a check to you. 

THANKS!

Soo, West Virginia? I guess I need to make sure I go sometime, huh? And Deleware, too.


create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks. 
 
I think I've been to Nebraska, too, but I'm not sure. And driving into Wyoming to say that we went to Wyoming - does this count, or no? I vote no. These are all states where I have spent the night. 

Henry update: He's doing much better. We had the follow-up visit today, and his lungs are all clear. No wheezing, and now we're doing another 6 days of antibiotics followed by a Zyrtec trial and then getting his adnoids checked out. Pediatrician doesn't think he has a speech delay, so that's a relief.

Henry update:

Things are going well. Yay! 

We're skipping school today and tomorrow, and he's being a champ about breathing treatments, at least for the first 8 minutes or so. Then he starts to get a wee bit antsy. Today we were still doing them every four hours, but starting tonight they go to every six hours. So instead of waking up at 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., he'll get one treatment at midnight, and then at 6 a.m. Then on Wednesday they go to every 8 hours, and he can go back to school. And I can go back to work. Thursday we have our follow-up appointment.

Also: waking up at 2 a.m. to do those treatments the last two nights has kicked our butts. We are used to sleeping through the night, dammit. I don't have any idea how we survived those first few months of being a mom. I honestly have no idea when Henry stopped needing a middle-of-the-night nursing session. But I'd like to thank him for that, because it must have been bliss.

The rash is all gone now, by the way. I'm sure that's from the antibiotics he's on for the ear infection, or maybe the steroids. I have no idea. Smooth-bellied baby, though.

In other Henry news, he's still deciding that he's going to potty train himself. I'm not going to share every disgusting detail with you as we journey to independence, but I'd like y'all to know that today he had a bath at 11 a.m. that required his hair to be washed. Twice.

One of the things we're supposed to do while Henry is getting better is keep him calm and not hot. So, we've been playing with Thomas ("track") and watching Noggin. Y'all, there are some seriously screwed up shows out there. The rule in our house is that we don't watch tv when the sun is shining, and we only watch shows we've recorded. On the list of shows we watch: Jack's Big Music Show, Bunnytown, Oswald, Blue's Clues, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, and Wow Wow Wubzy. I hate all of these shows except Jack's Big Music Show, and Henry absolutely loves them. 

You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy mine below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out :)

 I'm your basic yellow dog democrat. 

Well, actually, I'm a crazy, married-to-a-trial-lawyer, liberal. We rant and rave in our house. But, for the purposes of elections, I'm a yellow dog democrat.

I didn't follow the race day-by-day, because I voted on super Tuesday, was happy with who I got to vote for, and knew that it didn't matter who won the nomination, because that person would have my vote. I'm happy with Obama, but I admit to being sad that it's not Hillary. 

I am tired of the reactions I'm seeing from some people: poor winners are just as annoying as poor losers. And can we please not fuck this up as a party? Pretty please with sugar on top?

I guess I need to go find me a good AlObama sticker now.

Sad day today. My parents' dog Roxy died this morning. She was a shephard/collie mix of some sort, and was at least 14 years old, but maybe as old as 16. They got her as a rescue, and at the time the vet knew she was at least a year, but possibly as old as three. My parents had her for 13 years - a good run for a really sweet dog.

It happened very suddenly - last weekend, she started throwing up. She spent a few days at the vet, and they thought they had figured out what was going on, but she went downhill over the weekend. Yesterday she couldn't keep any water down, and this morning she was obviously in decline. About 9 a.m., she was gone. She's now buried at the back of the lot at our lakehouse. It was nice that her last weekend was at the lake, her favorite place to be. 

Here's a picture of her from Mother's Day. Sweet girl. We'll miss you.

My stress levels are not subsiding, as I had hoped that they would be. Instead, they seem to be ramping up.  This is not fair, and I would like to have a discussion with.... myself? I don't know. It's not all self-induced, but most of it is over things that I do have the ultimate responsibility for (either by choice or assignment), and so I don't know who or what or how someone else could help alleviate my stress load.

Being a grown-up = hard. Boo.

I quit smoking about 5 years ago. I miss it so much, like a phantom limb. At times like these I feel myself reaching for a pack that hasn't been there in quite a while. I find myself holding pens and chalk and paint brushes like they are cigarettes. I notice people smoking all the time, jealous that they still enjoy them. 

I can't even go back to smoking. I took a drag off of a friend's cigarette a few weeks ago, and it was like I was sneaking my Grandfather's Chesterfields, and I was 12 all over again, coughing and turning bright red and trying everything in my power not to throw up. 

And then I think, oh -- if you could just smoke through that first one, I bet you could be back to it in no time! With everything else I have to do, however. relearning to smoke isn't on my list. 

It actually wasn't that hard to quit. I decided I wanted to get pregnant. Didn't want to "have" to quit because I was pregnant, and the pack I had was the last one I smoked. I finished the last cigarette and started on the patch. Never had cravings, never got freaked out. I had a reason, a goal, and it was easy. Staying quit is easy, too, when the smell makes you gag. But I miss that calming feeling they gave me, that pause that I had. There were those moments, and I miss them.