Category: Grandson goo

ow

Katie and Alex came by to do laundry, eat pork stir fry which I had providentially cooked up that morning, and drink coffee, and Paul showed up to take me for a walk but was only too happy to take us all in his car, which involved much shovage and shrinkage on Katie’s part.

Somewhere in there the kitchen clock fell on my head and shattered, and I have a hummingbird egg on my head.  Getting hit by a clock when you’re 56 just seems a little too on the nose, doncha think?

So we 4 went to the Quay, and walking like my pelvic girdle done come apart, and grateful for the prop of the stroller, I got 2 k in, and then, joy of joys, Paul treated Katie and I to the sopa de tortilla at the Quay (best soup that isn’t phở for many miles).  Then I came home and I would have liked to have collapsed, but Alex was here so I sang to him and watched him career about in his Jolly Jumper (which was the reason the kitchen clock got dislodged, but oh well it’s still running although Jeff had to pull more glass out of it this morning.)

Church was okay.  The speaker had wonderful things to say about feeling like an odd person out, but a man in the congregation kept talking and it was hard to hear what was going on sometimes.  Also, the amount of tunage has dropped away to practically nothing, which is in my view somewhat farcical.  I didn’t hang about for the soup lunch.

The xray result should be back soon.  I have a note in to call the doc.

I have a rather troubling new symptom; the numb patch on the bottom of my foot more than doubled in size in the last twenty-four hours.  This is the first time the paresthesia has gotten significantly worse since my initial recovery from the L5-s1 injury, and what really cheeses me off is that I have been making a tremendous effort to get more flexibility happening and my symptoms get worse.  (I have been doing various exercises for my hips and back).  FML, as the kids say.

If I keep being this fragile I have no idea what will happen come May when I’m expected to do childcare several days a week.  I imagine I’ll adjust, but it’s a terrifying prospect that I might put my back out again.  Also, it’s by no means settled where this childcare will happen….

 

 

Sore

KatieAlexFeb15Walked 4+ km yesterday and my back feels okay but my pelvis is trashed.  Only managed the CPAP for an hour and a half .

Alex is so cute!  Yes I was walking around New Westminster yesterday, and although I have like $60 in my account until more funds arrive I simply had to have a Chronic Taco (Katie and I split one, it was SUPER DELICIOUS).  They cost a bomb but they are simply loaded with nutrition.

As a member of the League of Practical Women I purchased Katie some WD40 which immediately got used to desqueak the horrifically squeaky wheels of the stroller.

Pic back at the apartment.

Note: Baby drool smells GHASTLY once it dries.  I came home and thought, gosh, that’s …. what’s that….. and then ran to change my shirt.  He is Tom Drooly, f’sure.

wa-ho

OMFGBWAHAHA.  NOT SAFE FOR WORK.  The noise this thing makes is a complete relief for grief and woe. TLDR: I wouldn’t want a device that sounds like a cross between a prop plane and a sewing machine anywhere near mah nethers.

I musta burnt 500 calories last night with the tossing and turning.  I wore the CPAP for 4 long and tedious hours and finally gave up, got up, peed, took another painkiller (I was in AGONY after the walk, and it hurt to roll over but I had to to get my back to hurt in different ways).  Got up at 9 and had to deal with the tedium of rumbly tummy after my sushi lunch yesterday. Crossing that restaurant off my list.

Katie and Alex are coming to record some songs, they should be here imminently.

 

The second worst thing about being a white liberal is that there are fewer and fewer people I can openly mock and pick on. The worst thing is knowing that there should not be ANYBODY in that category. If I really cared, I’d mend and not mock. I think that having hundreds of millions of people to hate, fear, mock, jeer and write bigoted laws for is part of the special appeal of social conservatism.

Moar coffee

I got a perfectly good nights’ sleep but I feel very sludgy today.

On the list of things to do:  Mail package to Sandy.  Buy butter.  Make a list of the stuff I have to get  for the Feast of St. Brigid – we’re having a musical evening at Planet Bachelor on February 1st and I’m cooking (and likely cleaning, if trends hold). Practice songs and assemble song books for that event. Moar editing – I’m doing a little every day, which is happy making.  Hopefully it will result in fewer “What the hell is this??” notes from Dianne. Make some phone calls.  Go for a walk – I am thinking of walking up to the library. Watch the Librarians double episode season closer. Put away my clothes, including my COAT which Buster PISSED ON.  Argh.  Sally told me yesterday that once male cats get that habit you’ll be dealing with it forever, but we can has UV lights for piss detection and we shall enzyme clean and Feliway everything in the house if we have to.  Right now it’s REDOLENT up in here. Take a metric crapstack of painkillers and clean. Figure out how to get the mirror off the wall in the bathroom so I can get it resilvered, I am tired of looking like a zombie in my own bathroom mirror.  Fix my website. Get more crap to Value Village. Make a square blankee for Alex.

Jeff is really liking Z Nation – it’s not a soap opera with occasional zombies like Walking Dead, it’s all zombies, all the time, with occasional stops for breath.  He sometimes comes upstairs and tells me of the new and improved zombie killing methods the show comes up with, like squishing them with the Liberty Bell, which you have to admit is hilarious.  Also it’s shot in the Pacific NW so props.

Seahawks did the ultimate haw haw you thought being two td’s ahead was going to stop us to the Packers yesterday.  The fans screamed themselves hoarse.

I forgot to say how VERY HAPPY I was to see Ivy back at church yesterday.  I love that woman and I’m glad to see she’s recovering well from her busted hip.

 

 

Alex at three months

He looked like Katie the last time he was here; now he looks breathtakingly like Keith at that age, most especially when he has a look of concentration or is smiling.

He responds to music by turning his head to see what’s going on. Alex is delightful to perform for. We spent about half an hour ‘walking’ him back and forth between me and Katie. So strong.

I took him downstairs to commune with the Star Trek pinball game, and he swam around on his stomach on the glass, sometimes following the ball with tremendous concentration, other times just slapping the living shit out of the glass and drooling on it while making the usual gurgling cooing noises.

Man, he hates the stroller unless it’s moving; then he’s unconscious.

I have video of him but can’t find my camera cable.  It’s getting to the point I prefer using my camera phone, because it’s so instantaneous and hassle free.

Mash up

So I finagled a tune.  I hum it all the bloody time, but I never wrote it down before today.  I uploaded it and of course my computer went crazy and won’t let me actually save the damned file to the media portion of my blog.  FML!

(Jeff says: you can hear it by clicking the following link and choosing to open the file. It should play in your computer’s default audio player. 60s tv show theme)

Anyway, tunage wise, it’s what happens when you collide the Dick Van Dyke Show theme song with the Red Dwarf theme song.  You’re welcome.  Hey, I did something about my backlog today and it isn’t even NOON.

KATIE AND ALEX ARE COMING.  I hope.  Things do change.

My day so far

I’ve climbed back on the writing horse, but since it’s edits I can’t really say OH I WROTE THIS MUCH TODAY.  It’s going well.  I have to figure out how to represent targets though.  Manuscript pages edited?  Dunno, that seems most likely.

I baked bacon for BLTs and made up ingredients so they are ready to go.

I watched the last Hobbit movie.  It was quite well done, although purists will be shuddering from head to foot for the duration.  I am not a purist.

I went for a walk in the predawn murk and fetched cream for coffee and milk for tea, to keep that writer’s support of caffeine flowing.

Poor Hannah, the gal who was supposed to help yesterday, was sick. I was sick all the bloody time when I was her age.  Now I literally cannot remember the last time I had anything resembling a cold or flu; how much I’m washing my hands might have something to do with that.

So many people, including the visitors from last week, volunteered that it made life much easier; the soup lunch is always quite chaotic, and then there was a business meeting at the end of it that I was just as happy to stay out of. I had Peggy’s turkey soup.  It was quite yummy.

I wore my brown snowflake motif pj’s and my steampunk hat, and was complimented.  Seriously. By everybody from Jane (who has an identical set in purple, it’s like she’s my time twin or something) to the minister, who cracked up and then told me she admired my sense of style.  The only places in the world that make me feel anything approaching the same level of acceptance, in order of closeness, Mike’s place, Planet Bachelor (but only when Janice isn’t there…. ha ha), Tom and Peggy’s, my fOlks’, Conflikt and Polycamp. I am a lucky hound, f’sure.

I told Rob to invite himself to supper sometime.  He was happy to hear it.

I’m selling printer ink on Craigslist – buyer is supposed to show up tonight around supper.  There’s nothing like buying $75 of ink and having the fucking printer promptly quit.  I’m letting it go for cheap just to get it out of the house.

Sue drove me home again, home again, and then off to an audition.  I hope I’m like her in 18 years!!

Katie didn’t come to church but she just posted that Alex rolled from his back to his tummy.  I wonder if and when he’s going to start crawling.

Margot stared me into throwing a treat to her this morning.  I can’t wait for Buster to get fixed, he’s so lively, even with the cone of shame, that it’s quite exhausting for her.

I dejunked my phone this morning.  I took out a hundred phone numbers, mostly for the café, which, duh, I no longer need, and 1.2 gigs of crapware.  Go me.

I got enough sleep last night! I went to bed at 8 pm and woke up at 5, which is wonderful.

Here are the cinnamon buns I made yesterday.

Cinnamonbuns

 

 

Homily number almost 20…

I should count them up, although I think one of them has gone missing. Edited later: There are actually 21 but I can’t find the text for Garbage Day.  Drat.  I thought mOm sent it to me.

This morning’s homily, enlivened by 4 newcomers and Alex and Katie (Alex smiling and babbling in a simply enchanting way) went very well.  You can find it here. It was so cute watching Rob W in his Viking hat, being the uncleybear.

In particular, people liked the comment about the draft horse, and they loved the children’s story (different to what you’ll see, but Marilyn did a superb job of cutting it down without cutting it out AND she got participation from the chillums.)

I am going to take the rest of the day off (except for the usual snacks and laundry and whatnot) and fling myself at the novel again starting tomorrow morning.

 

Alex is coming!

I know, most of the world doesn’t care…. anyway, I have put aside a couple of kids books for him, being Koko’s Kitten and The Pokey Little Puppy, seeing as how they are family favourites.  Katie’s going to come some time this morning and we’re going to go for a walk, since I need to mail Tammy’s sweater back to her.

Keith dropped by yesterday and we fed him crudites with crockpot pork chomps and onyums.

I found my will and my burial arrangements yesterday!  I cleaned out the living room, and candidly that is not where I expected to find them.  However they are now back in my room where they belong.

We tried to watch Fleming, the 4 part miniseries, but it was goshawful, so we stopped.  We’re enjoying Salamander, which is Belgian and very suspenseful, and I love love love Filip Peeters, who is about as cute as middle aged men get and has one of the most startlingly asymmetrical faces I’ve seen east of Picasso.  Also, Mike Verdrengh would be perfect as Jordan de Riberac.

I made pancakes for breakfast.  It’s been ages since I did that.

All is merry and bright

  1. Paul gave me and Jeff motion detector lights; the upgetting to pee is now a lot easier.  Paul’s approach to Christmas gifts is to buy a bag of useful objects and let you pick which one you like – this year the theme was light, so it was headlamp, motion detector light or keychain flashlight.
  2. I was really resentful about ‘having’ to do Christmas dinner, and then I asked myself what it would take to be less resentful.  I immediately thought “If I don’t have to buy the turkey and lug it home!”  To which Paul happily agreed, and Keith lugged it over here.  Resentment vanished, I went to Granville Island with Tammy for the rest of the veg and happily lugged that home.
  3. I made vegan squash soup – there wasn’t enough for everybody and it was damned good.
  4. so much good beer – pumpkin ale, winter ale, shipwreck IPA! Tammy brought some nice wine.
  5. The turkey was good – the meat delicious, the skin like an advertisement – but what was really amazing was the gravy. I ended up eating it cold as a side for leftover pie, and it was SO GOOD.  It was pan dripping gravy.  I stuck the pan drippings in a blender, added a tablespoon of cake flour and about half a cup of milk, blended the shit out of it and then nuked it for a minute.  From such pedestrian beginnings came a voluptuously smooth gravy with a meaty and almost nutty flavour.
  6. Mike and Tammy and Paul and Katie and Keith and I sang and played afterwards, and Alex grooved along.  He really really likes music, and he is most fabulously strong.  He apparently likes his Christmas present, which was a stuffed T Rex. Paul introduced Tammy to Never Set the Cat on Fire, which was wonderful.
  7. Wine was spilled on Granny’s linen tablecloth… horrors! and it came out again the next morning with some Amaze.  Tablecloth is clean, folded and ready for use.
  8. Earlier this week I got the lobster dinner I have been drooling for, except it was lunch, and it was with Tammy, so it was pretty much perfect.
  9. Although the kitchen is once again the habitation of orcs this morning, I HAD cleaned up and ran a dishwasher and got rid of the empties and straightened out the living room the next morning and returned some sanity to the proceedings.
  10. Today I hope to get cat litter.  With two cats, more shit.  It is the law.
  11. Autumn is a boy.  He is now Buster.  Jeff and I are fine with this, but not fine with not noticing earlier.  He will be snipped in a week or so.
  12. He has been to the vet for suturing because he’s already gotten in fights. Margot was disturbed by him before, but with a cone on his head she is Miss Hissy each time he approaches.
  13. I am really enjoying everybody’s pics of how happy their Christmas has been.  The various traditions from around the world and around the various ethnicities of my friends and flist make me happy in their variety and conviviality.
  14. I am sad to have missed Christmas Eve service because it was the last time a certain church member will ever provide music for us, because he is awesome, but also sick.  As sad as I am about this, I made happy memories in my own home with my loves and kin.
  15. Keith was sober, and he was Mom’s taxi.  He: ferried Tammy to and from Edmonds, drove his sister home, drove Rob to Church and drove Mike and his Dad home.  As happy as I was to see Alex, Keith did a lot to make the evening perfect, and I am now considering (which I can do here, since he never reads my blog, haw haw) how I shall appropriately reward him for his service.
  16. A car was stolen from in front of our house at 3:30 am Christmas morning.  I spoke to a Burnaby RCMP officer about it… Jeff and I were asleep at the time, or in no position to see what was happening.  I thanked her for working Christmas Day and wished for her to stay safe out there.
  17. I made chocolate cake.  I am thinking perhaps cinnamon rolls later. The turkey soup is made and in the freezer.

This concludes my report….

Katie’s angel wings for real

So there I am more or less on time for church (and I’m up for coffee but I’m hardly alone – Karen and Laura and and Sandra and Arlette and Tom all got up in cheese cutting and dish washing and table bussing and cake baking and cake cutting and various kinds of arranging and fooding).  I take full responsibility for the black tea shortage. I learn from Sandra that Katie has already arrived with Alex and I’m all excited because I’m there to hand out one giant stuffed tyrannosaurus (with a beautiful golden ribbon round his middle cause I’ll be dipped in dogshit before I wrap another present) and also quantity one family heirloom Christmas stocking, made by Alex’s great great grandma Evelyn, which is obviously a much bigger deal that the stuffed animal and made Katie’s eyes light up.

She comes downstairs to nurse Alex who is hongry (he kipped after) and tells me a delightful story about how she’s standing on the Skytrain platform, minding her usual, and a getting on for elderly woman approaches her and says, My vision really sucks and I want to make sure I’m getting the right train (note: the station is a transfer point).  Can you put me on the Millennium train?  That’s where I’m going, says Katie.  I’m actually going to church, the woman says.  Me too says Katie.  I’m going to Beacon, the woman says.  Me too says Katie.

Helen  – the woman in question – says one doesn’t expect Unitarian angels but they are everywhere. I wasn’t expecting my daughter to be one.

Alex was deliciously cute in dress pants and a tailored white cotton shirt.  He didn’t smile at me but he wiggled and grinned at his mother in that orgy of mutual admiration that is a properly functioning kid-mama bond, and I almost feel there was something wrong, he didn’t fart once.

I have to say I’m a very fond grandma right now.

List of projects

My current list of writing projects, which represents pious hope rather than firm commitment, is now in my portfolio.

Paul took me for a walk yesterday.  It was quite pleasant, and we all watched tv afterwards.

I forgot to mention (what a CRAPPY grandmother) that I saw Alex on Sunday.  It is simply astonishing how much gas that kid makes.  He farts pretty much continuously. He gave me another sly little social smile.  He likes being held, that’s for sure.

Autumn is still terrorizing Margot.

 

 

 

GLD

The Good Little Dood lived up to his moniker, doing the two things he’s best at, being adorable and farting pretty much continuously.

I held him while the homilist sang Angels Among Us and he smiled at me. He thought very hard about what was appropriate before he unfurled his brow and gave me that “your mirror neurons will go nuts” look.  I suspect he came into the world with a rather solemn but undemanding temperament. Time will tell.

Autumn Cat has landed! Poor Margot.

DSC01373

Yay, it’s an Alexander day!

Alex will be at church with Katie, or so it was arranged and I piously hope will come to pass.  I do coffee today so it’s even money whether or not I get to be upstairs for the homily portion.  Sue is taking me in early and I’ll do an inventory and see if there’s enough of whatnot for coffee etc., then cross the street and pick it up.  Happy daze.  Should be a good homily though. Marilyn asked me to do another homily for January 4 – one of the worst attended days of the year – so I’m going to do what I can to boost the numbers.  If you’re reading this, why not come to church that day!!??

THE GREAT YULETIDE COOKIEPALOOZA happens next Friday.  It will turn into a filk.  A messy messy housefilk, with crumbs and greasy thumbprints on the music.  Yes, indeed.  Thanks to Tom and Peggy for hosting.  We will also have the AMERICAN CONTINGENT, being the uber crafty Jeri-Lynn and the suavely geeky Jeff.  Who are just so awesome.  Cindy and possibly others will attend also.

It’s raining.  After yesterday’s glorious sun (which I got to walk around in, thanks to Paul not understanding that the Brighton Costco parking lot at 11 am is the worst fucking place in the known universe and how long precisely has he been living in Burnaby grumble grumble, but no harm done).  I drove through the parking lot and then drove back to Planet Bachelor and walked home from there, accompanied by Keith who just felt like continuing the conversation, which was pleasant, and made the walk back go in an eyeblink.  I needed the exercise.  I really wanted to pick some stuff up at Costco because there’s some bread there I can’t find anywhere else plus cheap butter and you know, baking, but perhaps I can borrer the car.  Apart from the walk and the abortive Costco trip I basically stayed in bed crying all day, but I’m feeling much better now.  Tammy is coming in December! Conflikt 8 (I can scarcely credit it…) is coming! And I still haven’t registered or figured out how I am getting there.  If I’m staying extra long I may need to like, bus it.  Bleaaugh.

I love my mOm and pOp.  mOm provided the correct stream of unfiltered bubbliness (occasionally going off mike to inform pOp of my responses) to assist with my bad case of the Marthambles – why, she’s better than a dose of Dr. Tufts finest elixir.

Still no cat.  I suspect what has happened is that the daughter has flung herself on the ground and pleaded her mom not to let Autumn go and the mom has been too embarrassed to tell Jeff she’s changed her mind, but perhaps Jeff is right and it’s just taking longer than expected.  Sometimes I think this culture is so indulgent to its children because these are the last good days and everybody’s trying to make them seem extra special.

I removed an incredible amount of hair surplus to requirements from Margot yesterday.  She was not amused.

Day five of Vitamin D, Vitamin C, B6, probiotics and MSM.  I am definitely feeling less achey, except for my hands, which is making me not want to play my Otto.

Jeff’s playing computer games on line with somebody, I assume Andrew – I can hear him talking to somebody on the headset.  “I think we just combined to kill one of our own tanks!” is the latest.

With sadness, I have cancelled the piano lessons.  He wasn’t listening to my course corrections and I’m not paying a man $35 bucks an hour to ignore me when I can have it for free any time I want on the internet.

My most recent painting is an unmitigated disaster.  I am going to paint over it.  I got the colours right but the design has much suckage – I think I’ll paint over it as a zombie heart.

Now to make a chocolate cake for church and figure out what I am going to wear.  And I have to remember to take a tape measure, for I mean to measure some crania, I do, I do, for future hatmaking endeavours.  Hats and spats. Cravats with cats. Fingerless gloves and pleather utility belts. I have to figure out how to make a living, and since there seems to be an inexhaustible interest in the steampunk aesthetic, I shall pursue that hobby for a while.

 

If I recall correctly

I have a job interview next week – no time set yet so it’s still a possibility rather than a sure thing.  If I recall correctly it doesn’t pay well but it isn’t a ghastly way to make a living and it’s got a half hour commute, ten minutes if I’m in a car.

I bought a sewing machine…. looking forward to unlimbering it on some steampunk costuming and, er, baby clothes.  Possibly steampunk baby clothes.  Gack.