Yay, I’m going to write more about my kids! There are other things in my brain, but the kids are just some of the brightest and most amusing. I tend to notice them more than all of that other stuff.

The boys have turned over their vast candy collections to me in the name of MONEY. They are at wonderful ages now, five and seven, and understand that they can use money to buy things. Things, for example, that I won’t always buy them out of the goodness of my heart. Like more Wii or DS games, or yet another Pokemon playset. In order to pare down the giant buckets of candy they have been cultivating for years now, I bribed them: a nickel for every piece of candy to be thrown away. Much to my surprise, Max gave away every piece in his bucket, save one bag of Skittles. Khai gave all but four pieces away. The grand total? I am out $11.45 — well worth the circumvention of the pain and suffering of the sugar. I think this is a win-win situation.

Ever in pursuit of the complete nerdification of my kids, I have once again been surfing American Science & Surplus for Christmas present ideas. There are so many cool things there! How do I choose? Physics workshops! Pulleys! Geodes! I have to set some limits. Maybe I’ll only get things that will fit into their stockings.

I’m tired. Maybe I’m not sleeping well because Josh is gone? Not sure. I’m ready for a full night of sleep. There’s a lot of mental chatter that just needs to go away. Need snuggles.

CNN hasn’t really told me anything good yet, but I’m glued to it all the same. Also, I am going to wear out my F5 button on FiveThirtyEight and the countdown on the Google election results page, as well as this Metafilter thread.

There probably won’t be much sleep tonight– I feel like I’m eight years old and it’s Christmas Eve.

I just bought four tickets to the 2pm Polyphonic Spree concert at the Granada on December 13. This will be Max & Khai’s first concert; I think they will love it. SO EXCITED!

There’s a post brewing. It has been a long month… so many ups and downs.

HELLO, COMPUTER FRIENDS. I MISS YOU.

It was a strange night. Josh’s alarm went off at 3:30am (he usually gets up at 4am to study), and for some reason sleep did not find me again til after 5am. So the snooze button and I were good friends once it was actually time to get out of bed. Just before I hit snooze for the third time, I was dreaming that Josh and I were in the freezer section of a big store. Something had fallen, and in typical Josh style, he was re-stacking bags upon bags of frozen sugar snap peas. While straightening the labels. And making sure they were all in a completely uniform line. I’d been standing back watching him, a little impatient, but knowing this is just one of his things. I handed him an errant bag, asking if I should just put it to the side since we’d probably come back to buy it later. He snatched it out of my hand… “No. It goes over here.”

This whole time, there is another man nearby who is asking Josh about his job, what kind of storage he deals with, how long his contracts are, etc. Josh is answering all of the questions in a nearly monotonous tone, as his focus is zeroed in on the very important task of perfecting the frozen sugar snap pea freezer case.

Exciting dream, yeah? The scary thing is that it could have all been real. Maybe it’s a memory of something that has actually happened! Or perhaps a glimpse of the future. These are the days of my life.

I chopped all of my hair off a few days ago. Really short. Really, really short. I’m happy with it. Once I figure out how to style it, I’ll post a pic.

I’ve been trying to sort my brain out and figure out what direction to point myself in. I have no doubt I can accomplish just about anything I want to– it’s a matter of figuring out what it is I want out of life. The old life goals are no longer relevant, but I’m not sure what the new ones are yet. Mostly I just feel like I’m scattered all over the place, all the time– restless with no focus. But I’m working on it. Making room for quiet time, sans distractions, is harder than it seems.

Now it’s time for COFFEE. And food. I just realized that I’m ravenous.

It was a moment of weakness, a quick and poor decision. In realizing that I had the ingredients to make flourless peanut butter cookies (including a partial bag of chocolate chips to toss into the mix), it became imperative to whip up a quick batch. They were perfect. And now my heart is racing like I’ve just run a marathon. Maybe I should have only eaten one cookie? Three might have been too many.

Have you read any of Samuel R. Delany’s books? I’ve just started Dhalgren, and it is written in a style unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s disjointed, even for dystopian sci-fi. I’m not very far into the book yet, but I’m intrigued. Dhalgren, and Delaney’s works in general, were recommended in a recent Ask Metafilter thread, so I thought I’d give it a try. Next on the list: Anathem.

This Saturday, the kids are scheduled to have a sleepover at Aunt Jenn’s house… which means Mom & Dad get to do whatever we want for almost 24 hours. Is there anything good happening on Saturday night? We don’t actually go out in the world enough to know what people do for fun. No, really.

The picture meme that was all the rage on the El Jay today was actually the first meme that I really liked. It made me happy to see all of my friends’ faces. Ok, it would be better to see you all in person… but I’ll take what I can get. Oh, and speaking of pictures, I have a new phone… text me and send me a pic to store with your contact info!

You know what Friday is, right? AYE.

It has been so long since I’ve written here that I had to cycle through a couple of password guesses.

Hi, internets. I’m lonely and it’s my own damn fault. So, I’m trying to communicate better. Post on the blog! Great, except I don’t really have anything to say! So here I am, posting for the sake of posting, which is just…. worthless. Eww! I know.

Life is good, I am happy, just a bit lonely. Which sounds pretty pathetic, but that’s the truth.

Here’s a pic of me in a Pikachu hat:

*Not As Evil As I Appear, Trust Me. F’real.

Our town has a Fourth of July parade every year, and the kids love it because people in cool cars throw them candy. Max and Khai wore red, white and blue, and I colored their hair blue for the day. They scorned my lack of patriotic clothing.

Me, to Josh: I don’t even own a single red shirt.

Josh: There’s a good reason for that.

Me: ??

Josh: If you leave the ship in a red shirt, YOU DON’T COME BACK.

Me: !!! You’re right. I’ve been subconsciously programmed.
Red shirts are bad.

Happy Fourth, y’all. Go blow stuff up!!!

This last weekend I went to Portland to see Matt & Jenny. Since I am so overwhelmingly generous, I took some Texas weather with me. I mean really, 100 degrees? In Portland? Since when does that happen? In spite of the heat, we had a great time– there are few people in the world that I’d be content to just sit and sweat with while talking of toasters and playlists.

I took exactly one photo while in Portland, mostly because I was distracted by all of the interesting and very photo-worthy sights. We took two trips to the Hawthorne District, where I struggled to not buy something in each and every store we visited. The coffee flows freely there, and it seems we averaged two coffee stops each day I was there (happy sigh). On Sunday we hit the Saturday Market and browsed the wonderfully eclectic booths– everything from jewelry and paintings to ceramics and windchimes. I bought a fantastic, quirky skirt that I’ll post a pic of soon. OH, Jenny and I also got haircuts! I’ve not had a haircut since last September so I was in dire need of something different. Now if only I could make it look like the stylist did…

Upon returning home, I was greeted by The Most Awesome Husband Ever and some very hyper children. We’ve easily fallen back into our routine: dishes, workbooks, laundry, boardgames, baths. Yesterday I took the kids to see WALL-E and their love for the movie inspired them to create a robot named Zappy. Be careful, he shoots boogers, bubbles and bees. Also, he has an alarm that will sound if he doesn’t know you. Watch out, he can become invincible and can get stronger by getting a one-up. I will sleep well tonight knowing that I am well-guarded by such an impressive robot security team.

Gluten-free graham crackers are next on the agenda. Hopefully they will be a bit less crunchy this time, as I think I left out the baking powder in the last batch. Oops.

I am the happiest girl in the worrrrld! For many reasons, but at this very moment it’s because I just discovered that Indigo Wild offers a roll-on perfume oil in their Frankincense & Myrrh scent. I have the Zum Bar in that scent and LOVE IT. I actually look forward to showering just so I can lather up, smiling all the while because it smells. that. good.

Summer is off to a great start. I feel better than I have in a long time; that makes all the difference in the world. I’m headed to Portland this next week (by myself!) to visit Matt & Jenny — am so, so, so looking forward to spending time with them.

Yeah, I just feel happy. All the way around… happy & grateful.

Time escapes all too quickly. I’m not sure where the last month has gone; it’s a blur. I have tons of pictures that will serve as proof of the many activities and happenings, all of the chaos and fun we’ve been having… and that’s good, because it’s all compressed in my head now. Lossy compression, unfortunately. Should have gone with LZW.

So, yeah, hi! It’s been a while! How are things? Lots going on here. School is out, science camp has commenced, laundry has been done. There’s so much more but it’s too lengthy to type. Come over for coffee and we’ll talk.

Max pulled out a tooth a couple of nights ago and left it on the dining room table after cleaning it. The next morning, it wasn’t there anymore. After a quick look around, we realized that it might have been tossed into the trash with a napkin that was nearby. Josh, a.k.a. SuperDad, proceeded to dig through the entire contents of the half-full trash can in search of that wee tooth. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. I found it while sweeping the floor. BUT! Josh still wins the Most Dedicated Dad award. Max was so happy– his views on the tooth fairy have mellowed a bit now that he’s getting money for his teeth.