Ever have one of those days where you are so tired, you’re not sure if you are asleep and dreaming what’s going on, or actually awake? I am having one of those weeks.

• Seriously. I’m so tired that I have had serious doubts as to whether or not I am dreaming what’s happening. What is disconcerting is that it often happens when I am driving. I think, “Hm. Warm. Seated comfortably. Relaxed. WAIT A MINUTE IS THIS A DREAM?” The worst, though, is when you are taking your kid to swimming lessons and you have to check eleventybillion times to make sure you DID, in fact, PUT YOUR SWIMSUIT ON, underneath your cover-up as you walk out to the pool. Because that would SUCK, and not just for me.

• Aaaand everyone cover their ears… okay… OMGWTF WHO THE HELL FORECAST 5 FUCKING CM OF SNOW TONIGHT AND 5 TOMORROW? I WILL END YOU. WITH A TRAY. I SWEAR TO DOG. (See? This sort of weather nonsense CAN’T be real. I MUST be dreaming.) I HAVE SO FUCKING HAD IT WITH WINTER WOULD YOU GET WARM OUTSIDE ALREADY???

• I have been baking a bit recently, as you well know. And one of my simplest and most-often made recipes is vexing me. I cannot seem to get my cinnamon raisin scones right these past few weeks. Last week it was that I put some whole wheat flour in, as well as all-purpose and some oatmeal, so they were a bit… DENSE. Tasty, and healthy, but dense. But that was also because I was not really paying attention while I was making them so it could have gone WAAAY worse. Today, I left out the oatmeal, so that’s one good step in the right direction. But then things went a little pear-shaped. The egg I brushed on each REFUSED to get all golden. BASTARD EGG. And then the scones rose nicely, but still looked a little doughy in the middle. So I left them in a little longer. Still doughy. So now, I have slightly overdone-somewhat crispy on the outside scones. Don’t get me wrong, I WILL STILL EAT THEM HAPPILY, but… They are vexing me.

• I totally did not start any of my vegetables or flowers from seed this year. I meant to, I really did. But then I got to the part of the show where I had to figure out what window I could put our little greenhouse in to get nice and warm and sunny to grow little seedlings and the answer turned out to be: NONE OF THEM. We don’t have one window, really, that would work for this. At least, not now while we have a preschooler tornado whipping through the house on a daily basis. Add that to the fact that we are the proud owners of two of the stupidest cats in existence, who would doubtless chew on, dig up, maim, and otherwise destroy any poor little seedling that dared to sprout. And that’s optimistic, given that they would probably sit, roll around, pee or dig in any dirt we left unattended. So, we’re going to have to either grow from seed straight into the garden, or buy plants. But on the upside, it IS nice to be thinking about gardens again. Even if I dread the work.

• I have had the hardest time remembering when I have appointments recently. Even if I write them down, I will either forget where I wrote them, or write an appointment under one date on one calendar and another date on my computer. I actually had to call Stinkerbelle’s developmental worker, not even a day and a half after she had called to reschedule an appointment, to ask her “so sorry, was it the 11th or the 18th?” because I had written it down differently in two different places and could not remember the proper date. Is it too early for me to be doing the Alzheimers thing? I wonder. Anyway, this weekend I have a haircut and colour scheduled, which I am looking forward to like you wouldn’t believe. Which, you’ll be happy to know, I originally thought was scheduled for three Saturdays ago. Or possibly the first weekend in April. (Until BDH was there getting his hair cut and confirmed the date for me.)

• My daughter crashed a dance class at the Gym this morning while I was in the hallway talking to the owner. I looked over through a classroom window and there she stood, in her coat and winter boots, amidst the tap dancers, stomping away. HULLO DANCE CLASS I AM IN YOU NOW. It is agreed by all parties that perhaps it is time to enroll that child in a dance class. Properly.

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Archives
One Year Ago: A Long Tail Tale
Two Years Ago: Saturday Smile: Spice Girl
Three Years Ago: Friday Fun: More Random-y Meme Goodness

Here at the Office of Official Things That Are Made Official By Saying They Are So, we have some announcements.

• It’s officially SPRING. No, maybe not on the calendar. But it is, ACTUALLY, REALLY spring, because this week, the local chipmunk has come out of hibernation and is coming to the patio every (not snowing) morning for peanuts.
• It’s officially TIME TO BUY A COW. Because this morning, in the grocery store, I found a carton of milk — filtered homogenized milk — for SIX DOLLARS. Also, they want me to give them NINE BUCKS for a big old block of old cheddar. NUH UH. I need dairy products + my grass needs mowing = COW TIME.
• 2011 is officially THE YEAR OF THE BUTTERMILK. Because OMG baking. So good. But there’s that whole EXPENSIVE DAIRY problem again. Damn.
• Alright. Previous statements have been revised, and should now read… It is officially TIME TO GO ON A LOW-FOOD DIET. Because have you SEEN the prices in the grocery store recently? It is getting MENTAL. $3.00 for a loaf of bread. Almost $6.00 for a case of pop. The price of flour and rice keeps rising. NO, WAIT… soup was on sale. Let us ONCE AGAIN (sigh) amend this official statement to read it is officially TIME TO GO ON A SOUP DIET.
• It’s officially TOO LATE. You’ve waited too long. Like, 20 YEARS too long. And now your physiotherapist decides it’s time to give you acupuncture on your knees. She’s talking “adjusting your chi”.
• It’s officially POOP WEEK. And, around here, that means it has been a week of SURPRISE!POOP. You get Stinkerbelle settled into bed, and an hour later there’s a commotion in her room and OMG SURPRISE!POOP! Or you’re just waking up (before anyone else so you can get a shower and some coffee is it too much to ask???) and all of a sudden there’s shouting from the Small Persons Room and HELLO! Let me guess. SURPRISE!POOP.
• It’s officially TIME FOR TECTONIC PLATES TO CALM THE FUCK DOWN. Seriously. NO MORE PUSHING EACH OTHER AROUND. This message is officially sanctioned by the people of Japan and Chile and New Zealand and Haiti, to name but a few.
• This is officially THE MOST AWESOME CAT IN THE UNIVERSE. And, happily, Maru and his people are safe after the recent earthquakes.

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Archives:
A year ago: Geek Kid
Two years ago: Adventures in Food
Three years ago: Hey Beautiful Day

Tuesdays are random enough without March Break coming along and cancelling all your planned activities. My week is thrown into chaos! Okay, not really. More like it’s thrown into OMG WHAT DO WE DO NOW.

• My daughter has, of late, been PUTTING ON MY CLOTHES. It started with shoes. Shoes is fine; most preschoolers start parading around in everyone else’s shoes. But SHIRTS? The other day she was bouncing on my bed, and I, sitting at my desk, had my back to her. I turned to find she was sliding off the bed and running to find her father… while wearing my PAJAMAS. This morning? She came into the kitchen with my sweatshirt on with the arms wrapped around her like a scarf, sort of a giant fleece ballgown-slash-straight-jacket. Isn’t this borrowing clothes a teen thing? IT IS TOO SOON FOR THIS.

• More alarming than Stinkerbelle wearing my clothes? Is LUCY — MY CAT — wearing my clothes. I went to put on a (different) sweatshirt the other day, and SHE WAS IN IT. Periodically, I have pants on my bed that START TO CRAWL AROUND because she is inside them.

• This morning we went for our First Official Walk of 2011. It was cool-ish but the sun was out — without the wind whistling in from the north at a thousand miles an hour it would have been positively spring-like. So we took advantage of the nice warm morning and I got Stinkerbelle out for some fresh air and exercise. And me, too — I am getting stir-crazy without exercise and needed to test my knee to see how physio is doing. So we got the stroller out and decided to do a walk to the store to buy a few things. It was great. Stinkerbelle did the better part of a kilometre’s walk happily, bellowing her greetings to the world — “HELLO, PUDDLE! GOOD MORNING! GOOD MORNING, SCHOOL BUS! HELLO!” — as we walked along. And I found my knee holds up to a bit of gentle walking. Although my other one’s playing up, so… back to physio with more complaints.

• My daughter thinks dogs are TEH FUNNIEST THING EVAR. Now, I don’t know if she has noticed, but she lives in a house with THREE CATS and TWO CAT PEOPLE. So, we’re not going to be getting a dog anytime soon. Like, EVER. And yet? She LOVES them. And not being a dog person myself, I am overly careful whenever there are dogs about when we are out for a walk or whatever, making sure she holds my hand when dogs are coming, or picking her up, or getting between her and the dogs… So, generally showing as much caution as possible when approaching dogs. But not Stinkerbelle. OH NO. Her reaction to seeing a dog approach is to SHOUT ANY AND EVERY DOG-RELATED WORD SHE KNOWS AT IT, AS LOUDLY AND EXCITEDLY AS POSSIBLE.  So, that’s fun. You can be sure to come and visit me in hospital after I have had to throw myself between her and some dog that she’s whipped into a Stinkerbelle-friendliness-induced frenzy.

• Parenting Fail of the Week: This week’s Parenting FAIL is brought to you by the makers of processed cheese products and Campbell’s soup. We have been very, very bad at making nutritious meals here recently. Between the BigDamnHero’s ridiculous workload, and his soccer schedule, and my physio appointments, and being glued to news coverage of what’s happening in Japan, we’ve had a number of soup-and-grilled-cheese nights. Or spaghetti or other pasta. Better than burgers, I grant you. But still. It’s been a long time since Stinkerbelle has seen more than one vegetable on her plate. And it’s not getting any better anytime soon.

• Parenting AHA! of the Week: It’s amazing how much you can bribe a kid to eat with the promise of a sip of pop if she chews/swallows/eats whatever you tell her to. But we have gotten clever — “pop” is often a LOT of juice with a SPLASH of soda in it to make it a little bubbly. Hey, when you are going into year 2 of eating delays and issues, you do whatever it takes to get the food in and down. And, even though nutritious meals have gone the way of the dodo here recently, at least we know she’s getting some fruit juice and vitamins.

• My daughter LOVESLOVESLOVES the Wii.  Specifically, the games on WiiFit. She asks to “play” them every day. And she has her own Mii that she uses to “play” her favourite games. Although, “play” might be overstating it a bit. Mostly, it consists of Stinkerbelle standing on the board, while I put my feet on it as well and try to overcome her bouncing, swaying, jumping self to get the game to do what it is supposed to do. Sometimes she doesn’t even participate, she just watches and cheers on “her” efforts. Ahem.

• After a few days of earthquake and tsunami news, I think I am reaching my limit. I can only watch people’s lives being destroyed — or worse, watch them die on camera as the tsunami sweeps them away — so much before I just need to walk away. I want to keep abreast of what is happening there so much, and I worry so much, but the enormity and the sheer horror of what’s happened is getting to me. I’ve dreamt about tsunami and earthquakes and emergencies and Japan for days now. No wonder baking seems like a good thing — BAKED GOODS THERAPY FTW!!

It’s a bright, sunny, albeit chilly Tuesday here. But even so, there’s a forecast of ten centimeters of snow tomorrow. Or maybe rain, even. So, even the weather is all random today. It figures.

• It’s been a slow-moving day so far. I wonder if this is because I got a decent sleep last night? Everything is moving at a slow, deliberate pace — not dragging, mind you. Rather, things seem to be taking their time. Or maybe it’s like we have extra hours thrown into our day. Either way, it’s weird. We’re ready for stuff and not rushing around. I made another batch of scones for the freezer while Stinkerbelle ate her lunch. We went for a walk. Stinkerbelle’s gym class seemed to last forever, to the point that she came and lay down on the mat beside me about 2/3 of the way through class, as though she was tired out or bored. I’ve done dishes and laundry too.  I don’t get it. I’m not complaining, mind you — I just. don’t. get. it.

• Stinkerbelle is registered in a semester at her Little Gym class, which will go until June somethingorother. But I fear she’s already “been there, done that” with gym. She doesn’t enjoy it as much as she used to. Part of the problem is that she is far ahead of the rest of the class developmentally, and mostly age-wise too. Part of the problem is that some of the kids in class are children of parents who can’t be arsed to intervene in situations where, oh I dunno, YOUR KID IS SITTING ATOP SOME EQUIPMENT SCREAMING HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF AND PUSHING MY KID OFF BECAUSE HE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SHARE. So that’s no fun. And part of it is that she’s done all the skills the class has to offer her last semester. So she’s bored. And right across the hall is the dance class where she just YEARNS to be. I don’t know. We are likely going to register her for dance in September, failing any better options we find for her, but part of me just feels we’re spinning our wheels in the gym class and I might as well cut bait and drop out and push the remainder of the fees towards a September dance class instead. But then I think, at least she’s running around and climbing and stuff, right? That’s good, right? I dunno. Waffle waffle waffle.

• Another thing we’re pursuing is a family membership at the YMCA in town. It seems like a great idea, especially for the option to take Stinkerbelle swimming any morning or afternoon we want to. And I really could use the option for rehabbing my knees. But it is OMGWTF SO EXPENSIVE. For all three of us to have memberships it would run us something like $130/month. AND there’s a massive “joining fee” for both BDH and I totalling $200. It’s insane. If I could pick up some more hours at work, it might be doable.  But I don’t know. It would certainly mean dropping all our other activities in favour of this, so I will have to sit down and do a budget comparison and see how it all washes out. I remember way back when when the Y was a budget-friendly option for everyone, but here, with our fancypants Y in the upwardly mobile neighbourhood, it’s prohibitively expensive. Now would be a good time for a lottery win, I tell you what.

• My physio for my bad-assed knees is going well. I am getting some exercises to do each day, and I give part of the credit for last night’s good night’s sleep to the massage I got during my physio session yesterday evening. It is slow going, but it IS going. And that’s the most important thing. I want to be mobile this summer. And I want to be able to start doing some more heavy duty exercise by that time, too. But it’s nice to have direction in this stuff, to know what to do and what not to do. I remember years ago, when I first hurt them, and being told there wasn’t anything that could be done. And physio wasn’t an option because OMG WOMAN WITH SPORTS INJURIES SHUT UP THAT IS CRAZY TALK. So I am really liking this. I am optimistic, but at two weeks in, it remains to be seen how things will progress. But I’ll keep at it.

• I’ve been going through Netflix and making a list of all the things I want to watch. Because cheapass Canadian Netflix does not have a QUEUE option. Bastards. Anyway, I am making a list so, when BDH goes to his many soccer games in a week, I can plonk down in front of the TV and watch something and knit. So far my list consists mostly of costume dramas (WELL DUH), odd little movies nobody has heard of, anything made by my favourite sexay actors, and documentaries. Some of those things BDH likes as well, so I will have to reserve only the ones I know he’ll have no interest in for my own movie nights. But then, there’s the argument that when he’s not here, I could just go to bed really early and get an extra few hours of sleep. Ah, the time-honoured battle between good (sleep) and evil (television). Well, evil also means knitting time and maybe popcorn, so I’d say right now it has the DEFINITE advantage.

It’s Tuesday once again. We’re in the middle of another busy week, but that’s okay.

• We got a receipt for our processing fees from Stinkerbelle’s preschool that said “This note confirms that Stinkerbelle is registered in Preschool 1 for the 2011/2012 school year.” With a big bold star *”SUBJECT TO SPECIAL NEEDS AND AGE RATIOS.” I’m going to take it to mean that she’s in, but may be moved to a different class. Wouldn’t you read it that way? I would. Anyway. They’ve put her in a class that she is a month too young for, so she’s one of those kids who is in under the age ratios anyway. Plus, with her work with her developmental, OT and speech peeps, she may ALSO be one of the special needs kids. So who knows where she’ll end up? I hope they’ll look at her developmental stuff and decide to move her back down into the younger class. It’s only a month’s difference, but still, she could struggle with the language stuff. Oh well. It’s just preschool. No matter where she ends up, she’s in school and with other kids and learning in a positive environment, so it’s all good.

• On the other hand, the fact that Stinkerbelle has been accepted means that OMG I WILL HAVE FIVE HOURS A WEEK TO MYSELF. That’s five full hours in which I can indulge myself.  And, you know, GO TO A DOCTOR. Or GET NEW GLASSES. Go to PHYSIO, even. Or maybe, if I am feeling really indulgent, GET A HAIRCUT. I know, that is CRAZY TALK.

• Parenting Fail of the Week: This week’s PARENTING FAIL is brought to you by the parents who did not take a monitor with them when they went up to watch TV after putting their daughter to bed. Only to find, 45 minutes later, when one of them checked in on their daughter, to find her standing up, leaning on her bed with her blanket around her shoulders, asleep. Because she had had a big poop AND NOBODY CAME TO HELP AND CHANGE HER. Well done, Mom and Dad.

• Parenting AHA! of the Week: It’s remarkable how much happier a child will be about putting her head in the water at swimming lessons when you’ve spent two weeks treating an ear infection. And that, possibly, for a kid who never complains when she gets an ear infection, the next time she doesn’t want to get her ears wet, YOU SHOULD TAKE THAT AS A BIG EFFING SIGN SOMETHING IS AMISS. Insert forehead smack here.

• I went to my physio assessment last night. And, to sum up: my knee is fucked up. But not seriously. Just chronically. Kneecap rubbing on bone, swollen tendons, muscle imbalances. Bad news: is that they didn’t just magically make it all better in one appointment, so the sleep interruption will continue. Also, they will need to see me twice a week while it is acute until they can get it under control, and that will be pricey. Good news: It’s all stuff I’ve been dealing with since university, and all fixable. So that’s good. I am not as optimistic about my right knee, which I recall has some torn cartilage to be dealt with, but since it’s not acute right now, I’m just going to forget about it in the hopes it will go away.

• March will be a very busy month for BDH at work. But my sitter will be away for half the month on a mission trip, which means at least two weeks I will not be driving to work. This is kind of nice. And swimming lessons will be over in a week or two, which means another day comes free on my weekly schedule. And soon, we’ll be able to fill those gaps by — WAIT FOR IT — going OUTSIDE. Bliss.

• I finished both my February AND my March knitting projects last week. Almost. I will have photos to post soon. But one of the projects needs a face. But you will be happy to know I am now in possession of one of the ugliest tea cozies in existence. And it WORKS. My tea, it is COZY.