Dingoes Trot with Turkeys in November - Page 19

[bec]

Sparkle - What about a coupon book for the things he truly wants?!  Maybe not for opening up in front of everyone, though! 

Shanti - Ugh, mama.  Do not feel bad for putting essential medical needs as a high priority!

Nic - It took me a good month to get any kind of rhythm in Zumba.  A couple of months to feel like I knew what I was doing.  But, believe me, it was worth the effort.  Ton of fun!

I've had the day off.  I have also spent it doing very little other than watch Netflix.  It has been deliciously indulgent!

[kerc]

I do regret not sending it reply all. But word got around the department pretty freaking quickly. Guy just left my office, having apologized and it is clear he is just a jerk. Feel pretty good about having told him I was offended, just regret not sending it to all.

off for beer in a few.

[sparkletruck]

Bec - yeah, Im thinking more about that , but I think it would look more like a planned outing, a date with a surprise ending at a fancy hotel or something. I just cant open up the pandora's box, as it were , with the booklet of coupons that he can spring on me whenever, ya know If Im gonna do this, its gonna be a one shot deal and the Im done ( yikes, double entendre's everywhere.... we really have a happy sex-life, Im just not into the charade-ness of some of the things men like... )

Kerc - good, glad to hear it!

NRR: I am in a grump-tastic mood this week. The house, the short-sale I mentioned eons ago, just went off the market. Apparently the owner has worked something out with his bank. This is "bad" news only b/c our house gets smaller by the year. I just want to unpack some boxes, have room to do a project or fold some laundry--besides on my bed--or maybe even have friends over for a meal and have enough room. There are literally no houses on the market that come close to ok, and we have now been looking for 3 years, aggressively. Oh well.

Ate wayyy too much chocolate today (it wasnt the answer, but apparently I had to eat a lot to finally dtermine that ) and generally feel stuffy, pms-y, and dumpy. Woot

[Nickarolaberry]

Me, in the dress, in my kitchen. Not the best photo. The dress is purple and has gathers by the hips and bust (which is why it looks wrinkled). I am wearing black patent pointy heeled pumps which look killer and kill my feet too. Here we go....

[Mel38]

Originally Posted by Nickarolaberry 

Me, in the dress, in my kitchen. Not the best photo. The dress is purple and has gathers by the hips and bust (which is why it looks wrinkled). I am wearing black patent pointy heeled pumps which look killer and kill my feet too. Here we go....

Hubba, hubba!!! You look awesome! Now have fun.

[bec]

Seriously, you are smoking, Nic!!!

Kerc - I'm glad the guy apologized.  Some people are just jerks. 

[sparkletruck]

Nic - you look so great!!!

[Plady]

Hot mama!  Nic you look gorgeous!  And ready for a nice evening!  Have a good time!

[JayGee]

Woo Hooo, Nic (my best internet approximation of a wolf whistle)!!!  You look fantastic.  I hope you have a great time tonight.

sparkle ~ your posts are cracking me up.  I think my DH would be perfectly satisfied with that gift too .

NRR (because there is no R to R) ~ I am so over DD1's dramatic sobbing, angry yelling and stomping, and general crappy attitude.  Over it.  Please tell me what part of "please put some shoes on so we can go to gymnastics" is so objectionable that she had to curl herself into a ball in the laundry room corner and scream?  If she's like this at 7, I dread 13 like you can't believe.  Every request is met with this kind of reaction ~ "What do you want for breakfast?" ,"Time to get dressed for school!", "Do you have any homework?",  "Can you bring me your laundry?"  All of these elicit gritting teeth, angry screams, and running off to her room.  How can I make her easier to live with???

[Plady]

Prozac.

Kidding.

Mostly.

[tjsmama]

plady~

nic~Hot mama!!!

kerc~We must have cross-posted last night. As previously mentioned, dude=jerk. At least he apologized. Was it sincere? Next time, you really should hit reply all...

Can someone please find my motivation? It appears to have gone into hibernation. I have been procrastinating homework for FOREVER. I napped instead of working out this morning (in my defense, it was a fricking blizzard this am in which I did not want to either run or drive to the Y). The class my partner and I were supposed to teach to the ESL group tonight got cancelled due to snow, so we also kind of bailed on our planned time to work on our huge-ish project that we have to have done by Tuesday. Blech. I have so little (relatively speaking) left to get done, I just cannot bring myself to actually do it!

And in other news, why can I never remember things like advent calendars until the day that they're supposed to happen??? I was able to procure a pretty darn cool Lego City advent calendar, but if I had actually been on top of things, I might have been able to get the Lego Star Wars one, which might be a little cooler. I also picked up an elf on the shelf, which DS declared "isn't real". Must come up with some way to convince him that Snowball makes a trip to the North Pole tonight...

[mommajb]

1. Nic, you look awesome! There is no way I could wear that dress without stuffing dinner napkins in my bra.

2. What the he** is up with these girls? I've got one too and it is increasing hard on all of us to live with her (not that we have a choice though I do find myself daydreaming about boarding schoo)l.

3. I haven't started Christmas shopping yet but I think I have dh's gift covered now.

[1jooj]

JayGee, we had something similar starting around here, and when she was not in that place (hanging out with me, full attention, and several times repeated), we have been discussing the importance of her improving her respect for others, most especially me. And I listed reasons why: I am the only one who does these things, and if I ask what you'd like, that's actually a privilege I'm giving you, and if you become so unbearable, I will take privileges--like playdates with S and riding lessons and toys and movies. Because it takes extra for me to give them, and your behavior is taking up the extra.

Had a separate convo with DS on a separate issue he has, lack of ambition. Got the issues drilled in, so now when either starts to go there, I refer back and they get a refresh, and I remove a privilege if needed, and things smooth out again. It's been good. I need them to rise to standard if I am to survive whatever comes next year.

And sparkle,  and . You're so right on giving them what they want, and I totally agree about not committing to a scheme that could leave you owing someone too many favors. That would be the only present my dh would ever want for any holiday, but it would turn into some sort of daily circus act and I'd end up worn out and bitter about it. We didn't do presents at all the last two Eids. More because we're totally out of our element and it didn't feel like Eid, and I think we were/are both too depressed to come up with anything that would bring us pleasure. So we concentrated on making the day bearable. Gave the kids cash and told them they could spend it as they liked.

Nic, you look seriously awesome.

And speaking of holidays, today's UAE Day. The decked-out cars were using Jumeirah Beach Road (70 km/hr limit) as a drag strip all night, some sort of special police force out to enforce it (closing off streets at times to arrest people). No sense, I tell you. We might try to see fireworks tonight if we dare brave the streets.

[Realrellim]

Nic--you look awesome. Wow.

JayGee--my current opinion is that the screaming child needs more sleep. The more overtired R is, the more she freaks out at any reasonable request. More sleep = less wigging out. She turns 7 this month. When I came home tonight, I could hear her screaming before I even opened the door. It was already 5 minutes past her bedtime.

tjsmama--here's your mojo.

Brrr. The roads were awful this morning. We were a tad late getting to choir, but they hadn't even started yet, thankfully. After choir (when school officially starts) there were a ton of people still pulling into the parking lot with their kids. I think it still took me 3x as long as usual to make it back home.

And now I'm trying to motivate myself to tackle the bills. Bleh.

ETA: question about hair salons. I only get my hair trimmed once a year or so, and because it's a pretty simple thing (cut straight across the ends; I don't have bangs), I usually go to someplace generic like Super Cuts or Fantastic Sams. Tonight I went to one that's right by my house. She cut my hair first, then washed it, then spent like 10 minutes combing it with a comb that was too fine (my hair really needs a detangler comb, then something finer; the process can be improved by using some sort of leave-in conditioner, but she tried neither of these options) and then she blow dried it (ugh). She asked if she could do anything else so I asked her if she could re-braid it (my hair is almost continuously in one long braid down my back. Pre-kids, I did other things but the braid is easiest to manage at the moment). Without so much as running a comb through my hair again to say, smooth out the top, she braided it. When she finished, I literally had a tuft of hair sticking up at the top of my head, and by the time I got home (two minutes later), the hair on one side of my head was visibly dropping down three inches. ???? Am I crazy, or is it reasonable to expect that someone who works in a hair salon ought to be capable of braiding my hair *and* making it look ok?

[tjsmama]

real~Not ok. And exactly why I avoid places like Supercuts. I tried taking DS there once for a cut, trying to save a few bucks, and it just was not worth it. IMO, there's a pretty good reason people are working at those places rather than a "real" salon. I tried going to Regis or something similar once or twice in college to save a buck, and again...not worth it. If you're only getting your hair cut once a year, I would definitely recommend going to a real salon. Yeah, you'll probably spend about $30 more than you would at the generic place, but if you're only doing it once a year, that's really not so bad. Also, you're paying, so don't be afraid to tell them if you're not happy with it. It's a braid, it's not hard, and it's especially not hard to take out and re-do!

One discussion posting, done. One compiling, editing, and writing of intro/conclusion for group bioethics paper, done. Phew. Now if someone could just bust out our health planning project for public health, life would be grand...

Yes, it's nearly 2 am. And yes, I am going to bed now.

[sparkletruck]

Oh Ladies, I am so proud My Dh won an award at work. All the nurses he works with signed it with little notes

Its in appreciation, of his ass. You read that right. Its called The Baby's Bottom Award, for the smoothest in times of crises, but its really for his derriere, as some of the nurses told him last week that they took an informal vote on which doc had the nicest goods and my dh won

The night shift is pretty irreverent and very funny. Im gonna frame it and give it to his mom for Christmas (not really, but now that I thought of it I might )

[Nickarolaberry]

Sparkle,  at your dh's award and at your holiday 'creativity.'  Oh, how I wish my dh even cared a whit about such things. It would make holiday gift giving easier. 

Plady, Mommajb, yup (on the girl tantrums).

So the party was...interesting. It was actually (unbeknownst to both of us) a huge black tie gala given at the Museum of Springfield every year and a bunch of corporations use it as their holiday shindig. So this was the administration type people and the new physicians who are invited every year, for dh's hospital system. It was good I brought my poise with me (although I left my balance at home...my shoes were really uncomfortable) because I was having conversations with, like, the ceo of the hospital system and various similar people. They got me a kosher meal which was good and nice also because they arranged to have it be the exact same dinner as everyone else (so minus the huge foil wrapped behemoth that appears on your plate if you order a kosher meal, I was very inconspicuous! )

I felt like i looked nice, but dh merely said, 'you look pretty nice.' Sigh.

Thanks for the kind words mamas.

No RR for me today. Ds is home sick and I am frantically cooking for Shabbat. Low mileage week, and on Sunday I'm doing the Hot Chocolate 5K run to benefit Safe Harbor (domestic violence shelters) so no long run I don't think. Oh, well.

[1jooj]

Nic, they weren't just words in kindness. You looked fantastic.

Sparkle, . I worked a night shift once, back in the day. In a factory, but yes, it was so much more fun than the day shifts were. We were our own tribe of people. Maybe don't wrap it as a gift, but definitely bring it up at the holidays. 

Real, I hate getting my hair cut. Whether I go to a pricey place or a cheap place, I am almost never happy when I leave. And now that I went and chopped the whole thing off, I am going to have to go back often. But once you find a place that does it right, stick with it. Get the card of the person who does it and try to stick with him/her. I know that's hard to do when you have it cut so seldom.

Sleep will come late tonight. There is an impromptu crazy-parade out there of decorated cars filled with local youth, honking down the beach road, spraying silly string and doing crazy car stunts. It's nuts. Police helicopters out in force and everything. We live just a block from some pretty big-deal VIPs, so whole streets are closed and stuff. This is really a big deal, this holiday thing. We went out to watch for a while and some people gave the kids flags and scarves for the occasion. Pretty cool moment of positive local-expat interaction. I hope to pull some pics off dh's camera and post to the blog tomorrow. Even caught a fender-bender right in front of us. A guy lost the bumper on his Land Rover. A friendly accident, even. Weird night.

I did do a beach walk this AM, about an hour along the water. I want to start doing AM beach walks daily. It's perfect think-time, quiet and solitary but not lonely. And the weather is suddenly perfect.

[JayGee]

Jooj ~ yay for perfect weather (finally!)  Sounds like quite the holiday there.

sparkle ~  at your DH's award! 

Nic ~ as Jo said, it wasn't just words of kindness, you really did look amazing in that dress.  I wish your DH would see you for the fantastic, gorgeous, accomplished woman you are.  Sigh.  That kind of party stresses me out.  But I am usually fine after 1/2 a glass of wine.

RR ~ Pilates.  Great class.  And my core is definitely getting stronger.  100s don't hurt quite as badly, I can hold my planks longer, and I've been able to upgrade some of the other exercises from easy to more difficult .

NRR ~ tried something new with Kay (DD1) this morning and it was awesome!  I didn't say anything at all.  That's right, I kept my naggy Mommy-mouth shut and let her fix her breakfast, then color for 20 minutes.  We chatted pleasantly while I made lunches and she offered to pack all the lunchboxes.  About 10 minutes before their ride usually comes, I said, "It's 8:05 and Mrs. R will be here in 10 minutes."  That's it.  Kay went to her room, got dressed, came out and read a book for whatever time was left.  I let her go to school with unbrushed hair, since that is one of her most fought morning issues.  There wasn't one shout, unkind word, stomp or angry face.  Basically, she doesn't like being told what to do, and fights back by NOT doing it.  As I recall, I did the same thing to my own mother .  In fact, I remember thinking to myself as a kid, "I'll clean my room when you STOP nagging me to do it!"  Perhaps all she was after was a bit of independence.....

[Realrellim]

JayGee--glad that worked so well for both of you, though I'm about the karma portion of the story.

Nic--you really looked awesome. My DH is terse on the compliment front too. I've finally decided that if I get a "you look nice" at all, that must mean I look awesome.

1jooj--your beach walk sounded like just the thing you needed.

No RR yet. It's actually not bad out but I don't want to mess with the stroller in the melting snow. Maybe I'll go out after dinner. Or maybe I'll stay in and hit the dreadmill? It's going to be hill repeats one way or another....

NRR: I hit the Skirt Sports warehouse sale this morning. They didn't have much of the stuff that was used for store displays and such (at $15/item) but they had a ton of returned or old stuff, prototypes and some discontinued line all for $5/item. They had some interesting tri- stuff too, like a prototype for a race belt skirt that could be pulled on over one's shorts or swimsuit, but the sizing wasn't quite right--which is why it's a prototype, of course. If I'd had more time I might have tried all the different sizes on that one. Anyhow, here's my haul: