My Sore Throat is Sore

So...its the middle of summer and my head hurts, my throat hurts, I have a delightful cough, and I'm stuffed up. What is wrong with this picture? Well, come hell or high water, I am not taking off another day of work. I don't care if I pass out at my desk (would anyone, besides ZennieZou notice?). I want to quit sooner rather than later and I've already used up more vacation than I've earned. Oops. At any rate, time to pop a little Simply Sleep (brought to you by the makers of Tylenol - there, that should qualify me for the Tylenol scholarship) and its off to sniffly, runny, sneezy, coughy dreamland.

Popsicles!

Yum, frozen sugar water. Actually, I love popsicles, freezies, and anything else in the frozen sugar water family. And so does Baba.

Not only is Baba working on his sweet tooth, he is also working on some real teeth, so he is crabby, cranky, tired, drooly, and snotty. I was desperate to get him to stop whinning for 2 seconds. So I set him in his high chair and introduced him to the popsicle in all its frozen splendor.

He was a quick study. He learned to hold it by the stick and not the frozen part (my boy's a genius, I tell ya!). He has not mastered the fine art of eating frozen food fast enough that you beat the thaw, but slow enough you don't freeze the brain.

Lately, Baba has been on a sharing kick, which is great. I think it's pretty cute that he'll play with a toy for a little while and then bring it over to myself or Zippy so we can have a turn (must have picked that up at day-care). The sharing is not so cute when he wants to share his bottle of whole milk (gross!) or food that has been in and out of his mouth six times. I am not one to snub my nose at a popsicle on a 100 degree day, that's for sure.

"Oh, dear", says ZennieZou

Dear Ms. ZarahZou,

Are you aware that by sending me an invitation to join your blog, it appears that I am able to create posts under your name? In the future, I will try to refrain from the havoc I could create by making said posts. But this is only if you are nice to me.

Sincerely,
ZennieZou (who is your new favorite person, and who you will now pay a total sum of $1 break bucks every single work day)

My Roots Are Showing!

Everyday I answer my trivia question on www.memolink.com and today's question was something along the lines of, "What kind of books are the best sellers by a long margin?" And I thought, "A. Long Margin? What a weird name. Have I ever read anything by A. Long Margin? I'm an English major, I should know this."

The answers were:
A. Sci-Fi
B. Fantasy
C. Biography
D. Romance

I then reread the question and realized that my roots were showing or I had had a blonde moment. Being that I'm not blonde, but a fun loving burnette, means that I can't use the blonde excuse when I'm ditzy, so I have to pretend.

Hot enough fer ya?

While I was sitting and waiting (and waiting) for my interview this afternoon, every person who walked by (they were all, by the way, wearing jeans and I was lookin' the tool wearing a skirt and sweater) would ask, "Is it hot out?" Generally when the weather guy/gal says its going to be in the 90s, that's hot. In the upper 90s, that's even hotter. So to answer your question, "Yes, yes it is hot."

And I can't wait to sit outside in my garage all day tomorrow and enjoy the heat waiting for someone to purchase one of my treasures.

"Treasures! I've got treasures, here! Get 'em cheap!" It's too hot to think of something clever and/or cute to write. I need a nap. But, I did find out today that scholarships are decided and students are notified by August 1st, which by my calculations is coming up pretty quickly.

Interviewing

I had a phone interview tonight and a real, live interview (do they still do these?) tomorrow afternoon. Someday, I'm going to answer every single questions they ask exactly the way that comes to mind.

Interviewer(I): Are you flexible
Me(M): No.
I: How do you feel about change?
M: I fear change.
I: You go out for coffee with your co-workers and they start bad-mouthing your boss, what do you do?
M: Join in.
I: What is your ideal job?
M: One that I get paid a lot and don't have to do much work.
I: Where do you see yourself in 5 years.
M: Not here!
I: Why do you want this job?
M: I don't, but I need the money.
I: What is your greatest accomplishment?
M: Getting through this interview with a straight answer and my ability to bullsh*t!
I: What is your strength?
M: Bullsh*tting.
I: What is your weakness?
M: Thinking up a "good" weakness that is actually a strength (dare I be so bold as to say this tomorrow. Stay tuned....).

How come they never ask, "How do you feel about working for someone who is dumber than you and will make your job 10 times harder and more stressful then it should be?"

I love interviewing because it keeps me mentally sharp. Thinking up good responses to crappy questions is a strength, right? I'm quick on my feet. But, my biggest problem is, I'm so good at saying what they want to hear, I don't honestly evaluate the job and decide if it something I actually want to do. So I get stuck in yucky jobs I strongly dislike. Grr.

I'm Googleable!

Thanks to one of the very few co-workers I like, ZennieZou, I am now googleable! Search for me "ZarahZou" and find ZennieZou's most excellent blog. And Zennie has agreed to do the National Write a Novel in a Month with me. 1667 words per day for a month here we come!

Why is it when you are running late you get stuck behind every slow driver in the world? Tonight, on my way to visit my nut doctor (therapist) I got stuck behind a riding lawn mower, a tractor pulling a wagon of hay bales, a student driver (note to future drivers of America: a complete stop is good, it's the even law, but a complete stop need not last 5 minutes!), and Grandma and Grandpa who were out joy riding ("Edward, I told you to slow down! There is no need to go 50!"). Plus, I had to get gas ($2.92 a gallon! Score! Remember when anything over $1/gallon was expensive?), but I ended up being only 2 minutes late.

At most I've got 27 days left at my current position. And that's reason to celebrate.

The Farm

On Saturday we went to my grandma and grandpa's farm in beautiful (tiny) Stanchfield, MN. Baba had a blast! He loves tractors and cows (Moo!) and my grandparents love seeing him (and seeing me, too, of course). We got up early (way too early) Saturday morning and let Baba play until he started getting crabby. This is our favorite trick! Anytime we have a longish car ride ahead of us, we tire Baba out and then he usually sleeps for a good portion of the trip. Usually. If we don't wear him out first, then he just whines the whole trip. He has never been much of a napper (much to my dismay). From about 2 to 6 months he didn't nap at all. And to make matters worse, he wasn't sleeping through the night. Some people can get by with 3 to 5 hours of sleep, I am not one of them.

We got to Grammy's around 10ish and it was already quite warm (I like global warming in the winter - who am I to complain about balmy winters? - I just don't like when it gets above 85 or so). Poopsquirt (I've always called my dad "Poopsquirt" and I'd hate to break tradition now), Poonch II, Ditty, Zippy, and Baba went for a nature walk (my dad wanted to show Poonch II his deer stand). I couldn't go. I choose fashion over practicallity and wore flip-flops.

After touring the country side, we had lunch (Baba had a hot dog bun, half a veggie burger, some baked beans, and lots and lots of fruit - he's 16 months and can already out eat me) and then let Baba tear around the farm. His Auntie Ditty took him in the barn and let him look at the cows. The barn smelled especially sweet because of the heat. Baba tried to climb into the cow pen, but judging by the amount of manure on the otherside of the fence, we opted not to let him play with the cows.

His very proud great-grandpa took him for a tractor ride. The only time my grandpy has ever been speechless was when I told him that Baba's middle name was going to be Harold, which is my grandpa's first name. My grammy said he started crying, he was so touched. I love my grandparents. And I love the farm. Someday, I'm going to have a hobby farm with 3 fainting goats (Zebulon, Isaac, Thadeous), 2 sheep (Pete and Re-Pete), a horse (Please, Zippy can I have a horse? Just one juicy little horse?), and other animals as I see fit.

Gibberish

I was going to be ambitious and learn html so I could make a neat-o blog instead of relying on the templates provided. Or, at the very least, edit my current template to make it, for lack of a better word, more neat-o-er, but alas, and alack, html is gibberish!

Flashback! Once upon a time, in my younger, dumber days, my husband and I went out for dinner and got Mojitos at Chino Latino (an awesome restaurant in Uptown). After stumbling home, I decided it was in my best interest to have another drink. After my second drink (I am a bit of a light-weight) I was no longer was capable of speaking English. Upon discovering this, I became a crying, drunken mess because my husband was going to leave me because I no longer speak English, all I spoke was gibberish. How could we communicate or stay married if we no longer spoke the same language? I sobered up and my mastery of the English language returned. Coincidence? I don't think so.

I think I was hung over for 3 days after that. I have not sipped a Mojito since, but I have forgiven the Captian for his transgressions.

Thanks for the heads up!

In Friday's mail we got a flyer from Big Brother (the association for the community that we live in) "reminding" us about the community wide garage sale next weekend. I love garage sales, but how can it be a reminder when we never got the first notice?

For a little while, I was worried. Would we have enough stuff to justify opening our garage door and letting the world take a gander at the treasures (crap) we no longer have a need for?

My worries were unfounded. After digging through our closets for a hour last night, I have found enough treasures to fund a couple of garages sales. Now, I just have to get everything priced and pretty before next Saturday. No problem. I've got nothing but time.

I'll get you a real good deal on some crap, I know the owner.

A Perfect Evening

Me and my husband cuddled up on our couch with popcorn to eat and a movie to watch, what could be better?

All the stress I was feeling completely gone thanks to the cosmo I had. This job has driven me to drinking!

I am very, very anal when it comes to budgeting. I have an overly-elaborate budget spreadsheet in which I breakdown every penny we spend every month. Since January, since I started working at my current position, the alcohol budget keeps getting bigger and bigger. Hmmm. I wonder why.

Splish! Splash!

As previously mentioned my son loves water! It ranks right up there with Wili (the cat), food, and causing trouble. One night, as I was trying to get supper on the table and someone wanted to help stir the boiling dinner from a box that I was making, I had an idea. I would fill the sink with soap and water and let him go to town. What could possibly go wrong?
Needless to say water doesn't belong in the sink. It belongs on the counter, the floor, on Baba, on the cat, and on the chair.

Baba did his best to relocate the water to a more suitable home.

Sometimes a little water got in his face, but he was willing to take one for the team.

He looks so surprised at the mess he has made.

To be or not to be?

Work or school? Work or school? Work or school?

School or work? School or work? School or work?

I don't know! I'm too little.

"I'm too little" also has family origins. We would say it when we didn't want to do something, like "I'm too little to do the dishes" or "I'm too little to clean the bathroom". It can also be used when you don't want to make a decision, like "I can't decide what movie to watch, I'm too little."

And, if you don't want to try a new food you say, "I had it at Tonya's." Tonya was the daughter of a babysitter that Ditty went to a couple. But in those few days she was there she must have been eating constantly because anything that she thought she didn't like (didn't matter if she had actually tried the food in question or not) she had tried at Tonya's, thus shouldn't have to try it again.

Not my boy! He likes everything except raw onions and grapefruit.

You win some, you lose a lot more....

Softball night and we lose more than we win, which is wonderful! Someone's got to lose and I don't mind that it is my team night after night. (This constant losing, by the way, has got to be a fluke! We have some incredible players on our team, Poonch II, some girl who works upstairs (double paranthesis: at my place of employment there is the "upstairs" and the "downstairs" and, like east is east and so on, never the two shall meet. If you work upstairs you don't come downstairs to mingle. It's like two businesses in the same building), and some guy named Jim (and you don't mess around with Jim), among others, myself discluded from this list. Oh, if my senior seminar prof could see me know, I think she would cry at my sentence structure).

Anyway. To put it bluntly we are TERRIBLE. But if we were any good, I wouldn't play. I need a team that is totally cool with my fear of the ball (please note, I am not afraid of the ball on the ground - just in the air), and with me calling everyone "man". And I also need a team who thinks its funny that when we are down by, oh 9 or 10 or 11 runs, that I keep telling everyone that we have the other team just where we want them.

Poonch II has requested words be added to the dictionary so here goes.

tink - think
tink, tink - think hard
ops cream - ice cream
punny - funny
berry berry punny - very, very funny
hompster - a disgusting action
sow, pig, hompster - a really disgusting action, example: a large belch
seepy - tired
seepy dance - tired dance
boop - boat
pish - fish
pishing - fish
hungly - hungry
bunya - bunny
ba! - a noise made to scare wildlife

What am I missing?

Just Go to Bed!

A certain Mister Goigoi is still awake. Let me explain. Mondays, Wednesdays, and everyother Friday (though it has been every Friday lately) I work from 10 until 6:30. I don't get home until 7:15 and it sucks! Tuesdays and Thursdays I work a "normal" day with my husband - 7:30 to 4.

Anyway, Baba is not adjusting well. He runs around the mornings I'm home yelling, "Dad, Dad, DAAADDDD!" and evenings when I'm at work he runs around yelling, "Mom! Mom! Mooommmmm!" And now has added a new trick. He goes to bed around 6:45 for my husband and then wakes up around 8 yelling "Mom!" He continues to scream until I go in there and cuddle with him. Usually he falls right back asleep. Not tonight. He has been awake in his crib playing for almost an hour now.

To get us in there he has tried the following:
1. Yelling "Boo!"
2. Yelling "Uh-oh!" (I must admit, this one almost got me. What had he done that warranted an "uh-oh"?)
3. Alternately yelling "Mom" and "Dad"
4. Yelling "Wili!" (I had to double check to make sure Wili the cat had not moved from the bed).
5. Crying.
6. Throwing stuffed animals.
7. Jumping in his crib.
8. Slapping his crib.
9. Yelling "Sure!"
10. Yelling "Hey yeah!"
11. Giggling.
12. Making various animal noises, including "Moos" and "Baas."

He is putting up quite the effort. We may have to resort to some children's allergy medicine (may cause drowsiness the label says. Please cause drowsiness the tired parents' beg) tonight!

Roar!

Yesterday, to beat the heat we went to the Mall of America and played tourist. Although I swore up and down that I would never do it, I bought a leash for my child. You see, once Baba gets going he doesn't want to stop. I was afraid that with all the people at the mall yesterday he would get lost in the crowd. I bought a cute backpack style harness (harness is pc, leash is not!). He had a blast running around the mall. We even went to the Dinosaur Walk museum and almost gotten eaten by a dinosaur. It was a close one.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

My child is obsessed with drinking his bath water. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that he doesn't mind water in his face and will go out of his way to get water in his face. But, some may think his love of drinking the bath water, or pond scum as we call it, is gross.
I disagree, sort of. You wouldn't catch me drinking out of the bathtub. But, I have been known, on occassion, to blow bubbles in the bathtub.

Baba learned how to drink out of a cup by playing with a cup in the tub (if you weren't supposed to let your kid drink shampoo/soap water, there would be a warning on the bottle, right? Right?). He now likes to have his squirty toys filled with water so he can squirt himself in the face and laugh.

I've never made a big deal out of getting water on his face because I didn't want to scare him. I figured if I didn't make a big deal, he wouldn't make a big deal.

I did, however, draw the line when we were at the cabin. Baba wanted to drink the lake water. A lake is nature's toilet and I've yet to see an animal flush after going. Bath water, drink away my little friend. Lake water? Not so much.

Let Them Eat Cake!

Cake, its a beautiful thing. To eat, to wear, to throw, to decorate, etc.

It is a long standing tradition in my family to eat cake without a fork. You just dive in, head first, and hope you don't get too much cake up your nose. There is nothing quite like cake boogers. Ahh, delicious.

Anyway, this particular family tradition started when I graduated from high school back in two thousand ought ought. My mom had left-over graduation cake which she didn't care to save (Ahh! The pain of my cake not being worth saving!) and knew no one would accept a simple piece of cake so humbly offered on a plate. So she broke out the forks and passed the cake around the circle of family and friends (including my then boyfriend, Zippy) and everyone dug in.

Britta decided to up the ante and dove in, face first. Not to be out done by someone so young, my father and uncle joined in. What choice did the rest of us have? Since then cake has been eaten without a fork.

"Gross!" you say? Why, not in the least. Do you know where that fork or plate was prior to being washed? I believe I saw the insert your favorite domesticated animal here licking leftovers off of it.

Softball and such....

The posting of the cake pictures is still pending. Tuesday nights are softball nights - and let me tell you, we are an amazing team.

We have won two whole games. Last night we lost 21 to 18. But, we were very excited not to get skunked (again) and to have scored a run (18, to be exact). So, we pretty much are the greatest company softball team to have ever played the game.

And we didn't even comandeer a ship!

I'm back from the cabin. Sunburned and sore, but back. SPF 50, what a joke! I did learn a valuable lesson this weekend. SPF 50 just doesn't cut it. My cousin, Anna, uses baby oil and is pictured on the left, soaking up the rays and turning a nice golden brown. I, on the other hand, spend the day hiding from the sun and I still turn into "lobster girl!" Lobster Girl's cape (the smashing blue and green stripped towel pictured on the right) were not enough to shield my skin from the intense Minnesota rays.

But, I still had a great time and spending time at the cabin was much better than working. I get to return to that reality tomorrow. I can't hardly wait.

Saturday morning, we got up with Baba and drove the two hours to the cabin. Baba raced to the lake. And would have spent the whole day happily splashing, but someone (Lobster Girl) was worried about Baba turning into Lobster Baby. He did spend a lot of time playing in the sand and water.

My other cousin, Britta, caught an enormous fish and was crowned the fisherperson (must be politically correct, you know) of the weekend. We catch a lot of fish off the end of the dock.

The only problem is they are tiny! But they still put a good fight and we are always excited to land one of the "big" fish (you should have seen the one that got away!). Our favorite bait isn't leeches or worms or nightcrawlers. Our favorite bait is canned corn! There is something about canned corn that send the little fish into a tizzy.

The other benefit of corn is that your fingers don't get slimy when you bait the hook. The leeches we buy are purely for medicinal purposes.

Besides for seeing the biggest fish that calls Round Lake home, the other highlights of the weekend were, seeing Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and eating cake. Pirates was excellent and we have decided that Ditty and Poonch II are having a pirate themed weddding. They have yet to agree to this, but we are confident they will come around (or come about I should say. Must get used to the nautical terms and syntex).

More on the eating of the traditional cake tomorrow, it's bedtime for me!