lots o' stuff

I'm living in a sort of daze. I can't believe Thanksgiving was already a week ago. Ok, so I want to write about some things . . .

- About Thanksgiving:
My mom, dad and grandma came over and spent it here with us in Arizona. They arrived last Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. It was nice to have them here. I especially loved that my grandma came and got to see the house. I ate too much. Everyday. With my parents here, Rodrigo and I were actually able to go out and do something by ourselves. We went to watch this movie and got to do a lot of shopping without the kids. Yes, we did the early shopping and risk getting trampled thing.

- About my parents:
They couldn't get over the weather and kept going out for walks. I personally thought it was finally getting chilly and was wearing sweaters. Meanwhile my parents were wearing shorts and skirts. Well, my mom was wearing skirts. My dad wasn't. :P

- About the kids:
The kids are crazy spoiled and it gets worse with the grandparents here. They were going everywhere with my parents and really pushing the limits of what they can get away with. That said, whenever they have their own kids, I'm spoiling those to get revenge for now. (insert evil grin here)
Brianna's grade had a field trip here last Wednesday. I got to chaperon and spend a lovely day with 75 million third graders. I'm kidding, it was actually really nice. The weather was not too hot or cold and each parent was only in charge of three kids. We got to go at our own pace and just try to complete a scavenger hunt. My group was just interested in being silly. See? (Brianna in pink)



- About the Na_ _ _ Mo's.
I didn't do them this year. I knew all the things I was going to be doing this month and there was just no way I could write a novel and/or post an entry every day. Plus, I'd have to go out and do all sorts of cool things to make my life seem a lot more awesome than I really am. Or lie. I signed up for the NaBloPoMo last year and apparently I'm still on the randomizer. So if you're here checking in to see if I'm really doing it, I'm not. I'd love to, but I can't.

- There's a lot of other things that I want to post about. I screw myself for taking so long in between posts. If I make some time while I'm checking emails and such to throw in a short post, I'll get it done. I have to tell you guys about our elf in the house but that deserves it's own post. Tomorrow. I PROMISE!

feeling: too rushed
listening to: Radiohead (Fake Plastic Trees)

how young?

How young do you think is too young for things like cell phones, iPods, and laptops? My kids are age eight and four, so I figured I had about four years to be worrying about that kind of stuff, right? Well . . . .
Some kids in Brianna's school have cell phones. When the bell rings after school, you can see plenty of six graders bring out their phones and start talking. What on earth they have to say or who they're calling is beyond me. Nevertheless, they do it. I think it's too young, but whatever. About a week and a half ago, Brianna had a friend over. They were having a snack in the kitchen and I heard them talking about another friend of theirs. Their other friend apparently has a cell phone and tells the girls that she uses it to text message. She's in third grade. Her mom picks her up from school, so it's not like she needs to call someone to check in. I can't imagine why she would need one. Now the other little girls in the group of friends are all talking about what color and style of cell phone they want. I'm hoping Brianna wants one of those imaginary ones because that's what she's getting.
About laptops . . . Brianna is still not at the age where she absolutely needs to use the computer for homework. Just recently she started having to look things up. Definitions and such. I was a little surprised that their directions were to "google" something. Anyway, less than one month ago, Rodrigo called me from work and asked me if Brianna needed a laptop. I was a little surprised and thought he was joking. I was going along waiting for the joke but he was completely serious. They often have surplus sales at this work and he wanted to bring home a laptop for Brianna. I thought he'd lost his mind. I explained to him that we already had too many computers as it is in this house. He keeps saying how poor Brianna doesn't have her own. I don't get what's so "poor Brianna" about that. Again, she's eight. I think that if we let her have one now, what kind of liberties is she going to expect once she's a teenager?
Now onto iPods . . . . Mine was a mini and also a shuffle. Rodrigo had one of those video ones. He won an iPod touch at a raffle at work and gave me his video iPod. Or just plain iPod or whatever those are called. Now I had three. I gave my old mini to Brianna. I went back on forth on that one, but I finally caved. I removed everything and now she's filling it with music she likes (The Jonas Brothers, Ally & A.J. and that whole Disney Channel crowd). Her teacher had a meeting last Friday night and Brianna brought along the iPod. She was showing it to all her friends while the parents and I were talking to the teacher. I was regretting it at that moment. I could already hear the other kids telling their parents "Well, Brianna's mom lets her have an iPod, why can't I?". -groan- I was really regretting it later when four year-old Alec asked me which one was for him. Pssh.

feeling: old
listening to: Incubus (Nebula)

i can't think of a title

Yesterday, we saw a screening of The Kite Runner. I couldn't wait see this movie ever since I heard that it would be a film. Needless to say, I was really glad I got to go the a pre-release screening. I liked the movie. It's always hard to really like a movie once you've read the book, but this film stayed really true to the book. The only detail that I had a bit of a problem with was with Assef's character. In the book, his blue eyes is what makes him stand out and he doesn't have blue eyes in the movie. I wonder why they chose not to include that. It played an important part in my mind while I was reading and imagining the characters. Still, it's a really good film and you should definately watch it. We were given Kite Runner shirts and after the film, we were asked a few questions about how we liked the film. We also got tickets for a Beowulf screening tonight, but we can't make it.
My days have been crazy busy. I finally get a day in which my schedule is not very busy at all, so I'm going to sit here as long as I can and finish all the things I've been meaning to do. I want to get everything done and out of the way for tonight. Project Runway is finally starting!!!!!!!! This is one of those shows that I have to watch as it's on. Commercials and all. Brianna was whining about how mean and unfair I am not letting her watch it tonight. Pssh, it comes on at 11:00 p.m. here. What did she expect?
Oh. My. God. Looking at the calendar I just realized that Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK. Uh, so much for having a free day.

feeling: suddenly rushed
listening to: The Jonas Brothers (S.O.S) <-- off Brianna's iTunes. this requires it's own post

autumn envy

The teaser that the meteorologist used last night right before commercials was, "Say goodbye to the 90's". Of course Rodrigo and I started being dumb saying that he meant things like "Stop wearing the clothes you wore in high school. Time to stop quoting Seinfeld. Quit listening to Pearl Jam.", but we knew that he meant the weather. Today is supposed to be the last day that we reach 90 degrees. Whew! Yes, I know I always go on and on about how "I leeve in haat weather" (doing an Uli impression). It's time, though. I am sooooooo ready to wear something other than summer clothes. I'd like to wear pants and closed shoes. I'm ready to bake without dreading the heat. Plus, I keep seeing all these cooking shows that talk about "Now that it's cooler . . . .". ARGH! Not here. Here you still want to be drinking liquids all day. Anyway, it seems that we'll be cooling off to the 80's at least by the weekend. Hey, it's something.
Speaking of things that happen elsewhere but not here . . . daylight savings time. We don't do the time change here in Arizona. Nope. So during the summer we're in Pacific time and now we're in Mountain time. Everybody changed and we didn't. It's pretty cool that we don't have to get used to time changes, but . . . . our t.v. viewing schedules change. Only the local channels stay the same. The other channels we watch (Bravo, Food Network, Noggin, Disney Channel) all change so if we usually watched something at 9:00 pm, now it's on at 10:00 pm. Suck! I'm looking forward to Project Runway which won't be airing here until 11:00 pm. Blah, blah, blah . . .

feeling: whiny
listening to: Shivaree (Goodnight Moon)

sandwich day

Tomorrow is National Sandwich Day, or International Sandwich Day. Uh, look it up. Why am I telling you today? Well, I like knowing funny "holidays" like this but I never find out until it's either halfway through or over. So, uh, make sandwich plans. As for me, I celebrated a day early by having a sandwich for lunch today. It didn't feel very festive, but yummy nonetheless.
I also found out that Nov. 14th is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Eww, once a year? For me that's just known as "Monday".

feeling: busy
listening to: Maroon 5 (Wake up Call)

the #1 thing I need to stop doing

Halloween went off without a hitch. The weather was so amazing that loads of neighbors were having cook-outs, sitting outside handing out candies and passing out food. I LOVE where I live. There was such an aura of friendship outside last night with everyone over at everyone else's house, all the kids recognizing each other. I just can't describe it, but it was awesome.
We were one of the houses that had a cook-out. Rodrigo had some co-workers over ready to scare the trick-or-treaters, the kids had friends and their parents over and I hung out with everyone. It was pretty awesome. Then someone left without Alec noticing and he came and asked me, "Did Jake Long go home?". I was mortified, but luckily nobody heard.
You see, I have this horrible habit of giving people nicknames. I don't mean it in a cruel or mocking way. It just sort of happens. It could be how someone looks (like if they remind me of someone), what someone does, or something they say. I was thinking about how I have to stop doing this since now the kids are aware of it. Thinking about it, I made a list of the nicknames I regularly refer to people as. Just within people we see on a regular basis are: Jake Long, Voldemort, F*f*fini (replace each "*" with an "a". I didn't want any searches ending up here. Also, look up what it means since this is my favorite nickname), the quails, the basketball players, the frat house, hot dog, tattoo, the funnies, the office, the scotty. I think the list can go on and on. See what I mean? Am I horrible? (here's the part where you leave a comment and say that I'm not awful and make me feel better) What's more is that I've always done this. Old friends and ex co-workers can certainly vouch for this. So, yeah, I think I should stop since I really don't want the kids to be doing the same thing. Except for Voldemort because I can't remember his real name and he really does look an awful lot like Voldemort (from the last two movies) I'm not the only one that does this am I? Rodrigo and I were wondering what other people call us behind our backs. Hee, hee.

feeling: I can't believe how warm it still is
listening to: Morrissey (Suedehead)