Time to call it a year

I'm part of the skeleton crew here at work and I finished my big projects for the day and Aaron just called and Sophie said "Hi!" and I think maybe it's time to go home.

We're off to my sister's in New York. My other sister will be there as well. Including husbands and kids, we'll be 10 people squished together for the weekend. Plus one very crotchety New York cat.

Heaven.

Christmas Photos

Still a bit shaky, as is Aaron. Sophie's either teething or coming down with something. She tossed and turned all night and was the very picture of cranky this morning.

Also, she's working on the word: "quack". You know, what a duck says. Except she says it quite loudly and it sounds like "c*ck".

Photos courtesy of my lovely sister:
(as always, click on any of them for more)

Sick, sick, sick

Well, it's a good thing Aaron cleaned the toilet last night.

He's now home, in bed. At least that's where I left him. I came to work late because I dropped Sophie off at daycare so that he could get some rest. She was quite cranky this morning so I told work I'd be in around 10 and we all napped together before heading out. She's been feeling more warm than usual lately and yet has no other symptoms.

I'm still a bit shaky because I'm afraid to eat anything more than toast and brown rice at the moment. I did manage a blueberry toaster waffle and that stayed down okay.

Apparently a lot of people had some sort of stomach bug/poisoning/flu at the same time. I'm really, really hoping Sophie doesn't get sick. And that my whole family stays healthy. Because we are spending New Year's at my sister's house and it would really help if there was no more vomit. Powers that be? Please get on that. Thanks.

Happy Holidays!

(with just a hint of sarcasm)

It was a great weekend, all told. We got to hang out with my family and all the kids (we're now 15 people crammed into one house). Sophie had a blast with her cousins and aunts and uncles.

I got food poisoning, I think, Christmas Eve. Barfing all night and most of the next day. I spent all of Christmas either by the toilet or lying prone, hoping not to visit the toilet again. Blech. I was feeling a bit better today, albeit quite shaky. As planned, Sophie and I traveled to meet the Ya-Yas (a group of high school friends) for lunch and gossip. It was a lot of fun to see them, although I spent most the time following Sophie around and missing most of the gossip. Anyone want to send me a recap?

Now Aaron's cleaning the toilet because he thinks he's going to get sick tonight. Maybe it wasn't food poisoning.

Fourteen Months!

Man, this month FLEW by.

Sophie, little smoo, you are amazing. Every day you astonish us with new words and new ways of imitating us. We need to be much more careful about some of the words we use because you repeat so much of what we say.

You love to dance. Even without music and just because someone said "dance", you'll start wiggling around. You are very serious about dancing and it takes a lot of concentration.

This has been a fantastic month - you are so interactive and so free-spirited and so hilarious. Not a day goes by when we don't look at each other in amazement that you are our daughter.

You love Otto very much and spend a lot of time trying to get him to read you books and kiss your dolls and eat your crackers. Just because he only shows interest in the crackers does not mean he doesn't love you, too.

You have a very funny sense of humor, too. Something we didn't think we'd see for a while. For instance, when we're trying to get you to fall asleep, I'll put your binky in your ear and ask, all concerned, "does your binky go in your ear?" and you'll laugh and say: "Noooooo!" "Does it go in your belly?" "Noooo!" "Does it go between your toes?" "Nooooooo!" Giggling and laughing and snorting. The best sounds in the entire universe.

You can now say over 50 words. Amazing, I've never counted them before.

And there are more on a hourly basis at this point. You also know most of the signs for those with the addition of probably 20 more that you don't say yet. Is this officially the language explosion? With the addition of signs, you are signing/saying some short sentences. Absolutely fricking amazingly mind-boggling. I can't believe you inherited all my smart genes.

You can also say the letters A, B, D, G, I, J, O, P and T. Not in any particular order and mostly not when we point to them.

And every number is "2" at the moment. Daddy's hoping you focus on this inaccuracy soon. Because the number genes are his and my smarty-pants genes are obviously eclipsing everything at the moment.

One of the funny aspects of all these new words is that when you don't quite know the word, you sort of make up the ending. Like adults when we don't know how to pronounce something - we sort of make up the end of it by mumbling jibberish and hoping no one notices. You do this a lot and it never ceases to make me crack up. And you are right, "crocodile" is a hard word. I wish I could capture video of you saying it but, so far, you are too aware of the camera.

There is so much more. This month has been an awakening for you. It's like something clicked and you are moving forward full throttle. Daddy and I are moving as fast as we can to keep up.

Inconvenient Truth

Aaron and I watched "Inconvenient Truth" last night. I had been putting off renting it because I was sure it was going to be heavy and I wasn't in the mood for heavy. But it was really, really good. Stiff, unlikeable Al Gore was engaging and funny and he presents the information so well. I'd be amazed if anyone watched this movie and was still not convinced of the massive problem.

It also made me feel pretty awful about buying Christmas gifts from many different online stores only to have each of them use all that extra packaging and trucking and airplanes to get them to me. I'm definitely going to curb that habit starting now. If I can't find it locally, then I'm most likely not getting it. Not completely definitive, I know, but it's a start.

It also made me nervous all day about the weather out here. It's supposed to be freezing and snowy and white. Instead, I was outside in a thin sweater and the grass is green and all the little wintery animals are perplexed with furry furrowed brows and looking at their calendars - "It IS December, right?"

As much as I do not like cold weather, I know it's necessary in the great scheme of things.

No evidence of global warming, my ass.

Go now and rent the movie. Everyone everywhere needs to see it.

Forrest Gump

The stupid movie, Forrest Gump, came up in conversation today at work. And EVERYONE here loved that movie and I loathe it with every fiber of my being. And so I had all this rage over this stupid, stupid contrived awfulness of a movie and I started searching for reviews, any review, that thought the movie was as bad as I did.

Most searches turned up people who loved it, oh gosh, it's the most wonderful heart-warming movie ever, and you frickin' people are all clones! You've been brain washed by schmaltz!

Thank goodness there are also sane people out there.

An Advert for Idiots

His recap of the movie is priceless. Just to give you a taste:

Forrest: I’m Forrest Gump and I’ve had an amazing life which you’re going to listen too or I’ll follow you home.

Forrest: If you stay you get to see Jenny naked.

Here's another review by Gregory P. Dorr:

"At the very end our endearing numbskull breaks character and turns philosopher. He considers whether we make our destinies or they make us, and comes to the conclusion only an idiot would settle on — with absolutely no supporting evidence from his own haphazard biography, he weakly settles on "a little of both."

This attempt to paint Gump as both lovable and profound profoundly misses the point of his story, which could have just as well been called Dumb Luck. His life is directed by coincidence, and his successes gained with no effort — and often to the great disadvantage of guiltless others. His charm is vicious to those around him, who are plagued by misfortune."

Go ahead, defend the stupid movie. I'm in a rare mood today. I actually got a good night's sleep and the coffee has officially kicked in.

Recap

I'm exhausted. I've been trying to revive myself with strong coffee all morning and it is just not working. Sophie was incredibly cranky yesterday. Perhaps it's teething, perhaps it's the latest bump on her head, whatever it is? It's starting to fray my last tendril of patience. At least it was yesterday when I was home alone with her while Aaron was at school all day taking his Analysis final. She was a remora: stuck to my leg and wanting to be held every moment.

She goes through the remora stage occasionally and to get myself to the kitchen or to the living room or, really, anywhere, without picking her up, I've invented what Aaron calls the "Four-legged Mommy Monster". She's the perfect height to walk between my legs, so I back up into her making funny monster noises and then she grabs me around my legs and we walk, slowly, to wherever I need to be. This is great when my hands are full.

Yesterday, though, she was having none of this.

Add to that the fact that she woke up every hour the night before. Yay!

I've made an unusual amount of cookies and 4 different kinds of chocolate bark and a cheesecake and I've taken photos of most of it but by the time she's asleep, I just want to sit and recoup instead of try to upload photos, etc.

I'll hopefully get to them this week.

On the plus side, all Christmas cards went out on Saturday! Except two or three stragglers! Most of the holiday shopping is done except for some stocking stuffers. Now I just have to get wrapping. Or force Aaron to wrap everything.

I did manage to upload a very cute video of Sophie "Tippy-toe"-ing around the kitchen. That's something, right?

Original Elmo

As much as I don't like Elmo, it's very strange to hear his original monster voice.

Check out this video with the original Elmo.

Tippy Toe, Tippy Toe

We've been reading "Tumble Bumble" to Sophie and she picked up on the "Tippy-toeing of fourteen feet" by discovering she can run in circles.

Cuteness. Luckily she hasn't discovered that she can run in a straight line, too.

Dorktastic

I parked behind a car yesterday that had a "Muad'Dib is my Co-pilot" bumpersticker. I thought: "P'shaw, as if Muad'Dib would be your co-pilot - is that why you're driving a beat-up Subaru and shopping at Staples? Geez, what a dork."

And then I came to the sudden realization that I'm the bigger dork for even having that conversation with myself. A big, snobby dork.

Look Kids! It's an Atomic Energy Lab!

Oh man, this list of the top banned toys is too funny. (And, yes, also very sad because it was compiled due to maiming and fatalities). It's amazing to me that these companies successfully marketed these products.

I'm so sorry if you know someone who was injured while using one of these. However, I'm not above giggling over these descriptions:

The Snacktime Cabbage Patch Doll: "In creating this innovative new toy, the great minds at Mattel devised a motorized mouth that sensed neither pleasure nor pain. It chewed for chewing's sake. With no mechanism to turn off the munching should trouble arise, it was only a matter of time before some cherub's long blonde hair got caught in the doll's rabid jaws."

Or the Fright Factory: "Nothing says safety like an open hot plate. And nothing says fun like using that open hot plate to create molten, rubbery insects you can throw at your sister while narrowly avoiding setting the house ablaze."

ATM PIN numbers hackable?

An alarming report was released detailing how hackers could theoretically obtain ATM PIN numbers.

While banks are downplaying the threat:

Nessa Feddis, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association, also downplayed the scenario outlined by the Israelis and the overall hacking threat, saying that while PINs "are always going to be a target," the ABA is "not aware of any ability to undo the encryption."

A spokeswoman for Visa, which owns part of the ATM network and helps write security standards for it, confirmed that the flaws described in the paper are real, but said the threats they pose are minimal.

Security and cryptology experts are alarmed:

Michael McKay, an independent consultant who helped design Hewlett Packard’s hardware security module, called Atalla, described the ARX attack was "a worrisome thing, a real concern."

"It's commonly thought that there are some organized crime groups have made concerted efforts on this," he said. "So we believe there have been people who've cracked parts of the system."

Ross Anderson, a cryptologist expert at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom who has written several papers on ATM security, called the research paper "a fairly big deal."

I love this part, especially:

Consumers should watch their accounts for any signs of suspicious activity, but other than that there isn’t much they can do in response to this research, McKay said.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Update: I just found this site, too. I created a GeoGreeting for Aaron's birthday.

In honor of my loving husband's birthday, I elfed him. It was elfing fantastic.

Here's evidence:

You want to see him dance, don't you?

All kidding aside, my lovely husband is my partner in crime and I can't imagine trodding through life's craziness without him.

Happy Birthday!

Not going to Texas any time soon

Bill would allow legally blind Texans to hunt

"This opens up the fun of hunting to additional people, and I think that's great," Kuempel said.

Twins

We watched "Brothers of the Head" this weekend. Intriguing story about a pair of conjoined twin brothers who are essentially sold by their father to a rock promoter who wants to create a freak show rock band.

Yes, it is strange. But good. The music is great - more punk than rock - and the acting is also good. Sex, drugs and rock & roll.

In a weird coincidence, the book I'm reading at the moment is about a pair of conjoined twin sisters called The Girls by Lori Lansens. I have conjoined twins on the brain.

If things come in threes, where is the third pair?

Sophie

A couple more photos from Thanksgiving (taken by Uncle [N]).

The ubiquitous pretzel, with grin:

Dragon Slayer. Or Smoocher. Whatever.

I also uploaded photos from our One Year Photo Shoot at Target.

Prankster

Yesterday, as I left the house, Aaron handed Sophie his car keys. She likes to flip them around and push the buttons on the key fobs. As I'm walking out to the Civic, the lights start flashing and the locks keep locking and unlocking. I tried to time my entry into the car between her button pushes but she locked the doors on me, Twice!, before I could enter.

Finally in the car, the locks are still locking and unlocking. But I'm in! Prankster foiled!

And then I notice that the lights are on in the CR-V. Oh, crap! Did I leave those on last night? So I walk over to the CR-V to turn off the lights and just as I'm about to open the door, Sophie manages the right combination of locking the doors and double-locking the doors and the car beeps really loudly.

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Yes, payback's a bitch.

Bad Santa

When I picked Sophie up from daycare today, our d.c. provider informed me that the kids were watching a DVD in preparation for performing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" at the Christmas party. And Santa appears on the DVD. Seeing as it's about Christmas and all.

Apparently Sophie ran from the room screaming and crying as soon as she saw Santa.

I guess we're not going to the mall this year. Also? I was kind of looking forward to the first photos with Santa.

Heroes

Stop reading this feed if you are on the west coast.

I mean it.

I CAN'T believe we have to wait until the frickin' end of January for the next episode!!!

Eden's dead. Thank goodness she killed herself because Sylar would be way too powerful with the power of persuasion. How was he able to break through the glass when she was standing in front of it and not when Claire's dad was? Is it because he was waiting for Eden?

Also, did Eden hand Isaac Hiro's phone number? How did she have it? I don't remember her meeting Hiro.

Very, very interesting that the Haitian is supposed to erase Claire's memory but doesn't.

I'm bored with the D.L., Micah, Niki/Jessica storyline. Blah, blah, blah. Niki turned herself in.

Does Peter blow himself up because of something his brother did? Obviously he absorbed the power of the radioactive man. Was that who grabbed Simone or was that Isaac? If Simone was in that "dream", does that mean she has powers, too? Because everyone there has powers. Well, except Ando. Or does Ando have powers?

So now Sylar's on the loose again. Heeby Jeebies abound.

Splitting Hairs

I got my hair cut on Friday. And, um, not so sure about it. Aaron likes it, but Aaron also thinks he shouldn't put socks on his feet if they are already cold because then the socks keep the cold in.

It's short, about to my ears. But she cut it quite blunt, wedged, cliff-like, if you will. I was envisioning it more tapered, but apparently she couldn't read my mind and I wasn't completely specific. The good news is it will grow out and probably be about what I wanted in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to restrain myself from chopping some of the wedge.

I still have the vision of what I wanted in my head and I'm walking around as though that is the haircut I actually got. Quite a shocker when I actually look in the mirror, let me tell you.

Aaron and Sophie are napping while we wait for my mom to arrive. We're going to walk into town and get lunch. She's also picking up some unfinished toddler tables and chairs and she's going to paint them. She's an amazing painter although she'll disagree with me on that. We've all been trying to convince her that she needs to sell some of the things she makes because they are that good. I'm psyched for a toddler table for Sophie, mostly because I can't wait to take photos of Aaron trying to sit in one of those wee little chairs.

In other boring news, it's been in the 60s here for the last month. Gray and drizzly, but quite warm. Unseasonably warm. We woke up this morning and it was in the 20s. And the forecast for the next couple of weeks is in the 30s. Ugh. Quite the rude awakening. We were kind of hoping to get away with the warm weather this winter. Apparently Mother Nature caught on to the glitch in her programming. And now she's made it retroactively cold to make up for lost frost.

Weekend, etc.

We put up our fake Christmas tree last night. Sophie's face this morning was absolutely priceless. She keeps walking over to it and talking to the different ornaments.

In other news, because I keep forgetting to mention it, Donyelle Jones from "So You Think You Can Dance" was on our flight from Chicago to San Franciso! And I recognized her right away but couldn't get up the courage to say anything to her. She's very pretty in person although she was definitely sending out "Don't even think about talking to me" vibes. I considered giving a flight attendant a note to give her because I'm apparently 12.

Whatever

(thanks, Erin, for the Sifl and Olly tip)