Archives for August 2008

Makes Me Wonder

Last night, we ventured on over to the other side of the state for the Counting Crows/Maroon 5 concert that I have been waiting for for the past several months. I have loved Counting Crows pretty much since their first album dropped, and it is still in very heavy rotation in my music library because it is almost perfection (with the exception of the song “Time and Time Again” which I just don’t like and never have).

The only other time I’ve seen CC in concert was my junior year of college and it was an amazing show – somehow, in between then and now I hadn’t had the opportunity to see them live (last year they were in town – but the show was on Pumpkin’s birthday, and I just couldn’t bring myself to miss my kiddo’s birthday). I have purchased and adored every album from their first to their latest, “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings” (amazing, amazing, amazing – by the way), and I worship Adam Duritz’s song writing abilities. That man can make words do amazing things. When the show was announced, I instantly made plans to get tickets ASAP.

It’s an odd ticket – I have to say – because most people I know like one band or the other – either you love Counting Crows and are meh about Maroon 5 (like me) or the other way around. The audience of the show last night seemed to reflect that theory.

Upon arriving at the venue, we found out that Augustana was the opening act. I about peed my pants because “Boston” is one of my favorite songs (It’s in my top five played songs in iTunes), and the thought of hearing it live made my night completely. I enjoyed their whole set – and will (I’m sure) have more iTunes purchases to report by Thursday.

Counting Crows were up next (which I was relieved about). I wanted to see the whole CC set, but knew we had a two hour drive home and didn’t want to cut their set short. I happened to feel a little less guilty about ducking out of Maroon 5 early. They opened with “Goodnight LA” and followed with several other favorites, including “Mr. Jones”, “Mercury, “A Long December” and the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil”. Oddly enough, the only song from their new album that they performed was “Washington Square” – and that kind of bummed me out. All in all, their set was pretty mellow – and I’d kind of been looking forward to hearing “1492” (or, as I jokingly call it, “The Tranny Whore” song)… and they didn’t play “Anna Begins” either, and that’s one of my all time favorites.


Between sets, I was checking email and playing on my phone and trying to update Twitter. The downside was that the more people in the arena, the slower my phone got (dang!), and it was crazy and impossible.

Maroon 5 opened their set with “This Love” (yay! A song I knew) and their lead singer was drenched with sweat by the second song – I’m talking serious pit-circles (ANTIPERSPIRANT? Hello??? At the very least, he’s surely able to afford those armpit Botox injections that curb excessive sweating). But despite my not being familiar with their song catalog, I really enjoyed their version of “I Won’t Go Home Without You”, during which the lead singer had everyone pull out their cell phones instead of lighters to light up the night – which was actually a very cool looking thing, and I wish I’d taken a picture.

Long drive home and not enough sleep and now I’m sleepwalking.

Thursday Ten, Meet the Teacher Edition

1. Just got home from meeting The Princess’s first grade teacher. She was Hubby’s teacher back when he was in first grade. She remembers him as being a smartass. I mean, VIVIDLY remembers him as being a smartass. When you think that he was in her class over 25 years ago, it’s kind of telling that that is what she remembers, isn’t it? Or that she even remembers him at all?

2. Then, I found out that the daughter of the guy I dated my freshman year of college will be in The Princess’s class. I have no problem with him or his wife (who I was friends with before I ever knew the guy), but I don’t doubt it could be awkward as the wife doesn’t exactly love me since she found out that he and I once dated. Heaven forbid The Princess wants to start hanging out with their kid. Sigh.

3. Ran into a handful of other people from my high school days as the girls and I were leaving. It was great to see some of them. Others? Not so much.

4. I am going to see the Counting Crows tomorrow. And Maroon 5. I keep saying Maroon 5 as an afterthought. I really am not super crazy about them. They have some good songs, and I’m sure they’ll be awesome, but… meh.

5. Project Runway last night? I’m surprised that Keith went. Not because he didn’t suck – because yeah, his outfit sucked – and then it ripped when his model sat down and then he got all whiny with the judges on the runway… BUT, usually, when the show gets edited that way, that makes it seem like one person is the obvious choice to get auf’d… that person ends up being safe. Funky little twist there, Bravo. Sneaky. By the way, I’m kind of impressed that you can make that much stuff out of the parts of a Hybrid Saturn Vue (and let’s hear it for product placement).

6. Last night, I was able to meet a former coworker for dinner (hey C!) and it was a great time to see her, get caught up on life and talk about all things bloggy and Twitter-y. And to be out without kids? Whooohoo!

7. I’ve got a couple interesting projects in the works – so I’ll plan on dropping some news next week. Wait for it. (Love how I did that, worked some suspense into it?).

8. Hitting the road Sunday for a day trip to the other side of the state to shop at Ikea with my best friend – but most importantly to gab and catch up on life and not get lost. She kicks ass. She never gets lost, evah! She’s got mental GPS. Can’t wait.

9. As I type this, Pumpkin is snoozing on the couch and The Princess is so peeved that her sister fell asleep on the couch that she’s huffing around the house really loudly, “There’s no room to sit! The chair isn’t comfortable!” Silly monkey, if she would just use her manners, I would happily give up my seat on the couch. Oh well.

10. I am pretty sure the nice folks over at Apple are going to send a search party to my house, as my downloading habits have been a bit on the slow side this week. I did download “Whatever It Takes” by Lifehouse – moronic given the fact that it’s on the radio every five minutes… but I like it anyway.

Sometimes She Surprises Me

This afternoon, the phone rang. As is the case 80% of the time when the phone rings it was for The Princess. It was her BFF, L, calling to tell The Princess that her fish-sitting services would no longer be required this weekend. It seems that today, L’s fish Jeffrey went to that giant fishbowl in the sky.

The Princess talked to her for a minute, then came into the kitchen (where completely unaware of the death at hand, I had been jamming to my iPod and maybe, kinda sorta dancing a little bit). She put the mouthpiece to the phone on her shoulder and said, “Uh, mom? L’s fish died. She’s all crying… So, I told her to take a deep breath, to think of something happy and that would wipe some of the bad thoughts away.” She then resumed talking to L, and currently they are hanging in The Princess’s bedroom (where The Princess’s two fish continue to thrive…somehow).

I don’t always feel like I do everything right. As a parent, there’s a large margin for error, and so many ways and methods of completely screwing things up. But for every tantrum my kid has thrown and for every time she’s rolled her eyes at me, at least I know that when the chips are down, she’s a good friend to her friends and that must mean I’m doing something right.

Let This Be A Lesson To You

Sunday afternoon, I went ice skating for two hours with a friend. We gabbed while we skated (and did not fall down which is more than just a little awesome, even if you don’t think so, I know it is – so there), and two hours of skating didn’t feel like two hours. And once we were off the ice, sure we were a little wobbly (okay, maybe that was just me) and once I unlaced my skates yeah, it felt a bit weird putting my flip flops on. Then I got home and I guess I was a little stiff – but it stopped and I was fine and I thought to myself:

WHOO HOO! I don’t hurt! I feel fantastic! My legs don’t ache! What luck! Lucky me!

Don’t do that. You know what happens when you do that? A day later, you’ll try to get up from sitting on the floor and realize your hip flexors hurt. Then you’ll realize maybe your thigh muscles kinda sorta don’t feel so fantastic either. And your calves? They’re not happy.

Oh. My. God.

But I’ll be fine. Really.

So When I Learn To Play My Guitar…

I used to joke that if I ever had a band, I would call it Fishwater. The name occurred to me while helping The Princess round up stuff to clean her fish tank – I told her not to get fish water on anything.

While I was at Rothbury, I saw a guy wearing a Fishwater shirt and I was somewhat perturbed – I mean, he stole the name of my band (without knowing!). Turns out, it’s not a band, but a song by Widespread Panic. Either way, I guess I kind of gave up on Fishwater.

But today, I was reading a blog and one of the fun things he posted was a Band Name Maker – so I decided to give it a whirl, typing in “Sarah” for the key word. I figured, okay, this could be my band name or maybe a cool new rockin’ nickname.

Potential Sarah bandnames are:
Sarah Chartreuse
Sarah #7
Sarah Chest (? really?)
Major Sarah and the Smooth Splash
Sarah Water and the Breathing Pyro
Sarah Legacy
Sarah Kumquat
Sarah of the Moral
Sarah Oasis
Sarah Papaya
Severe Sarah and the Spanking Trash
Sarah Belly
Sarah Complex
Sarah Mouth and the Ice Cold Nibble
Ambitious Sarah of the Suburban Audio
Lubricated Sarah
Naughty Sarah
Sarah of the Revenge
Odd Sarah and the About Blues
Sarah Chainsaw
Sarah Subject
Faster Sarah
Inevitable Sarah
Proven Sarah
Sarah Box
Sarah Barcode and the Bitter Button
Elixir of the Sarah Empire
Sarah Application
Sarah Sucky
Sarah Necessity

And I could go on alllll day (and I might, once I hit publish). I think I’m needing a new user name for something – which is the best name, maybe I’ll use it. And you should run your name because I totally need something to kill time reading today.

Another Pig Tale

Since so many of my posts talk about recent Coscto trips, I preface this story by saying: I really really don’t go to Costco that often. There are certain things we need to buy in bulk: toilet paper, chocolate milk, Tootsie Pops (Um, those would be for me… and… I don’t share well). Once, maybe twice a month we venture out for Costco – but we almost never leave with more than four things. I’m pretty good about that (Note: the only thing I usually cave on is flowers – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m working on teaching my daughters if they want flowers to buy them, that you don’t have to wait for some guy to buy you flowers).

Our past several outings to Costco however we’ve walked past a table of Carter blanket sleeper pajamas. You know – the soft fuzzy kind with the skidproof feet? The sign says “12 months – 4T” and one of the designs on the pj’s was this cute little pig design.

Enter my pig loving Pumpkin. For some reason, and I’m not entirely sure, the kid is fascinated by pigs. She has too many stuffed pigs (Izzie, Piglet, Strawberry, Oinklet, Wilbur, and… I’m forgetting a pig, but you get my drift). She likes to talk about what pigs eat. We were at story time last week and loudly she asked, “Do pigs eat rotten apples?” She paused, “Yeah, they eat rotten apples.”

Pig love in mind, you can imagine how she was drawn to this table with the pig pajamas. Except… they have never had a 4T (she fits a 3T, but who knows what she’ll be by the time the snow flies – so I wanted to buy a size up). Four times we’ve gone, four times, no 4T.

Yesterday, we hit the jackpot. Pig pajamas. 4T. I picked them up from the table and Pumpkin held them proudly through the store. We paid for them and returned home. Despite the fact that it was 80 some degrees yesterday and hotter than hell in our house, she insisted on wearing them to bed. I even turned the air conditioning on so she wouldn’t sweat in her sleep. This morning, she refused to take them off. Hubby took the girls on an errand – “Can I wear my pig pajamas?” she asked before she would agree to go. He told her yes, so she relented and joined him.

It was nearly NOON before I got those suckers off her, and only because I threatened her by saying she wouldn’t be able to wear them to sleep tonight if she wore them all day. She has never gotten this googly-eyed over any piece of clothing before. I wouldn’t have expected this, ever.

Thursday Ten, Is Summer Over YET?

1. I took my girls to story time at a nearby teacher’s house. Weekly, she has story time on her front porch which is this huge veranda-type deal. Today, Pumpkin took a book with her (“Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?”). The teacher let her come sit in the guest-reader chair and held the microphone so that Pumpkin could “read” to everyone. She got shy and only said some of the words but it was still so adorable. I took lots of pictures. If it was anyone else’s kid, though, it might not have been as adorable.

2. The Princess’s elementary school is undergoing construction and won’t be cleared for public inhabitance (?) until the 29th. They are having meet-the-teacher day on the 28th. Outside. I am more than a little annoyed that they couldn’t have postponed the teacher meet event until the afternoon of the 29th so that not only could the kids MEET their teacher, but find their classroom as well. The Princess will ultimately be fine, but she’s mentioned more than once that she’s a little nervous because she doesn’t know where her new room will be. These are kindergartners and first graders at this school – they really should have thought this one through a little bit more. My kid can’t be the only nervous one.

3. Since I’m on a school rant – we received her teacher assignment the yesterday. I requested this particular teacher at Hubby’s request as it was his teacher when he was in first grade. I’ve heard lovely things about her, and The Princess will rock no matter who teaches her — but, this would not have been my first teacher choice. The PLUS side is that her friends are in different classes – and it will be cool to see her branch out and make more friends.

4. But I really hope that none of her classmates are sons or daughters of any of my former high school boyfriends. It’s possible, and I dread that.

5. I’ve been a slacker on the music downloading front this week – I’ve got nothing new. (Recommendations, please?)

6. Last week, someone was telling me about the country group Sugarland. I rarely listen to country but when I checked them out on iTunes, I saw that they did a cover of Matt Nathanson’s “Come On Get Higher”. I prefer Matt’s version, but there’s is still good.

7. Project Runway last night… Glad to see Daniel go – but peeved Jerrell is still in. Once I saw the final two though, I chilled because I figured no matter how it went, it would be alright with me. On a fun note, I loved the Drag Queen challenge.

8. Starbucks cup wisdom: “The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will’. Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.” – David Copperfield

9. Since last night’s dinner sucked (according to the peanut gallery), tonight I am making honey chicken which is one of the girls’ favorites. You mix 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and about 1/3 cup of honey. Dunk boneless chicken breasts in it and then cover lightly with breadcrumbs. Bake until the salmonella is gone. I serve it with couscous and a vegetable – the couscous is the part the kids like best, but I refuse to just serve a plate of carbs.

10. The next few weeks are going to be interesting ones for me – lots of fun stuff on my plate, which is awesome. Supposed to go skating on Sunday (Hi M!), plans with another girlfriend on Wednesday, Counting Crows next Friday, and a trip to Ikea that Sunday – and then (it’s about freakin’ time) school starts on September 2. Whoooooo.

Like I Got Run Over

I woke up this morning relieved that today my Mother’s Helper (MH) would be coming to hang out with my chicklets while I locked myself away in my office and made myself uber-productive (or as I pondered with today’s Facebook status – “…either really productive or… really unproductive”). By the time MH arrived (early! My god! Early! She’s never early!), I was ready to flee the scene – the girls had been wonderfully behaved this morning, but I had anticipated several large projects coming down the pipe today, and I knew I would need every minute of my “freedom” to get it all done.

I did not anticipate that the three projects I was counting on having in my Inbox would not be there (and the coworker on Pacific time not available to bother for several more hours). I also did not anticipate spending three hours in a back and forth email-a-thon with four coworkers trying to locate several dozen assets for the website that seemed to be MIA. Back and forth this dialogue went – as it progressed I grew continually more frustrated that a) no one seemed to have a clue where the assets were, and b) one person indicated that indeed the assets were exactly where they should be and perhaps I was looking them up wrong.

M’kay, so here’s the thing: I don’t take criticism well. I take it even less well if I know for-fact that I’m right (and believe me, with this crowd I check and double check myself because I don’t want to be caught in a giant mistake). Nitpicky as I was feeling, I backed myself up and showed ’em I was right (nanny nanny boo boo?) and got confirmation that yes I was right.

Three painful painful hours later, there was an answer. But oh my goodness – what a time suck.

In the midst of that, I ventured downstairs for a mug of ice cold water (I’m back to my realization that I don’t drink enough water) and something to munch on back in the office. As soon as I neared the bottom of the stairs, I could see the destruction zone that was formerly my living room. Sofa cushions all over the floor, blankets everywhere, makeshift forts on anything that didn’t move. Sigh. If the sight of it wasn’t enough, Pumpkin was crying and having a meltdown and The Princess was getting attitude with Pumpkin, while watching MORE television, even though I had previously told her NO MORE TV TODAY! MH? She looked like she just wanted to jump out of a window (get in line, sister).

Quick hugs to the kids. Another reminder to The Princess to “turn the television off… NOW!” and back to the quiet of my office where I had to continue to grapple with the assets problem. Sigh.

I hit a lull in one project and emailed my West Coaster to get an ETA on the other projects. “They’re coming!” he emailed back. When did they arrive? Ten minutes before MH headed home for the day. So much for maximizing my dedicated work day.

I then hustled to make a dinner that both girls refused to eat. Hubby loved it – a relief since there is a lot leftover – fantastic that he loved it, but I know I’ll never make it again. How much does it suck to make a meal no one wants to eat?

Tucked the kids in and got hit with several questions after bedtime: I have to go bathroom. Mom, can I get an allowance? Where is my backpack? Do you know where Oinklet is?

I am so over today.

Because Santa Is Tech Savvy.

Did you know you can follow Santa on Twitter? According to Santa’s Tweet today, there are 129 days until Christmas. Can you believe it? I saw someone else tweet about seeing an ad for Halloween candy this weekend (seriously, retailers… really? I’m sure you’re counting on the fact that no one is going to buy a bag of Kit Kat’s and then store it for two and a half months til Halloween rolls around and will instead keep eating and replacing that same bag five or twelve times before the holiday, but could you just give us a break? Pretty please?).

Time is flying, people.

And just so you know – you all now have less than two months until my birthday so you should think about getting your shopping started.

Sarah’s BIG Day Out

Yesterday, Hubby spent much of the day gone. It started with a run in the morning that was supposed to be a quick jog around the neighborhood that turned into his being gone for a seven mile run that was somewhere around an hour long. Then he and the guys took off to the Fantasy Football Draft. For some reason, this was held at a sports bar thirty miles north of us – despite the fact that all the fantasty football geeks (I mean, guys) live in our neighborhood, and we have a pretty decent sports bar not even ten miles away. I guess the bar choosing had to do with the bags of swag being distributed for the event – I mean, a Coors Light can-cozy and key chain are totally worth driving 60 miles round trip at $4 a gallon. But. Whatever. Five hours later he got home. At that time, he told me, “Tomorrow is your day!”

Great – I needed a day out. But, sad thing is that none of my friends are available with 24 hour notice. Most of us are moms – with kids who need parental guidance. We make plans two to three weeks in advance. Calling Saturday and expecting anyone available today? Yeah, right.

So, I brainstormed a bit. I had no idea what I was going to do today. I figured there would be coffee, and I figured there would be a bookstore. Today I woke up with Pumpkin and sat on the couch, and realized I had a fantastic idea of how to start my day “off”.

I then went to Target to buy cards- I needed a card for my grandpa who turns 80-something tomorrow (one from me and one from the girls), as well as a sympathy card for the wife of a coworker who passed away on Friday (I’m so bummed – he was such an amazingly awesome man who loved his family like crazy and his death is a huge loss, both to the company and to everyone who knew him). I also bought treats for the girls and a card for Hubby.

Before heading home, I also bought a lot of underwear (no pictures, you nosey people!) and a Coke Zero for the road. I rolled in the door and the kids were excited to see me – especially once that they saw I was bearing gifts. I am still “off duty”, hiding in the office while Pumpkin avoids napping and The Princess is playing with the Hannah Montana book I picked up for her.

I feel refreshed and like I am kind of myself again. Wish a friend could have joined me (honestly, I would have done less shopping and more gabbing if I had company – and my day out might have been considerably cheaper but when all is said and done, Sarah’s Day Out couldn’t have cost more than a few rounds of beer and greasy appetizers at the bar, so it’s all good.