Indignation Station

Have I mentioned how exhausting people are and how much passive-aggressive behavior wears me out?

In this spirit, I will post instructions on how to appropriately write a passive aggressive note.  Because, if you are going to do it, at least have the decency to do it correctly.  Whoever you are.  *giggle*

Seriously, though.  I think what exhausts me more than anything is how quick people (in general) jump on the Defensive Train and ride it all the way to Indignation Station.  (this sounds like the beginning of a School House Rock song)

*snort*

Ok, I'm done.  It's no skin off my back.  I won't stop asking questions when I want to know things and people will still get defensive as a first response (learned that from one of my asst. supts.) until they understand asking questions isn't an attack. 

Wordpress had better visibility but...

Blogger is cuter.  *sigh*  It's a trade-off, I guess. 

*giggle*

circus job wanted

I'm ready for a job herding elephants.  I'm just sayin'. 

that sad little song

What is it about music that gives it such power over our emotions? There is nothing more haunting than a melancholy tune; more stirring than a sweeping orchestral swell or more invigorating than a lively melody. 

Or, is that just me? (probably)

Walking in Circles

Do you ever get the feeling you are walking in the same circle, over and over again?  Pick up magnets off the floor.  Straighten crib.  pick up blocks and rattles and more blocks and put them back in the basket.  make a bottle.  Sweep the floor.....and on and on.

 

That time of year again

June is here. 

Graduation is in the books, along with another school year. 

June 1 was my 4th birthday as a WILDCAT. 

It's time to switch from school year omgosh-hair-on-fire-frantic to summer not-as-frantic-frantic. 

Munchkin leaves for the East in 13 days.

Reorganizing and redecorating Munchkin's room begins in 14 days.  (I'm really looking forward to this)

New look - again

I changed my blog theme and appearance...again.  :) 

What do you think of the dandelions?  They were from a really pretty image set from http://www.obsidiandawn.com/.  I hope they like how I've used them.

Not really, no

I promise I'm not really watching the clock.  I've got lots to do and I'm doing it. 

See how busy I am? 

To Do List:
artwork to vendor - done
f/u on $830M DoE funds inquiry - done
pull last week's pictures off camera and post - done
water that sick looking little plant - done
arrange p/u of phone books for campus - done

And I've only been here since 9:30! 

And yet....everytime my phone beeps I've got an email, I say a little prayer, let out the breath I sucked in and check it. 

Ok. I'm going to take a little break and refill my coffee. 

I CAN and WILL wait patiently. 
I CAN and WILL wait patiently.
I CAN and WILL wait patiently.
I CAN and WILL wait patiently.

monkeys at WordPress.com *giggle*

Once again, I've been visiting the Ninja Aunt's place and saw a really cool little year-in-review from wordpress and thought to myself, "hey, I wonder if I got one?"  And I did!  (they sent it to an email address I still keep for flickr but never use otherwise - go figure...)

So...here you go...

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here's a high level summary of its overall blog health:



The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,200 times in 2010. That's about 15 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 75 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 464 posts. There were 47 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 11mb. That's about 4 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was December 4th with 284 views. The most popular post that day was Downhill Slide.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, iconfactory.com, sarahwalstonsblog.wordpress.com, twitter.com, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for monsters inc, monster inc, roz monsters inc, monsters inc roz, and roz from monsters inc.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Downhill Slide December 2010

2

Goodbye November 2010
1 comment

3

Who is fridaynightgirl? September 2006

4

The problem with grief November 2010
2 comments

5

stroller, diapers and wet wipes - oh my! August 2010
1 comment

**aside - when I think of monkeys crunching numbers about blog stats, for some reason, this comes to mind:

Lessons to learn before children

I found this on fb and it's hysterical.  It's complete drivel but oh, so, funny.  Parents, enjoy.

_____________________________________

Lesson 1
 
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.
 
Lesson 2
 
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.
 
Lesson 3
 
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)
 
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.
 
Lesson 4
 
Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?
 
Lesson 5
 
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
 
Time allowed for this - all morning.
 
Lesson 6
 
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
 
Lesson 7
 
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.
 
Lesson 8
 
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
 
You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.
 
Lesson 9
 
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.
 
Lesson 10
 
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.
 
Lesson 11
 
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.
 
This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Barnaby

So there is a frog in our yard and Matt has named him Barnaby.  The frog hangs out on the porch which, with a two month old puppy who eats everything, seems very brave (or stupid - it IS a frog, afterall).

Last night, as we pulled back into the driveway, Matt screeches to a stop; scaring me to death. All the sudden, he jumps out of the car, clapping and shooing a frog, obviously Barnaby, out of the way.  Now all frogs are Barnaby and must be protected from harm.

LOL

my turn to be awake

Normally, I'm the one nodding off by 9:30 and Coach is up all hours of the night.  He's a night-owl and I am a crack of dawn kind of girl.  But, tonight, he went to bed early and I'm still sitting here.  Oh, sure, it's only 10 o'clock so it's not like I'm shaking hands with morning just yet.  The Stowaway is moving and shifting in not-so-comfortable ways and I think that's keeping me from getting settled. 

I'm planning on trying to sleep in about 30 more minutes... 

'night y'all.

one more thing

...remember that spiffy moving list I made and was going to hang on the front door so we'd stay on track blah, blah, blah??

I'm not really sure where it is.  I put it down when I got home the other day and that's the last time I saw it..  Coach, did you hide it from me?  *giggle*  Maybe it was Oscar..

why yes, I'd love to use your time machine

Ok, I've decided I'm just stuck in the 32-week spinzone.  Time is slowing down to a non-crawl.  I know time is moving forward because we keep running out of toilet paper.  But golly, gee, willakers - is this pregnancy EVER going to be over?!  I could bore you with the endless whine that is late 3rd trimester stuff but I'll spare you.  See how understanding I can be?

please hold for a coffee break

[insert musak here]

now we return you to this regularly scheduled blog...

Ok, that was silly. 

So, World Cup is almost over. 

Yeah, I want to talk about pregnancy too.  The greatest thing about the Stowaway getting as big as she is, is that I can feel her moving all the time and it makes me smile (most of the time).  She had hiccups day before yesterday and that's the first time I've felt them.  She's such a pistol!  She moves and rolls and kicks and the instant I invite Dad or Nana or somebody else to reach out and feel, she stops.  Stinker. 

So, I'm watching HLN this morning and they are showing this wife-carrying contest in Finland or somewhere that has silly games like this that make it to international news.  It made me stop and ask myself what, exactly, determines whether something is "newsworthy."  I had that show on, in the background, the last 45 minutes and there was not a single mention of Iraq or Afghanistan.  I heard about a 100-mile car chase in California, tar balls in Galveston from the BP spill, wife-carrying games in Finland, LeBron James *yawn*, and on and on and on...  The only thing I could see that might remotely resemble news would be the continued MESS in the Gulf because of BP's reckless disregard for ANYTHING. 

If France bans the Islamic veils, they just might surpass us as the most hated non-Muslim country.  Ah, the world in which we live... *sigh*

90-degree heat in the Northeast?  So what? 

Ok, I'm quitting.  I promise this will be the last time I blog while watching the drivel masquerading as "news."

Have a great day, folks.