Category Archives: random tidbits

Busy-ness

My normal weekly schedule:
Hang out with the Hatchling, get out of the house in the afternoons to run errands or go to the park, maybe one or two playdates with friends.

This week:
Mon-Wed: Mini-Reunion with 7 college girlfriends and their families (collectively, 13 kids under the age of 9. Oy.)

Thurs: Lunch with glamorous blog-friend. Coffee with glamorous pre-blog friend. Oh, and it’s my birthday, so dinner and a movie with Mr. Squab, sans bebe. W00t!

Fri: Much beloved mother-in-law coming for the weekend. Attempt to create some semblance of order in the house.

And that’s not even including the weekend. Just call me Madame Butterfly. Social Butterfly, that is.

(Oh yeah – which is all to say, posting may be light this week.)

And they say romance is dead

Mr. Squab, in the kitchen fixing his plate: I sure do love you, honey.

Me, at the dining table: Ditto, dear!

Mr. Squab: And I sure do love what you have in your pants.

Me: (snicker)

Mr. Squab, grumbling to self: I notice there wasn’t a “ditto” after THAT.

Geni-us

Ehm … I was totally going to blog something today, but then I found this site, which is so cool I’ve spent all of the Hatchling’s nap filling stuff in. I don’t know if it’s a symptom of being the oldest kid or what, but I LUUUUURVE family trees. Charting one’s ancestry is such a cool way to learn about history and to feel connected with past people and eras. And this site is teh awesome for many reasons, primary among them being:

1. It’s free.
2. It was not unduly perplexed by my wacked out family structure. (My stepparents used to be married to one another. Ponder THAT for a minute and then try to figure out how you’d fit it on a family tree.)
3. It’s remarkably powerful and customizeable, with cool different views and the capability to store oodles of information on each person entered into the tree.

Anyway – if you groove on organizing your family information in a Web 2.0 manner, Geni is totally worth checking out.

Eight Random Facts About Me

I got tagged, yo. Here’re your random facts:

1. I am 1/16th Cherokee. (On my father’s side.)

2. I’m directly descended from Martin Luther’s sister. (On my mother’s side.) Yeah, THAT Martin Luther.

3. In grad school, I tended bar at a small party attended by Marcel Marceau, and at the end of the night he called me a “lovely girl” and kissed me on both cheeks. (Funny tidbit: Marcel Marceau could talk the hind leg off a donkey. I mean, he is a TALKER. Perhaps a side effect of his chosen profession?)

4. I think cilantro tastes like rancid soap. This has ruined many a meal for me at Mexican restaurants.

5. When I was five, my godfather bought me a recording of the opera Hänsel und Gretel for a birthday present. It was one of my favorite records growing up.

6. I have never been able to make it all the way through Citizen Kane without falling asleep. Maybe this is because I only try to watch it at one in the morning after going out drinking and/or toking up with friends.

7. There are currently eight large bookcases in my house, filled to capacity with my books, and I have about 6 more boxes of books that I haven’t even unpacked yet. I do not consider this to be a problem.
8. I have a thing about frogs. I dig them, and they’ve kind of become my totem animal. It started with Kermit, and expanded to all things froggy. My collection includes frog mugs, knickknacks, bookends, stuffed animals, candle holders, soap dispensers, earrings, pajamas, pens, and even the Chinese symbol for frog tattooed on my ankle.

OK, now for my tag-ees: Questionable, Christopher, Shan, ShabbyDoll, Matt, Ali, Clarence, Sriracha. Go check ’em out!

Things I find moderately-to-seriously freaky

Driving home behind a newish car the rear window of which is filled with scattered, realistic looking, baby doll limbs. Just limbs. No heads or bodies. Just, like, 30 molded rubber flesh-toned baby arms and legs rolling around in this dude’s rear window.

Who does that?

Whoa. Is THIS how it happens?

So I’m sitting here in Dunn Bros. coffee shop writing because my TOTALLY AWESOME SISTER is being my nanny for the week so I can finish. My goddamn. Dissertation. But that’s not what I’m here to tell you. What I’m here to tell you is: a young woman just walked in to the coffee shop with a wee little baby, maybe one month old, and HOLY CRAP I THOUGHT ABOUT HOW NICE IT WOULD BE TO HAVE ANOTHER ONE THAT SMALL.

Dudes. This is so not cool. The Hatchling is only 13 months old. We do not want to have another one for another couple of years, for real. Up until this point even the thought of having another one sent me into a blind panic. Is this some weird kind of hormonal surge? Have I been smoking crack in my sleep again? Somebody make it stop!

Random Tidbits

1. I don’t know if it’s the changing seasons, or still recovering from my show, or what, but MOTHERFUCKER I am tired. Tiredtiredtired all the timetimetime. Anyone know how to freebase caffeine?

2. The Hatchling quite enjoyed her first Easter. As certified heathens, we didn’t do a damn thing resurrectional or christly over the weekend. However, the Hatchling did sample her first peep, with mixed reaction. She wasn’t a big fan of the texture, but she likes sugar, all right.

3. I chopped my hair off. This is notable largely because people mostly haven’t been noting it. I’m not sure if this is a good thing, e.g. it just looks so natural on me that people don’t notice that I have about 5 fewer inches than I used to, or if this is a bad thing, e.g. I have truly entered that phase of existence where I might as well be invisible because people only care about looking at my (admittedly adorable) child. Right now, we’re sticking with option one.

4. It’s fucking snowing outside today. SNOWING. On the TENTH OF APRIL. I seriously need to move back to the southeast. I can’t take this shit.

5. Here is a cute picture of the Hatchling with her favorite pal. This was not posed; the cat just flopped down next to the Hatchling, much to her delight.

Buddies

Random Tidbits, Post-Oscar edition

1. It’s officially the end of an era: last night, for the first time in 5 years, I correctly predicted fewer than 15 of the Oscar winners. (I got 13 right.) I blame the Hatchling, who is seriously hampering my ability to go out to the movies as much as I would like to, and who tries to eat my issues of Entertainment Weekly whenever she gets her hands on them. C’mon, kid! The Mamala has a reputation to maintain, here!

2. I thought the ceremony was pretty enjoyable, overall. No major wardrobe malfunctions (except WTF was up with Jennifer Hudson’s Star Trek bolero? Seriously, J Hud: those are not three words that should ever be used to describe a red carpet ensemble), and I was pretty happy with the winners in every category. I thought Ellen was a solid host, unfortunate white patent leather shoes aside, and the repeated views of Jack Nicholson’s newly shorn pate injected the necessary element of crazy into the proceedings. My only major beef: what the hell was UP with all the montages? And why the fuck were they all so damn long? I mean, you’re cutting off thank-you speeches at 10 seconds, but you can spend three minutes on a random “Amercian Film” montage that has even less coherence than Paula Abdul after a gulp of her “coke” on American Idol? That ain’t right.

3. Oh, and also, Pilobolus, which is one of my favorite dance troupes in the world, was completely wasted in those behind the screen silhouette-y bits. They are sooooo much cooler than that. I hope they got paid a bazillion dollars for the appearance and are using the money to fund a radical new dance piece or something.

4. I didn’t live-blog the proceedings because we had people over to watch the ceremony with us. Most of the invitees pussed out because of the rawther large snowfall we got yesterday, but several intrepid friends made it over, so we got to snark it up in company. We also enjoyed some delectable white trash comestibles, about which I shall blog more later.

5. Non Oscar-related tidbit: Does anyone know when kids are supposed to get their first molars? Because the Hatchling is starting to sprout hers, and it is making us both cranky. I thought they weren’t supposed to get those until like, 18 months or something. Am I just on crack?

Random Tidbits

– I always thought that the theory was that if your kid wasn’t in daycare, they wouldn’t get sick as much. Maybe that’s true, but lord have MERCY we cannot stay cold-free this winter. It’s not just the Hatchling – Mr. Squab and I have gotten sick far more often than we ever have before. This, even though we’re more careful than ever to wash our hands, use Purell, and generally keep things as antiseptic as we can. Sux.

– We saw Pan’s Labyrinth this weekend. Damn, is that a cool movie. The imagery is amazing and the story is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Highly recommended.

– Mr. Squab turns 29 years old tomorrow. (I know! So young!) As a combination birthday/Valentine’s Day/5th anniversary present, we’re getting a mongo flat screen TV. And by mongo, I mean 47 inches of LCD gorgeousness, on which we can watch the Oscars in style. Quoth the wife of Mr. Squab’s boss: “So, you’re not getting the giant TV for the Superbowl, but you’re getting it for the Oscars? (Pause.) Awesome.”

– I’m directing again, for the first time since fall of ’05. I’ve been nervous about balancing directing with parenting duties, as both jobs have a tendency to suck all the energy and focus you have, but so far it’s going really well. The show is a gem, the cast is (so far, knock wood) phenomenal, and it’s nice to be back in the saddle.

– It is FUCKING COLD here.