July 2004 Archives

Josh is home. Thank god. Eli and I picked him up from the airport tonight, and then we all went out to dinner in Berkeley on the way home. Now Josh is tucking Eli in and reading him his new pirate story and playing for just "2 more minutes!" with Eli's new Pirate Magnets Playset. And I'm seriously contemplating crashing out Right Now except that I'm waiting for my friend to call so we can discuss final details for our camping trip tomorrow. I'm trying not to get overly obsessive about the planning and the details for this trip tomorrow--it's just one night, and there's a store and a restaurant nearby, how hard could this be?

Time to relax, to let go a little. I think I deserve that. Now if only I could convince my brain into this "relaxing" idea....

Well, of course this "hey did you know your cat is bleeding?" saga has developed into some sort of neverending and hideously expensive bloody kitty ring cycle thing. Turns out that the "boo boo" was a 2 inch long (!) puncture wound containing all kinds of impacted hair and the beginnings of an infection. She had to be put under so they could clean out the wound properly and put in a drain (eww). She's going to be okay, but she's going to require "heavy care" 2x a day (hot compresses, pain meds, antibiotic drops, etc) for a week. They also cautioned us not to let her hang out on the furniture or carpets (because of the wound drainage). So, because of this and because of the fact that I'll be out of the house from 9am-9pm tomorrow, and our planned camping trip Saturday-Sunday, and despite feeling incredibly guilty about it, we've decided to board Oreo at the vet until Monday. Are we horrible kitty parents? I can't decide. At some point I will have to write a longer, more complete blog entry about the whole issue of "pets who used to be our babies and how they plummeted down the priority totem pole in our post-child world". But not tonight.

I know that you, like me, are probably shaking your head and asking "What the hell caused this?" Suspicion has swirled around the dog as the main suspect, but I just can't believe she's the culprit. However, I have no idea what *was*. The best I can come up with is that something (but what?) fell on her. Anyone got any better theories?

Poor little cookie.

Yes it's past my bedtime again and yet I can't NOT post. Because Rebecca and I are playing a game of blog chicken...who will stop the daily posting first? Who will be the first to blink? To bend and finally break under the pressure? To dissolve into a burbling fetid pool of non-accountable goo? Not me. Not today, Zurg!

Had another space-shuttle day (which I'm too tired to even relate here), but with a happy ending. My friend Daphne came over for yummy chili dinner and girly time, and we had a great evening (and Daphne was a very good sport with Eli, who was super enamored of her. Well, who wouldn't be?). We even managed to set her up with a LiveJournal account. Bwah hah hah hah...now she too will be Borg!

That was the good news. The bad news (along the "It's Always Something" line) is that Daphne and I discovered blood on the couch, and traced it back to Oreo kitty, who has a weird puncture wound of some kind just beneath her left ear, which was scabby and bloody and is still leaking goo. So it's off to the vet we go tomorrow morning. Poor boo boo kitty. I have no idea what happened or what to do about it, but she seems generally non-suffering and that's what vets are for. So. Stay tuned for the next exciting development in the Suck-it-Up Olympics...

For what they're worth, the few pix I remembered to take at Comic-Con are up. I'm afraid they really don't show the true breadth and depth of the hardcore geek experience that it really was, but that's the way it turned out.

Go here if you want to see them.

And since I blew my precious evening time processing pictures, that's all the blog gets tonight. Asi es la vida loca.

So today I got up at 7:15 (I was supposed to get up at 6:15 so I could take a shower before the kid got up, but he got me up 4 times last night between the hours of 1 and 5 am, when I am normally revelling in my REM sleep so I skipped the shower and slept in). I got the kid up and ready (those 7 little words hide such a tangle of wheedling, commanding, demanding and bribing, I just can't even begin to describe), then took him to school. Then I turned around and went to pick up the dog from what we euphemistically call "doggie camp" where she'd been boarded while we were gone, and drop her back off at home. Then I went into work and tried to catch up on everything I didn't do while I was on vacation (fortunately it wasn't that overwhelming).

I zoomed out of work at 5:30 to go pick up the kid at school, where we promptly turned around and went to the grocery store for a full shop (because of course the larders were more than bare of the usuals, they were in dire need of restocking). Then we came home and I fixed the kid's dinner while gulping down a "tide over" snack for myself (and yes, I admit I also ate a bunch of the kid's leftover mac 'n cheese. I was hungry and it was there all easy cheesy. You would've too, at least if you were me, who has a mac 'n cheese addiction issue anyway.) I managed to sidestep a pre-bedtime tantrum when the overtired kid (who of course didn't nap at school) discovered there was no time for a bath, cajole him into his jammies, and put him to bed without too much agony. He only got up twice. I finally agreed to stay for a minute and "snuggle" with him in his bed--after lying there with him for literally no more than 90 seconds, he was snoring. (Luckily it didn't take longer than that or I'd still be in there snoring with him.) That was at about 8:45. After I disengaged I went to go make a big ol' chicken noodle casserole that would feed me for pretty much the rest of the week, and now I find myself way past my bedtime, waiting for it to finish baking. The efficient thing to do would be to make tomorrow's lunches and/or go take my overdue shower. But I am just plum out of steam, so I'm taking a break (yes this is a break) to blog and maybe, just maybe, to reflect for a moment on how crazy this kind of schedule is. And there are hundreds of thousands of women, single moms, who do this day in and day out, every day, with multiple kids.

God. I'll stop trolling for sympathy now. Really I will.

I can't believe it's Sunday night and I have to get up and go to work tomorrow. Not to mention return to my regular way-overscheduled, space-shuttle-launchingly logisticked life. Augh. Vacation, vacation, where have you fled? I miss you already. Even an easy trip home, reuniting with my kid (yes I missed him, and it was a blast to give him all the Nightmare Before Xmas toys we'd bought for him), a yummy dinner courtesy of my parents and nearly half a pint of Ben and Jerry's (Shhh! Don't tell anyone!) left behind by a friendly house-sitter is doing little to ease the pain.

Still, it's good to be home. Even better to come home to a nice clean house and nice clean sheets on the bed and my kitties all happy to see me. (Tomo doesn't come home from doggie camp until tomorrow and the house seems oddly empty without her humongous, comforting presence.)

Vacation tally:

-5 days/4 nights of happy geeky bliss, sans kid, in a fun town with good friends and other cool peeps
-4 pages of novel written
-1 chapter of Critters Dedicated Reader critique plowed through
-5 blog entries posted
-1 book and many comics read
-Hundreds of dollars spent on yummy food, geeky reading material and toys
-4 naps taken
-Approximately 10 hours of extra sleep stored up for the lean times (like, oh, probably the rest of this week)
-Zero dollars in business done for Panic Entertainment, but not for lack of trying
-5 sightings of Amber Benson (Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, duh)

And yes, probably more, but sheesh I'm tired and once again proving to myself that right before bedtime is not the best time to post to the blog. So sue me. Soon I'll return to my posting in the morning or from work routine.

Thank you San Diego, good night!

Well, I am happy to report that since yesterday I have done nothing but laze about and do whatever I felt like doing. Woo! Now *that's* vacation. I got in some novel writing, some comic reading, some lying in the sun by the pool, and some deeeeeelicious food (went to a yummy Persian restaurant called Bandar for dinner...awesome food). Hit the con only for an hour, to see our friend Serena Valentino's spotlight panel.

Of course I didn't get done absolutely everything I would have liked to get done, but overall I think it wasn't bad for a vacation. I am trying to stave off that downer feeling of vacation about to end--so I'm going to stop writing in here and go read one last comic before going to bed at a decent hour so I can maybe, just maybe, get up early enough tomorrow morning to squeeze in just a bit more writing. A girl can dream...

(And yes, I promise at some point I will post some pictures. But I've been very bad about taking good pix so don't get your hopes up.)

So. It's afternoon now, and though I am tired I am not 'zausted. Today has been an ideal vacation day so far. I slept in (yay!), walked around the con for a couple hours and talked to interesting people, saw a panel with more famous writers on it and got inspired, then came back to the hotel and had a pedicure. Now I'm sitting here with fabulous sparkly purple toenails, munching on Cool Ranch Doritos (normally a totally verboten snacky treat, but hey, I’m on vacation!) and I'm ready to write. (I don't want to spend *too* much time on the blog entry though, because what I'd really like to do is get in a little novel writing time. Crazy, I know!)

Today I've been thinking a lot more about the "geek tribe" concept I think I mentioned earlier. Now, as I said, of course there are many many different kinds of geeks (also known in some circles as nerds)--I'm using the term quite vaguely here. It spans everything from your overeducated, bookish, English Lit major types, to hardcore techie computer programmers, to young adolescent male videogamer types, to fantasy-reading, filk-song writing, fairy-believing older women types, to costume-wearing sci-fi movie fans (Star Wars and Star Trek and soooooo much more) to tragic velvet-draped goth types, to Dungeons and Dragons/role-playing gamer types, to bouncy little teenage anime fans, to super-genius science and math types, and of course, to comic book readers (who are in and of themselves quite a broad set of geek types, as superheroes are only one piece of the comic landscape these days).

And of course not all these geeks are the most mensch-like versions of humanity. In fact, there are quite a few geek-types who really need some basic remedial lessons in a) personal hygiene and b) interpersonal interaction (otherwise known as "social skills"). You know, the Spider-man t-shirt wearing kind who you get a super-stinky whiff of as they push obliviously past you to get to the line where they're selling the Comic-con exclusive silver-painted stormtrooper action figure, whacking you with their enormous backpack and never even pausing to say "excuse me".

But those types aside (though it's entertaining and nearly irresistible to poke fun at these particular variants), what I'm always impressed by when I'm around large groups of geek-types is how friendly everyone is, and how generally accepting of each other they are. It doesn't matter what you look like, or what seemingly bizarre subculture you're into--you're still accepted and encouraged. I think this is because most geek-types are smart, and also because they grew up on the wrong side of the "popular" tracks, and so they know what it's like to be ostracized and made fun of. I've found geeks to be generally more open-minded about all kinds of things, from pop culture to politics. They are passionate about whatever it is that catches their interest, and are always willing to share what they love with you. (Sometimes whether you want them to or not.) They are often quite funny too (again probably because of that whole high school social pecking order craziness, where if you were good looking you didn't have to work on a personality, but if you were for any reason outside the narrow physical or intellectual "norm" you often had to compensate with humor in order to be accepted). I have really come to appreciate the creativity and the enthusiasm of geek folks, and I am proud to claim myself one of the tribe.

I suppose at this point I should do a full disclosure of my particular flavor of geekdom. I'm mostly the old-school bookish, fantasy/sci-fi reader type, with a little sprinkling of role-playing gamer, a dash of comic-reader, and a pinch of computer user (after all, hello blog!). I admit I did go to Sci-Fi conventions when I was a teenager (and I even dressed up!), and I used to have a unicorn collection as a girl. I was way into elves and fairies and Tolkien (natch), but also Star Wars and Star Trek (classic and Next Generation). Mostly due to my brother's influence, as a kid I read all kinds of comics (I especially remember X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Superman) but the first one I found for myself was Elfquest. Now my favorite comics (in no particular order) are Strangers In Paradise, Y: the Last Man, Fables, and whatever I happen to borrow from Adrienne or Josh.

Coming to a place where so many geeks gather together is really freeing, and really inspiring. There are so many cool things to watch/read/play with/talk about/collect here, and so many interesting people to meet. And I love the fact that all of a sudden things like comics, fantasy and sci-fi (books and movies) are becoming part of mainstream culture. The geeks are winning! My people are winning! Soon we will take over the world! Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

Ahem. Ok, I'm probably not finished with all my rambling, but it's time to go eat dinner (Boxtys! Yum! For those of you who don't know, they're like Irish burritos. What's not to like?). So that'll have to do for now.

\m/

Once again it's close to midnight and I'm only writing in here because that damn daily habit is hard to break. I didn't sleep well last night and I've done a ton of walking around today, so I'm pretty 'zausted (which is never the best time to try to write). I'm thinking about sleeping in and doing a better blog entry tomorrow morning after I've actually had some decent sleep. (Hope I didn't just jinx myself by calling the Insomniac God's attention to my hubris...)

But I will at least say that I am still having fun and that I got some good writerly inspiration today from a couple of panels I went to. More on that writerly stuff tomorrow.

Zzzzzzzz.....

Well, after a pile of logisticking (packing, kid wrangling, pet wrangling, house chores, etc) that felt like "coordinating the frigging space shuttle launch" (as my friend Michelene would say), we finally got off to start our vacation today. Yes, we once again made the yearly pilgramage to Geek Mecca: the San Diego Comic-Con. We hit traffic and long lines on the way to the airport, but managed, through the good graces of our buddies Jim and Adrienne (who got there earlier than we did and saved us seats on the plane), to squeak through just fine. We cooperatively filled out the crossword puzzle on the way down and actually finished it about 5 minutes before the plane landed.

Then it was off to the supermarket for snacks and booze and back to the hotel for a nap. (Not to go too far off on a tangent here, but being able to nap in the middle of the afternoon is one of my favorite things, and is something I so rarely get to indulge in anymore now that I'm a full-time working parent. I will always wistfully recall those crazy grad school days, where I could nap if I wanted to. Given my natural biorhythms, I really belong in a siesta culture.)

Anyway, after naptime it was off to Preview Night, where after waiting in line for entirely too long to get our (preregistered!) badges we finally made it onto the floor and into geek heaven. There were plenty of people dressed up in costumes, but mostly it was just zillions of geeks of all ages and types (computer geeks, comic geeks, gamer geeks, movie/tv geeks, literary geeks, sci-fi/fantasy geeks, I think you get my drift).

Seriously, though, once we're there it does sort of feel like we're in an extended tribe--like we're surrounded by all sorts of "people like us". It's a good crowd overall--and it *is* a crowd, let me tell you. We heard rumors today (which was crowded enough considering it was Preview Night, and only people who were registered for the 4 full days of the Con could get in for these couple of hours tonight) that attendance was expected to hit 100,000 this year. (!)

So we wandered around and gawked at all kinds of booths and bought some toys for Eli and some comics for us, and did a bit of networking/work related stuff. Then we bailed and went out for beer with one set of buddies, then to Thai food with another set. And now we're back at the hotel (where I'm stealing someone's wireless internet) and it's nearly midnight and I'm 'zausted but yet I can't help posting in here because the daily blogging bug is hard to shake. Maybe tomorrow there will be pictures. No guarantee.

But so far we're having fun and I'm looking forward to more fun tomorrow. I do miss Eli, but it's wonderful to be on my own schedule for a change instead of his. Yay for vacation!

Tonight's post is merely pro forma. I was way too exhausted and frazzled to post while at work, and I still have miles to go before I sleep tonight. Gotta pack for the big vacation! Woo!

Hopefully I will post from the road, since apparently there is free hi-speed internet access in my hotel room. In the meantime, I leave you with a picture that is sure to bring a hearty laugh (and probably some future blackmail possibilities for my poor son):

Yes, that's my boy in the pink hat and the pink sequin heels. See what a liberal hippy county's educational system can do for you? :)

Well, I have to say that after all that mud and plastic wrap, the effect came out much darker than I remembered (probably because the last few times I've done it, it's been with grown out ex-highlights, which are lighter than my usual color). It's really more of a maroon than a auburn. Ah well.

Other than that, not much to report except a very whiny and clutchy child this morning. I don't know if it was just some sort of Monday letdown after a weekend of full parental attention or if he was just overtired from a busy, napless day yesterday, but this morning he was in full testing/whiner/tantrum mode. He didn't want to eat breakfast. He didn't want to get dressed. He wanted me to pick him up and just stand there holding him (NOT sit down with him, Heaven forfend). He didn't want to go to school. He wanted to water the plants with me BEFORE breakfast. He didn't want me to leave the room. It got to the point, after I'd peeled him off me a couple times and said "forget it then, I'm going to go get ready myself", and he'd followed me into the bathroom, that I finally had to firmly say "No, Eli. I want you to go eat your breakfast. I need a little private time." And he broke down in big lip quivery sobs. Just what a harried working Mama needs in the morning while trying to get out the door. Argh. Once we finally *did* get some food in the kid and get dressed and get out the door, drop off at school was no better--he grabbed on to my dress and wouldn't let me go. I finally ripped myself away, accompanied by the sound of his loud wailing ("MAma! MAAAAAma!") and tried to put on a happy cheerful face as I waved goodbye. But it left me bummed out and guilty, not to mention not exactly primed for the work week.

And knowing we're about to leave him on Wednesday with his grandparents for 5 days while we go off to the San Diego Comic-Con doesn't make the parental guilt and angst any better. Even though I know he'll have a ball with his Grammy and Grampy, it still makes my heart clutch.

Parenting. It ain't for the weak of heart and mind.

Ok, I'm sitting here with plastic wrap around the top of my head, and a roll of paper towels next to me to mop up the smelly green rivulets of henna mixed with sweat that keep making their way down my forehead and neck and behind my ears. I'm waiting for Josh to get home from his class so I can finally take a shower and get this crap off my head. Whose bright idea was it to slather stinky herbal mud all over my hair til I look like a rasta or some sort of overly fashionable half-orc? Oh yeah, mine. It's funny what I'll do for vanity's sake (and what I won't). Actually go to a professional and get my hair properly dyed? Heck no. But happy hippy DIY Lush goo? I'm there. And I've always liked the idea of auburn hair, so every once in awhile I get a bug up my butt to do the henna thing (less chemicals and less committment--works for me). I don't think I could pull off true red with my yellow/olive skin tone, although I've always been attracted to it as a hair color.

I'll be honest, I've always been somewhat vain about my hair. (I mean really, growing up as a fat girl, what else did I have to be vain about? My lovely lips? No one cared.) I like big hair--not teased up but long and full, preferably in smooth spiral curls (which I rarely achieve for more than half an hour). Maybe the long hair thing comes from growing up in the '70s, maybe it comes from an over-fondness for the fairy tale/fantasy genre and those long-haired princesses and elvish queens. I fully intend to be one of those old women with long grey curly hair (though white would be ultra cool). I'm certainly not getting one of those "sensible" cuts the minute my kids move out. Which is not to say that I'm not a wash-n-wear kinda gal--I spend relatively little time primping my hair, just scrunch in some gel and go. I just want to keep it long. I like it that way.

So if I actually get some pictures of me with the fresh hennaed hair maybe I'll post one. :) In the meantime, as long as I'm on the subject of hair, here's a funky picture of me with straightened hair (last time I got my hair cut the hairdresser did it that way for kicks). I kind of like it but it's just waaaaaaayyyyy too much work to do it again on my own.

I have realized that, like Pavlov's dog, I have come to associate a particular sound (well, actually it's a particular activity) with a particular thought process. In the dog's case, a bell made it think "time for food!" In my case, standing in the shower brushing my teeth with the Sonicare toothbrush makes me think about writing (especially the novel I'm working on). It only works in the shower with the Sonicare (not standing at the sink with the regular toothbrush). I don't know how I formed this association, but I did. Maybe one morning, during the enforced down time of toothbrushing, I happened to be thinking about a particularly knotty plot issue, or favorite character, and now, every subsequent time, my brain goes "hey! Time to get creative!" Who knows. But this morning, standing in the shower thinking about this Pavlovian reaction, I decided I'd write about it. For full, ultimate reflexivity. :)

Today has been a much needed downtime day. Nowhere to be, no tightly choreographed rushing from activity to activity. Josh has been gone most of the day helping a friend set up some computer stuff, and Eli and I have watched a lot of TV, colored, played with wikki stix and Toy Story toys, and just kind of hung out together. I've also managed to read a bunch of comics (finally caught up on Y: The Last Man), do a bunch of laundry, and pick up around the house, but without feeling pressured about it. There's more to do of course, but I'm trying not to get all super-planner crazy about it. (In fact, crazy is really what I'm trying to avoid here. I'm all about the calm, zen being-in-the-moment today. Really.) In a few hours we're having my aunt and uncle and visiting Grandmother over for pizza dinner, but at least we don't have to cook. All in all, it's not the worst way to spend a Saturday. In fact, I dare say it's good for me.

Nothing much to say today except that the combination of heat, general emotional and physical exhaustion and the end of a busy work week have kicked my ass and I have been staring at this empty bit of blogspace for hours (off and on, between other things). But a dare's a dare and don't let it be said that I can't follow through on a dare, especially one I've issued. (Though come to think of it, it was kind of a wussy dare, not even a double dog dare, let alone cherries on top or anything. I should have been harder on Rebecca.)

But I *am* happy to announce that goofy family photos can now be viewed by all. It ain't pretty, but the basic structure is up. I started with the first pix I downloaded when I got my new iBook last October (which happen to be of Halloween 2003) and began working forward, and then decided that I'd best keep current as well, so there's some as recent as last weekend on there. There's just a big gaping hole from approximately December 2003 through May 2004. But stay tuned, it is my most excellent road-to-hell-paving intention to get that hole filled ASAP. Then I'll start working backwards! No really! Stop laughing! I have plenty of spare time during which I can pay attention to this project!

Sigh....

Today promises to be a long and distracting day, so I might as well post in here now while it's quiet and I have the chance. It's 6 am; I've been up since 5:04 am when a plaintive little voice in the hallway ("Mama? I wanna sleep with you...I wanna snuggle with you.") brought me rising up through layers of consciousness like an air-starved diver floating to the surface of the sea. Such an odd sensation, that yanked-back-to-consciousness feeling. It really does feel like rising up from deep waters into shallower ones until you suddenly break through into the air. Or like my iBook powering up from sleep mode (now I know why they say the computer is "sleeping"). There is a moment where the brain bursts back online and further sleep becomes impossible (at least, impossible without going through an extended slowdown/powerdown routine, which is time consuming and delicate). I fear I will never lose the "mama radar" which has me powering up at the least kid noise, fully awake and ready for action within seconds. (This is in complete contrast to Josh, who snores contentedly away at my side, oblivious to all disturbances until forced awake by his name being firmly spoken, and only reluctantly moving up to half power until coffee is administered.) If I romanticize it a little I can tell myself I'm like some super cool spy or soldier or rogue, who always has an ear out for danger and can't be surprised. But really I'd rather have Josh's super power of being able to ignore potential attention demands and fall immediately back asleep under any circumstance.

Maybe if I had less on my mind, fewer logistics and emotional tangles to work out, my brain would power down more easily. But what are the chances of getting rid of any of this overwhelm any time soon?

So it's just about 6:30 now. Time to get up, get the kid and husband up and running, hustle us all to an early morning dentist appointment for the kid, then go to work for a few hours. Then time to bolt out of San Anselmo for a lunch date up in Novato, then back to work before the boss gets cranky. Then quick errand running on the way home for supplies and takeout dinner, then kid bedtime routine, then (with no transition time inbetween) having a group of friends over for gaming until far past my usual bedtime. And tomorrow doesn't promise to be any less overwhelming--in fact I suspect it will be far more physically demanding and have an even later bedtime.

I feel a migraine coming on just thinking about the next few days. Time to grab hold of the inner grownup and start the new suck-it-up marathon.

So I have been rather slackerish about posting in here, mostly due to the generally overwhelming maelstrom of life drama that keeps swirling around my general vicinity. Now, I must point out that most of the drama doesn't directly involve or pinpoint *me*, but it's still uncomfortably close and happening to people I love, so it might as well be happening to me. Details at 11? Probably not. Too exhausting. For now, Cryptic 'r Us is my modus operandi. Sorry people.

But I did issue a dare last night to my writer buddy Rebecca to post something every day for a week in her blog. I said I'd do it if she would, so here we are. Day 1. Posting. In the blog.

What else to say? I've finally ever-so-slowly begun moving forward with the novel writing again. There was much fallow time, and wrestling-with-plot-issues time, and sleep-is-better-than-writing justification, but I think I'm finally getting back on track. I've been working on this project for almost exactly a year now, and I'm approximately 112 pages (42,000 words) into it. I think I might be about 1/3 of the way there. Doesn't seem like much to show for a year's work, but considering how full the rest of my life is, I think I'm doing pretty damn well. And I've stuck with it...that's got to count for something. :) Go me! Livin' the Dream!

Ok, on a completely unrelated note, here's something to go look at in your spare time, cos it's f**king funny. Nothing quite as scathing as John Scalzi on a really good rant about something (this time it's about why the upcoming months leading up to election day are going to suck, and why both candidates suck).

That's it for today...I'm outta here before the maelstrom finds me sitting in one place for too long.

Ok, I am perfectly willing to admit that this is weird. But I had a dream last night, a very vivid dream, and the one piece of it I woke up remembering is that I'd been hanging out with Steve Burns (yes, of Blue's Clues fame). He was watching the kids (Jonah and Eli) but needed a break to go take a nap, so he asked me if I would take over. Of course, I said, no problem. I owe you so much, I'd be more than happy to help you out in whatever way you need. He smiled that sweet and goofy smile at me, sitting there in his khaki pants and green stripy shirt. And I'd told him I'd write about him in my blog and thank him again. He was surprised to learn I had a blog, but I assured him it was cool.

Heh.

Really I have no idea what that was about, but hey, just to put it on record: Steve Burns seems (seems, I say, because I've never met him, so what do I know) like a truly awesome human being. Not only did he completely rule the world of children's television, he also put out Songs for Dustmites, one of my favorite albums ever. Really. He's one of those few celebrities I'd really like to sit down and have a cuppa coffee and a long rambly talk with, just to see if he is in fact as interesting and fun as his public personas seem to make him out to be. (And no I am not one of those crazy stay at home moms who have erotic fantasies about his Blue's Clues persona. Thanks for asking.)

So who would you want to sit down and shoot the breeze with over a cuppa?

Ok, I keep meaning to post something deep and meaningful and philosophical or at least vaguely thoughtful in here but I think the sheer pressure of having to say something good has overwhelmed me.

So, before I get to that (maybe this weekend...uh huh, suuuuure), I present to you something shamelessly swiped from Kate's blog: how to find your true Viking name. This was so funny it made me laugh out loud at work and then look around furtively to see if anyone had heard me. Here's mine, what's yours?

Your Viking Name is...

People who've known you for a while don't always trust your word. Due to your gregariousness, you don't strike fear into the hearts of your victims. Try to be a little more surly in the future.

(Oh God. It's true. It's all true....except maybe for the untrustworthiness part. No, really.)