Inertia and Catch Up

Ok I'm back. I can't believe I waited so long. Sure, I had excuses (server down, vacation trips, computer crashes, general exhaustion), but really it's just amazing how quickly that daily blogging habit got so easily broken. Once you've fallen off the wagon for a few days, the slacking just compounds itself. One ray of hope though is that even though I wasn't blogging every day, I was *thinking* about blogging every day. That counts for something, I hope.

Anyway. Narcissisitic bla bla bla, no one cares. Let me sort of do a stream of consciousness quick summary of/reflection on the last 10 days or so. I'm sure there are things I'll regret not having recorded, but ah well.

So over the Labor Day weekend, we drove up my brother's house in Nevada City for our niece Zinnia's 1st birthday (gawd how time flies...I can't believe she's already one). On the way up there on Saturday, we stopped off and visited Galila, one of my oldest bestest friends (not The Oldest Bestest Friend, the official title which belongs to Adrienne but still, someone I've known for almost 20 years, that's an old friend in my book) and her family--her husband Michael and daughter Jenna and brand new addition, baby Aaron, 8 weeks old. This was our first time meeting Aaron, and he was darn cute, especially for a newborn. Here, take a look for yourself:

We also got to go out to lunch with them to an amazing yuppie supermarket that had the most awesome takeout section I've ever seen. Jenna and Eli had a lot of fun making outrageous silly faces for my camera.

After lunch we drove up to Nevada City, just in time for the birthday party. Eli was SO EXCITED (the only way to express that is truly in all capitals) to see his cousin Jonah, and they had a great time playing together. We had a good time hanging out with all the assembled family members and watching the effervescent Miss Zinnie cruising around (she is soooo close to full-time walking). She is such a sweet, mellow, friendly, confident baby now--and almost a toddler. Look at this face, how can you not want to kiss it:

Josh and Eli and I, along with my parents, slept over at Dave and Keri's house that night and although we tried, we completely failed in getting the boys to sleep in the same room together (all Eli's fault, I'll admit it...he was the talker). Ah well. The next morning (after much logisticing of course) we all packed up and went out to the river, where we spent a delightful couple of hours swimming, making mud castles, and just hanging out. Then Josh and I ripped Eli away from Jonah and stuck him in the car and began the drive home, with a brief stopover for dinner with another oldest bestest friend (Anji) and her family (husband Dan and her two boys, Jonah and Ethan). The boys had a good time playing together, and I had a chance to catch up a little with Anji. Then we again ripped Eli away from a good time, stuck him in the car, and drove home. Whew. It was a long (but fun) weekend.

The other highlight that happened over the weekend that we didn't find out about until later, was that the newest Armenta was finally born: Alexandra Rose was born on Saturday at 8pm. We haven't met her yet (though we are eager to) but as long as I'm doing the super image heavy blog entry, here's a picture:

Monday (Labor Day) I went out early to the Applebox for a little writing time, which was great. I have just completely cheesed on my early morning writing time (preggo body needs sleep more than creative spirit needs writing time, it seems), so these cafe-writing BIC (butt-in-chair) times are vital. I am close to being able to post a new chunk, really! I have to at least give myself credit for that, even though the novel-writing is going much slower than I'd like. But I have to at least be grateful that I'm continuing the forward momentum, even though it feels like crawling rather than walking (let alone running, which will probably never happen until I get a couple of months off with no other responsibilities, and we all know that's a total pipe dream for now, given that I don't even buy lottery tickets, let alone play).

Anyway, the rest of Monday was spent doing chores and spending time with Eli, and then we went over to the Coxes for a mellow takeout dinner with them and the Malones. I love these dinners because at this point the kids can all just go play in the other room and the adults can just hang out and talk. Beautiful arrangement, and perfect for the end of the weekend.

Most of last week is pretty much a blur to me, although quite possibly the reason why that is so is that it was incredibly, I mean over 100 degrees, 3rd-circle-of-hell HOT for most of the week. And given that neither my house nor my office (on the second floor) has air conditioning, I really suffered, especially at work where it got stuffy and even hotter than it would have been at home, where we at least have fans and popsicles and icy drinks that don't require a trip through the baking blacktop Sahara to fetch. The heat wave finally broke (or at least got back down to bearable temperatures) on Friday, and I can't even express what a huge difference that made to my attitude (let alone my actual output at work).

Oh, here's a fun detail: Friday at lunchtime I had a routine prenatal appointment spiced up with a little unneccessary drama. The doctor couldn't find the baby's heartbeat with the little doppler listener thingy, so I had to go do an ultrasound. After about 5 minutes of increasing panic and freakout on my part, (because as calm and accepting as I try to be, this came close to breaking through my reserve) the baby was located, happily kicking and heartbeating right there where it was supposed to be. Whew. I sure was in a good mood after that.

Yesterday was one of those putter-around-the-house days, where I did a lot of piddly projects I've been putting off, like re-organizing the kid's closet and toys and art table and such, and kind of putting things generally back in order. Eli and I had a good time rediscovering a bunch of stuff that had fallen to the bottom of various toyboxes/piles, and I felt like things were slightly more under control (always a good feeling for me). Then in the evening I got all dolled up in my ratty vintage princess finery and went to my dear friend Daphne's 30th birthday party, which had a princess theme. We made beaded tiaras and nibbled on little tea sandwiches and other tasty morsels, and even played princess-themed charades. It was fun! The highlight (wish I had a picture of this but I forgot my camera, d'oh) was the awesome Barbie princess birthday cake that the queen-of-theme-cakes, my friend Lara, made for Daphne. It was spectacular. (Lara made me a Lord of the Rings themed cake for my birthday a few years ago, which I will never forget. She's AWESOME. And a certified published Party Girl too. Go check it out.)

And now here we are, finally caught up to this morning, where I am using my "sleeping in" time to catch up on the blogging. I would have tried to sleep some more, actually, but I was rudely awoken at approximately 7:30am by the *#&@(! soccer players that congregate in the field in back of our house for their 8am (!) weekend games. I can't even express how irritating this is to me (although I will say that it pisses me off enough that I've been sitting here typing this with earplugs in). This happened yesterday too. It happens every year, from September through October or November, but after 8 years of this (and finally being sleep deprived and hormonal enough to get off my lazy butt and do something besides complain at Josh about it), this morning I was finally incensed enough to look up the contact info for the Soccer League and then call and leave a message and write a polite, yet pissy, email to the president of the league. All I'm asking for is that they start their games at 9 instead of 8 on the weekends (thus making the time that people gather and start making noise 8 instead of 7am). This seems eminently reasonable to me...I mean holy Moses, we're talking about 7am! On Saturdays and Sundays! For WEEKS at a time! It felt good to do *something*, although I'm fairly certain I'll get nowhere with this.

Ok, now it's time to go eat breakfast and rejoin the domestic world and get my day started. But yay me for finally getting caught up on the blog. That's one project off always-overflowing plate. Now that I don't have this week and a half of not posting hanging over my head, it ought to be easier to slip back into the habit of posting *something* every day. Right?