Posting again

Well, I like wordpress, but I don't like the blog name I gave myself, so I'll post here again until my fried brain can think of something better than Wacky Parent.

Benjamin has been really funny. He says things like "very good mommy" when I sprinkle Parmesan cheese on my spaghetti, without spilling some of it on the table.

Sonja is sleeping and eating better too. I feel somewhat rested, although the slump still hits me in midafternoon. But today, both kids are napping together, and instead of napping myself, what do I do? I blog. I should be cleaning the livingroom before I commit myself to the looney bin, what with the rest of the house spic and span (burst of energy yesterday)...but that computer was beckoning me. My friend in Germany calls it a "Mistding"...ha. That is my commentary to that name.

So I'll be back. Either here or there. I'll let you know. You know who you are.

More on e-post

Maybe I'm losing it. Could be because I haven't "worked" outside the home surrounded by adults in years.

Maybe all this baby-talk/toddler-talk that I thought I was enjoying is making my brain to MUSH.

But after attempting to make my life easier what with all the paper statements and bills coming into this house, and e-post not working as well as I had expected, we (he and I) had a, um, loud discussion.

I may have used a couple of phrases in my uproar that my little toddler now repeats occasionally. Out on the porch for the neighbours to hear.

Not good.

Maybe I should go back to hurling spoons at him (the hubby, not the toddler).

Anyway. I had tried to make the water bill paperless. It wouldn't let me. It wasn't until after our "loud discussion" that I realized I selected the wrong Hydro title of the bill from the pull-down selection.

Duh.

AND, although I did succeed in making one of the bank statements paperless, I read in the agreement fine print that a $2 charge would apply. I figured, since it will make my life easier having one less statement to file (or place on a pile in a room to be filed at some point later in life) I could live with the fee.

Well, hubby had a fit.

"Another two bucks? They already charge us an arm and a leg in fees" etc.

He had a point but I was so pissed off at a) my oversight, b) the fact that he didn't appreciate that this would make my life, and therefore his life by default, easier, and c) that he was right, sort of, that I just lost it.

Like I said, I could have handled it better. Throwing spoons when the little guy wasn't looking or hurling insults when he wasn't in the house, for example.

He ended up picking up the phone and calling the bank, and here's what's getting me even more:

I misread that fine print too! The charge I was referring to was applicable to people who update their bank books at the machine.

I can't even remember the last time I had a bank book, much less update it at a bank machine.

So the chick at the bank told him that there was no additional charge, and the paperless statement remains paperless.

The good news is, I got some of the bills moved to e-post.

The bad news is that Ben now knows certain phrases which I hope he won't repeat at daycare.

Crap.

e-post continued

I succeeded in adding one, single, lonely bill.

What a bunch of crap.

We're co-joint on all the bills, but HE is the primary one, so HE has to answer all these idiotic questions on the forms.

You ever tried to ask mundane questions about bills to a husband who's so not interested in stuff like that?

I'd rather have a root canal.

I did manage to make one of the bank statements paperless. Although they (the bank, not e-post) charge 2 bucks for the service.

So now the only bill I won't be receiving in paper form anymore is Bell Canada.

BFD

e-post

I have decided that I need to eliminate, or at least drastically reduce, the amount of paper that comes into this house.

Ok. The paper is a necessity for some people, and I admit, I like flipping through it when I have a moment to procrastinate. Or rather, take a moment.

But almost every single day the mail person delivers envelopes of statements, most of which say the same thing every time, and most of which I check regularly on the web anyway.

So...why am I typing this post?

Because I'm procrastinating. That's why.

Too many steps to figure out how to go about this.

Although A has an account already.
And I know his sign on and pass word.
But I'd have to go to the pile of papers distributed evenly throughout the livingroom and find pertinent information in order to fill out the online forms that inevitably must be filled out.
Which means I'd have to get up off this chair.

Maybe when I have to pee, which is about every 20 minutes or so, I'll make the effort.

Until then....

blah.

Sorrow drowning completed

Well...not exactly completed. But I did have the latte. A GRANDE, not some wimpy tall one.

Glanced at the magazines. There was a fascinating picture of Katie with Suri. Apparently they decided to write about what it's like "inside Katie's prison".

Didn't pick it up though.

Seems Jen has a new man.

Didn't pick that up either.

Her hair hasn't changed in years.

Walked through the gadget section. Got bored.

Glanced at the parenting section. Bored.

Left.

Still bored.

And hungry.

Blah.

Sorrow drowning

Right now the only thing I want to do is go to Starbucks, order a tall latte, and drown my sorrows.

I want to read all about how superwoman Angelina can do it all (having $ helps).
I want to read all about why so-and-so is wearing their hair this way this week.
I want to look at expensive gadgets that beautiful homes need to display (not mine).
I want to sit and feel sorry for myself.

Hubby is pissed off at me. He says I need to find a way to make an income so we can get ahead. He's pissed off at me because some chick called me during my flu days and left a message about how I'm a good fit as a Quality Assurance Proofreader.

Took me till middle of last week just to get myself back on track with my health, then the rest of the week to clean up the house that has severely suffered neglect during my illness. My health is almost back to normal but I'm suffering from pregnancy-related discomforts (mostly nausea) so I've been procrastinating. The house is only half cleaned up. Most of the laundry is done though....check that.

Then "he" was sick and hovering around me, picking at me to call her back. Made me irritated.

Then there was the 2-year old who was just so happy to have his mommy back on the floor surrounded by lego. After abandoning him to grandma's house for a weekend, how can I neglect him further?

I'm tired.

Blah.

The new normal

30 some years ago I didn't know what a computer was. Once I moved to Canada and later entered high school, I was told that a calculator was considered a computer.

Then I took a computer course in BASIC or something. I liked it but didn't do well in it.

In University, my then boyfriend bought a computer and we played around with WordPerfect. I was astonished how easy it was to type lengthy papers for my various literature courses.

Looking back today, I just shake my head. Easy using F keys? Or, Shift F keys?

Although come to think of it, since there was no Internet there were no viruses and the constant need to update various protection to keep hackers and spam and who knows what else from invading your personal affairs.

Now we have a small child. A child who sees this picture, and considers it completely normal:

Not one, but two computers running at the same time. Not counting my laptop upstairs....

Blah

This is what I want right now:





And not just a little piece of it either...gimme the whole damn cake!







This is what I have on my brain today:

It's not like I have nothing to say. I'm just all dried up. Feel like chatting with someone but no one is around. Feel like IM-ing on yahoo, but nada. Feel like emailing but want response and no one out there is responding so forget it.

My friend's dog is sick. May have to be put down this week. I was there when she picked him out at the breeder.

I feel sad.

Blah.

Technological procrastination

When I procrastinate I almost always end up on the computer. Doesn't matter what time of day or night it is. If I feel like procrastinating, an internet connection is all I need.

This is what happens:

Almost every day I log onto the computer, sign into the Yahoo Messenger system, and make myself appear "busy".

Then I go about my day. I may check email occasionally or see if someone is on the IM to chat with.

Often I drop by a favorite blogger to see what they're up to:

• Sometimes that inspires me to do any number of things, which contributes to my productivity
• Sometimes I simply get annoyed that there is so much stupidity out there
• Sometimes I laugh
• Sometimes I feel like crying
• Sometimes I get depressed

For example, I may visit a blog that talks about the importance of teaching our children about healthy body image. At the same time another blogger whose picture looks perfectly normal to me claims that they are fat. She proceeds to rant and rave about some sweet that is beckoning her and she admits to all kinds of unhealthy food choices to counter the effects of the sweet she ended up devouring. Pass the processed crap as long as it says lite or low fat on it and doesn't surpass 4 points. Or whatever. Same chick has a tiny female child who is no doubt listening and learning all these bad habits.

On the other hand, I may get so inspired by a craft idea by a fellow blogger that I cannot get my mind off it and spend hours of endless fun making stuff.

Sometimes I write a blog full of procrastinating blugger like this which no one will read. And even if they do, they won't leave a comment to agree or disagree with me. But at least I feel like I've been proactive in my productivity. At least I WROTE something.

I made up the word blugger. I was going to say blubber but that means something else. I like the effect this word has so it stays.

My ultimate reason for bluggering right now is because I'm pissed off that my query letter I wrote a couple of days ago has L.E.F.T. this computer and now I have to start from scratch.

Poof.

Nothing like a blog post to help get that writing feeling back.

Naming the nutty household

There is someone who has a very clever way of disguising her real name. I like her innovation, it's cute, and I hope she doesn't mind that I noticed and mentioned it here.

She calls herself Miche (which may or may not be her real name, I have no idea) and she has a blog which I have stumbled across on occasion. What's clever is that she calls the hubby Mr. Miche, and the child WeeMiche. Not sure if the child is a wee boy or a wee girl, haven't spent too much time visiting her blog, but how adorable!

Anyway. When I started blogging I was naively unaware how addictive this pastime can become. My original intention was to journal my thoughts and ramblings primarily for myself, and possibly for an odd friend or family member should they be so inclined to visit my blog during bouts of procrastination.

Then I got a comment or two, so I added a site meter.

My site meter tells me that I do have a few hits, which brings up the whole privacy issue. Which brings me back to the clever Miche name-calling.

So I start thinking about what I should be calling our household. I named my blog Nutty Notes, since 'nutty' is how I feel often, and Looney Bin didn't quite suit the purpose.

But I called myself and the others by 'normal' names. Not interesting ones like some bloggers have come up with.

HOW. BORING.

If I were to follow Miche's example, I could come up with an assortment of plausible names:

• I could be the Head-nut, the Nutress, Ms. Nutty or simply the Nutcase. (ha)
  
• My little guy would be the Wee-nut, or the Little-nut.
  
• Hubby could be....well, I won't go there today.
  
• And the dog? Nuttmutt? (HA)

Anyway, I thought I'd run this by the blog. Perhaps someone will respond, or comment, perhaps this will just be another nutty note to fly aimlessly around the blogsphere.

I will send Miche a note that I wrote this though. Since I started a dog-poop-in-ordinary-non-biodegradable-plastic-bag commentary. That was supposed to be a comment about a Zero Garbage post by Miche but ended up somehow causing Andrea at the fishbowl to wonder how it connected to her no-shopping contest.

Cheers.

Hypoglycemic

My blood sugar crashed. Probably because I ate 4 waffles today. Too much simple carbs in my system.

After several days of non-stop energy and a toddler who is sleeping through the nights, I'm feeling rather pooped today.

No energy to write.
No energy to surf the blogsphere.
No energy to get up off this chair and and get tea.

Blah.

Monkey in the year of the Pig

My mom reads the chinese horoscopes for fun. Sometimes she goes back to the previous year to re-read what was predicted and then laughs at the similarities.

Every year post-Christmas she goes through her book. Weeks later, we all forget everything that was said.

It's just for fun.


I'm a Monkey and my element is Earth. So is Andrej. We are Monkeys because we were born in a year that was Monkey, as was my mom, decades prior. My mom's element is Wood.



2007 is the year of the Pig which begins on February 18 and ends February 6, 2008. I have been reading about the Monkey in the year of the Pig, and the predictions are kind of, um, well....interesting I guess.


It says that we will not exactly get to where we want to go this year, but should consider the setbacks we will encounter as small and part of the coming success in 2008. I have searched the internet to see if different sites say the same thing, and this message is prevalant in most reputable ones (we use a free site advisor to tell us which sites are "bad", and send out pop-ups or spam or crap).

So, we will have to remember when things don't go exactly our way that it is part of what will pave the way to next year, the year of the rat. Rat is supposed to be a great year for us!

Elusive notebooks

This woman who keeps a blog I enjoy visiting mentioned something today that made me realise just how important it is to write down ideas immediately before they are lost forever. Her words, and mine too now. But the thing about notebooks beside the bed has worked only sporatically for me. I have many techniques to keep my ideas active, but for some reason, I can't seem to actually get it together. I figure it is because:

• the notebook is too big and gets moved by me or the toddler
  
• the notebook is too small and falls down between the stack of books
  
• there are too many notebooks to keep track of
  
• I lost the pen
  

So I decided to use the little tape recorder that I sometimes took with me to my Technical Writing class at York U. But as soon as I press record I seem to lose my voice. It's like I'm shy or something, to use a device to record my voice. The voice sounds foreign and that makes my ideas sound like they're someone elses. I'm better at writing than speaking.

But one thing is for certain. My most precious, fantastic, inspiring ideas, not to mention exact sentence structures, come to me when I'm:

• in bed trying to sleep and I can't find the notebook, pen etc (see above)
  
• in the shower (must get some crayon soap at Toys R Us)
  
• elbow-deep in diapers, laundry, dishes (you know...toddler in house)
  
• picking up dog-poop
  

Tried using the Palm Pilot but it's too time consuming to tap my way through ideas.

So my first objective is to merge all my notes from all my notebooks, tape recorder, and electronic files into one electronic file, and go from there.

But this will have to wait till after I change the baby, pick up the dog poop, throw in some laundry and have a shower.