live from sublurbia

One of the things I was intensely “insane” about, as a lot of my peer friends still are: the trials involved in conceiving children. We were “lucky” in that we were only mildly infertile, and our problems were inexpensively correctable - mostly by simply waiting and waiting and waiting to hit that fertile jackpot and hanging onto it.

So much of those journeys I chronicled, with and without my electronic bit-ty friends inside of the computer, heading to the ladies room twice a day to take an ovulation test and faithfully charting the results (and badly photographing them, curse the cheap camera phones I had).

I’ve been looking at my charts, and darn if they aren’t sporadic. One “late” CD 19 ovulation, and a mid-fifties - with precious results. And yet through every failed cycle, there was always hopeful Opal in my head, no matter how pessimistic Worst Case Kate got.

Here’s wishing Julie and a few less-publicly blogging friends fiesty fertile follicles!

No Comments »

I toyed with the idea, when we closed on our house, three years ago this week, running for President of our Home Ogres Association. I never followed through with it, being busy and working way too far from my new home, and like many of my ideas, I let it slide away and didn’t bother myself aside from the monthly fee, occasional meeting, and rare letter dinging me for one thing or another.

Letter number three arrived sometime earlier this month, and I hope to take the time tomorrow to grab a thick black marker and fax their letter back, telling to take their violation and shove it up their … association. Continue Reading »

1 Comment »

As you can see by the attached photo, I spent my Saturday afternoon at a local house of commercial worship - IKEA of South Florida. The billboards have popped up along the highways like jarring dandelions in our usual garden of glittery billboards with bizarre sayings such as “IKEA is to South Florida as sunburn is to tourists” (and that one almost makes sense). The media frenzy is building - people can line up starting tomorrow, but … they can’t camp out until the store opens … two days later.

If I hadn’t gotten an early preview shopping pass, though, I considered taking a personal day and swarming in with the rest of them. It’s not just a mob, it’s an adventure. It’s been years since I’ve set foot in an IKEA, and I’ve certainly never been to an opening. I even had my shopping list in mind - a little something to decorate my office, an easel for the kid, and to take loads of pictures.

I got the easel. Pictures … not so much. Even with a plan I was busy experiencing it and ignoring my complaining back and feet for much of three hours. But that was at the end, thinking it all through as I scarfed down a pizza pocket in the cafe beyond the finish like (cash wrap, register line, whatever). Continue Reading »

1 Comment »

And yet, not so much anymore. Or maybe it wasn’t, but I thought it was.

I always had the concept in my head that there was no such thing as the secret internet, even though I had an AOL account and posted a few random things to the permanent not-secret internet. But it’s more not-secret than ever. Everyone has a blog, or a myspace, or a podcast. 90,000 podcasters, I believe, I heard on the radio the other day. It’s a gold rush and the laundresses and grocers are making the big bucks. It’s “news” every few months that you shouldn’t post your personal details on the internet.

But as the internet has become more pervasive, has it become the only thing that is? Will I need to explain to my kids how to read a card catalog card? I barely remember, and not for lack of learning over the past few years. I wonder if I used to want to write to leave an imprint. So that after I was gone, and even while I was around, I proved to be real. To exist. To be other than in my own mind, my own reality, outside of my small universe of friends and family. Continue Reading »

1 Comment »

Originally written January 2004 … unearthed for a “parenting moment” contest.

Sometimes I wonder about baby books.

Why don’t they tell you not to rub the baby down with a little curry powder?

So, as some of you may have heard, I had a fun morning. 11am I get a call from daycare that Wolfie has a red rash all over his tummy and backside and diaper area that came seemingly out of nowhere. I call the hub to consult, as he changed the diaper this morning. Wolfie had some rash in the diaper area, but not all over, this morning. Continue Reading »

No Comments »

I live in the flippin paradise, but don’t do a lot about it. We just spend so much time, sometimes, living a bit of a commuter life style, that we don’t take some time and just stretch and enjoy what we’re paying such high taxes for (aside from schools, which we start reaping the benefits of this fall). Continue Reading »

No Comments »

I grew up liking my eventual pediatrician (a Family Practitioner and DO and OB GYN who also was the “attending” on my birth - I came out while he was at lunch) even though I have had issues with the possible missed diagnosis of gall bladder problems in my early teens (we treated my scoliosis instead, which put off the pain a while, though it did come back and I just chalked it up to weakness/inevitability of pain with scoliosis).

And I, myself, am by no means perfect, either - I think I did run the count once on my lifetime consumption of Tylenol and estimated it at around 10,000 pills? Because people get headaches, they take a Tylenol. End of story. Duh. Now that I’ve treated the gallbladder problem and am treating the underlying allergies, I’m much better. I’ve had maybe 12 pills this year, total, of Tylenol.

But that’s just background, to add to the data that doctors seem to fire me a lot. ;) Continue Reading »

No Comments »

My daycare director is coming up on her anniversary here and all we got her was a break out of pink-eye. Let’s see. If the first year is pink-eye, the second year is probably chicken pox. I think she cut her teeth on a Fifth Disease breakout when she first got there.

But seriously, I’m going to tell her to set up an Amazon store to augment their fund-raising (corporate has them doing March of Dimes activities, but they also do stuff to raise money for staff parties) and we’ll skip the chicken pox. Continue Reading »

No Comments »

Had lunch with the hub today, yay. He came all the way up to me, but we need to work on finding a place or three more mid-way for us. “You’re so much more awake at lunch!” Yeah, well, by the end of the day I am kinda dead. And we’re swamped with kids every night and exhausted even more by the time they are down.

Was invaded by the saw-toothed grain beetle recently. (A description, but no pictures in the link.) Either came from a package of Mahatma Brown rice I bought or some pearl barley from late last year; both packages “got under” stuff down at the bottom of the pantry. Noticed a bug or three a couple weeks back, then found the motherlode [shudder] the other day. Continue Reading »

No Comments »