I always wondered...

Could never figure out why someone would move their blog. Now I have followed suit. You can find me in my new home over on WordPress.

Halloween!

Tolido was a darling grinning dragon this year...

A Citizen!

Today we took Tolido to pick up his Certificate of Citizenship at the San Antonio office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services!



He is now a full-fledged American.



Congratulations little one!
Love,
Mom and Dad

Continuing Sickness...

My child is losing his hearing. He seems quite happy with the situation but it's a bit alarming to me. Anyhoo tomorrow morning we have an appointment with the doctor to get him looked over. He looks sorta like I look when I feel like I've been run over by a bus. Pinkeye, a gift from pre-school, has his eyes red and watery with green crud floating around in them. Two nights ago he rubbed the hell out of them and popped a blood vessel in one. When he looks to the side the blood spot is big and bright red. His sinuses are draining incessantly and he has a nagging cough. He hasn't been tugging at his ears or seeming the least bit concerned about them. He'll be thrilled to death to see the doctor come at him with an ear scope first thing tomorrow morning. ;) This morning it simply would not do to have Daddy pry his eyes open and he asked Daddy to get Mommy to apply a warm wet compress to his eyes to clear the dried crud. I swear it felt like it was 3AM and I really didn't want to get out of bed. BUT this was the very first time he ever preferred Mommy's help over Daddy's so you bet I was there!! :)

Sickness Go Away!

Introduce three days of pre-school each week and life becomes a constant battle to stay healthy. 'Course it probably doesn't help that the two of us who know better walk a fine line about really getting enough sleep and downtime around here. :) The newest sickness to sneak in... PINKEYE! Yay!...or not. Definitely not. Crusty, cruddy, crappy eyes are NO fun. Considering the host is a toddler, the eyes get rubbed, nose gets rubbed, hands go in mouth and onto every surface in sight. Ugh! I'd really really prefer to not get pinkeye so... we're going overboard in the hand washing and laundry departments. Wonder how long the stuff lives on all the toys in his toy room?

My Cubicle

I'm LUCKY! My husband works in "cubeland". He also works in a place I'm not allowed to enter because I'm not an employee. So I'm not absolutely sure he actually has a job; however, he does seem to be getting a paycheck so, it works. Anyway he describes cubeland as a vast room divided into small spaces by six-foot walls and an intricate maze of hallways. Hmm. I wonder if he and his "cubemates" are really just rats in an experiment.

I also work in a cube. Mine is spacious, carpeted, decorated in sage green, walnut brown, white and silver. I have three windows and double glass doors. There are no other cubes - no cubeland. The cafeteria is about ten feet away. I can open the windows and listen to the wind and the birds and the bees. It's peaceful in my cube. I like it that way.

And this is my view out the center window between my two monitors. Sitting at my desk, if I look straight ahead, this is what I see...

An Office Troll

I got a funny new chair for my office. Almost exactly a year ago I began having pretty severe back problems and eventually found relief by sitting on an exercise ball while working at my desk. Problem was that every time I got up to do something the ball would silently roll away and I'd have to chase it down. It eventually annoyed me enough to get my attention and I looked for something to stabilize the ball. So I got this new chair that, from some angles, looks like a fat little dinosaur. It's wonderful and I am very happy with it. But one morning I found a little troll on top of it quite happy with himself! ....and no, my office isn't always such a mess. This was in the middle of ransacking and rearranging. :)

Coming Back to the Ground.

Life's been a little crazy around here lately. At work I've been in the homestretch of a three year migration of all equipment from one location to another. This was the heavy lifting, anything that can go wrong will go wrong part. It was a bit stressful. There were many long nights I thought would never end. Fortunately, I had the help of two wonderful guys I've known for years and who are far more technically adept than I am.

Once the new equipment was moved, we had to empty the old location of retired and dead equipment. Old servers, old UPSs, old steel server racks and miscellaneous cables and wires. Again, I had the help of two shining stars in my life - Ken and Tolido. At one point, Ken and I locked ourselves out of the office. Tolido was standing at the top of the stairs above the office entry where he could see out the glass doors on the other side of which we stood... without keys. Being the confident and savvy little soul that he is, he tackled the stairs and came on down to the door to fetch his parents. When he got to the door, we asked him to push *really* hard on the release lever... and YAY!! Tolido rescued Mommy and Daddy! Amazing kid.

And so all the old equipment was hauled home to the garage. On the way we stopped at Lowes and stopped again to meet my brother and sister-in-law for dinner hoping that someone would come along and steal something off the trailer... no such luck. A few days later, after I'd sorted the salvageable from the crap, I headed out again with the truck to the computer Goodwill. I warned the guys there that the stuff was crazy heavy and helped offload a few pieces before a strapping young gentleman came along. Giving us a look like we were rather pathetic, he went to hoist a battery pack for a UPS out of the truck and very nearly dropped it on his foot. I sweetly asked him if he needed any help. :)

After the moving project was finished I turned my attention to getting the house ready to host a two-day work meeting with ten out-of-town guests. Before I even got to the cleaning the house bit, I decided to upend my office - removing the old bookcase and desk and carting off the cabinets to the garage to be painted white. I decided to turn one of the old server racks into a desk which involved painting it and figuring out how to add shelves to it. I also would need a plank for the top for a writing surface. Oh, and that plank would need to be stained.



And then I decided to paint the white bathroom brown one night about midnight. It's taken us two and a half years to decide on the perfect color. At one point it was going to be fuchsia...

The bathroom cabinet had a wood top with a marine varnish that had begun to flake. It was starting to look pretty bad and I didn't want the wood to start warping. So we decided to add an aluminum surround to top of the cabinet over the wood. I got the aluminum, Ken cut it, and my dad found a place to get it polished so it absolutely gleamed.



I told my mom the house was a wreck before she got here. She had no idea! It was really more on par with the results of a tornado's direct hit. She stepped right into the middle of the mess and started on one little cleanup project after another. And she got out the camera to document what sleepless parents look like... ;)



Oh, and then there was the yard. Ken had spread a dump truck load of dairy fertilizer on the lawn and the volleyball court just before it started raining for four days. Typically one rakes the fertilizer into the grass immediately after spreading it. After days of rain, it was a couple days of tough work from Dad and Ken getting it to settle into the grass with a rake.

So we cleaned and painted and vacuumed and dusted and raked and did laundry and cleaned counter tops and figured menus and sent the guys to the store for groceries (a story in itself) and rearranged and mowed and prepped beds for guests and I can't remember what else for a week. I know the lot of us were up most nights until 2am.

And then it was time for the meeting. Rave reviews all around. Late nights with many margaritas and really good food. It was a fantastic time. By the time we got everyone off to the airport, we were dead on our feet. And then a neighbor showed up with a freaking huge backhoe to dig ten holes in the backyard for fruit trees - apricots, peach, plum, tangerine, almond, cherry, apple, avocado and something else. We all fell asleep to the clanking of a backhoe... not sure I should be awake yet.

All You Need is Love!

Tolido's World

In Tolido's world you gotta watch out for a bored mommy with a ball point pen and a cute face to draw on!

New Clothes

He's about grown out of them since it's taken me SO long to get back to the blog, BUT... I made Tolido seven shirts with matching pants and shorts. They turned out adorable. I think this one is my favorite. ;)

When I was little my mom apparently sewed enough that I got tired of her sewing machine and tried to beat it to death with a hairbrush. When I sew, Tolido will sit on my lap and watch or point at the pin cushion and say, "ouch!" He picks up all the fabric scraps on the floor and throws them in the trash or rides his rocking horse like a bandit in the sewing room. And whenever a shirt becomes recognizable as such, he walks over and points to it and says, "Todo" and grins. He is a far more patient two and a half year old than his mother was...

He loves his new clothes and all the attention he gets from them. And if you ask where he got them, he'll say, "Mommy!" I like that part. :)

Tolido's 1st days of Days of School

Tolido is a big boy now! He goes to school three days a week - leaves with Daddy when he goes to work and comes home with Daddy at the end of the day. I love it. Tolido loves it too. Everyday we get a report card - seems excessive to me but, it's kinda fun too. The very first day the "Note to parents" section said, "Awesome first day!!! He's a very good kid. :) We loved having him in the class." Wow! Great job, Wingnut! He got a bowl of ice cream just 'cuz Mommy was SO very proud of him. And so it has continued. He gets a little clingy when Daddy walks him up to the door of the school and sometimes he fusses. But the teachers say he is happy all day at school and he's getting lots of interaction with other children which is something he was desperately lacking hanging with Mommy all day at home. They only speak Spanish to him at school and that seems to be sinking in. He now says "si!" instead of "yes" and calls cookies "galletas". He wears a little uniform to school and looks so grown up. Yesterday he came home with an "incident report" because another little kid bit him on the arm. Apparently Tolido just let him bite. I explained to him that there are more effective solutions to discouraging biters... ;) So school seems to be agreeing with T and the quiet time apart is agreeing with Mommy too.

Poor Neglected Blog

Oh... hmmm. I sometimes wonder if I should continue my blog. I have my hands in so many things that this poor little blog is often relegated to the foot of the totem pole.

Since I last posted here I've relocated all the servers for my company. I've hosted several big parties. I've fought with a crazy neighbor who's accusing me of things I've only *thought* about doing... so far. Tolido has started school. I have survived what Ken is sure was the swine flu. And I've been on a 16-day vacation in which we drove 4080 miles and visited family in Iowa, Virginia and Alabama. I think that's about it. Oh...and I still have that little thing they call a full-time yob. ;)

And then there is the interference of Facebook. It's just hard to keep up with both.

Postings may be intermittent but, for now, I will try to keep going with this... just for my HUGE following. ;)

New Words!

We have new words: comb, turtle, hippo (bow bow), bear, mouse, man, broom, bus, hand, help, girl, hair, ear, cat, bird, doll, juice, toe, cow, up, out, green, snake, truck, milk and FOOD (his favorite). I have a very stubborn, very stubborn little man. I've met ornery mules that were more tractable. But I am encouraged. You should hear him say turtle - so frickin cute!

Oh Please Speak....

This morning I made the mistake of putting my foot down and insisting that Tolido at least TRY to say the word P O T T Y. "Pah' Tee" It was stupid on my part but I'm so tired of him not making progress where speech is concerned. I last posted about this mid-April. Since then we've had a grand total of THREE new words. Oh, come on, really?! Really. I can say, "Tolido, Please wash your hands, throw the wipe in the trash then go pick up the towels off the floor and take them to the laundry room and then clean up your playroom." He'll do it. I can ask him to stop playing, go upstairs, take off his clothes and get into the tub. He does it. He's not stupid. He understands every word. His vocabulary comprehension-wise is immense. But he SAYS little. He knows all his colors but will only say "blue." He says "Daddy" incessantly which is just about to drive both Daddy and Mommy completely nuts. He does a lot of pointing and says "eh" to show us what he wants. I think that for too long we have been naming things he points at with too little required in return. We talk to him. We read to him. We have now decided that he will get no more given to him without verbal work on his part. I've printed up 100 pretty flashcards with pictures of things he should be able to say. He will learn these. I will read books to him without pause until he begins to speak. I've taken his favorite toys out of the toy room and placed them along the edge of the bar. He can see them but can't reach them. We just explained to Tolido that he must tell Mommy what he wants, by name, if he wants to play with them. He is not happy. You should see the little glaring looks!! Tolido speech has, today, become my obsession. I shall flood his brain with words! :)

Memorial Day 2009

Freedom Isn't Free
~ Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

On this Memorial Day we remember our troops of today and yesterday and their families who have given so much to our country and on her behalf. God bless you all. And thank you.

Mi Angelito

Such a wise and loving spirit behind the dark eyes of this little creature. It's so much fun that it's so easy to capture his cuteness. He's my Wingnut and I love him...

A Sticky Solenoid

I took many solo trips across the country in my car while in high school and college. It was an old diesel Mercedes. It was my dad's car before it was mine. He used to travel the country selling diamonds and other precious gems. He had many interesting friends - one of them quite good at booby trapping cars. When my dad drove it, the car was rigged. In 1980, before most cars came with alarms as standard equipment, this car had an alarm that could be remotely activated. Not only did a siren scream, the lights flashed, the steering wheel locked, and tear gas exploded from under the driver's seat. No shit. There was a wire in the trunk that, when pulled, would allow escape from the locked trunk should one ever find oneself in such a position. This was the only cool thing not disabled before I got the car. My brother and I learned to drive at the same time. I was 18 and he was 16. My dad decided we had to learn to drive a manual transmission before we were allowed to drive an automatic. In the course of learning, we blew out the clutch. Betcha didn't know it was possible to drive a manual without a clutch. Anyway, my dad picked up an engine jack and all the parts needed for a clutch replacement. He opened the do-it-yourself Mercedes 240D manual to the correct section and told us to let him know if we had any questions. He then walked into the house and sat down to read a book. We wanted to drive so we whined and cussed and sweated and skinned our knuckles and fixed the damned car. When we fired it up and it actually ran just like it should I fell in love with working on my own car. My brother, on the other hand, swore he'd find a way to make enough money he'd never ever work on a car again. So, a year later on summer vacation, I'm crossing the country at a bargain - sleeping in rest areas, showering in truck stops for $2.00 and enjoying the freedom of the open highway. I often had problems with the starter in the car - likely because I bought a series of refurbished starters. And the starter solenoid was constantly "sticky." To start the car normally, one had to turn the key to the on position and then pull out a handle on the dash to allow the dash-mounted glow plug to heat up. Once it was good and red you pulled the handle all the way out and the engine would turn over. When the solenoid was sticking, you had to precede all of this nonsense with beating on the solenoid housing. I used an 18" metal mag light for this purpose. In the middle of one of my trips, the problem became so bad that I had to have someone else beat on the solenoid while I did the whole glow plug magic in the car. So, I'm at a rest stop... I wake up and get ready to get on the road. In front of my car is a tractor trailer. I walk up to the side of the tractor and knock on the door. I ask the man inside if he'll help me start my car and hand him the flashlight. We get the car started and hang out talking for a few minutes. He's hauling bales of cotton. He showed them to me - they are enormous and wrapped around the middle with brown paper. The raw cotton is sticking out each end. He asks if I'd like to see the inside of his truck. Heck yeah. So we crawl up in the truck and it's pretty fascinating. We get out a map and show each other where we're from. He offers to let me drive his truck to the end of the rest stop. Thanks, but no. Anyway, finally I thank him for helping me, say goodbye and climb down out of the truck. I get in my car and head out. As I'm pulling away from a line of trucks, some guy flashes a handful of fanned out $20s at me. I drive away wondering about that. Twenty miles down the road, I finally figure it out. ;)

Tolido's "Pool"

Since it's only slightly cooler than the surface of the sun in TX in the summer, we got Tolido a "pool" to cool his toes.


From Tolido's perspective, it was a drinking fountain he could sit in...

Batface

Ken went off in search of more plants for our driveway circle. They have to be blazing sun tolerant and at least deer resistant. I'd personally prefer a plant that would send deer to the great pasture in the sky but that's another story... So he came home with a bunch of green things. As I was surveying his collection in the back of his truck, he reached into the middle and pulled out one which he proudly announced was a "batface." The lady at the nursery described it to Ken who immediately said, "I must have one of those!" Apparently the flowers are red and look like tiny bat faces. So we've been waiting for them to appear. Just now Ken walked into my office with a little red flower on the end of a tube and it looks just like a tiny bat face! See...