26
June
2008

20-20?…How About 20-15!2

Mike went to see the Eye Doctor yesterday for the first time since I’ve known him, which is about 16 years. He’s been having some trouble with one eye in particular getting very itchy and causing him to have trouble seeing, especially when it’s really bright. The doctor thinks that he is developing a sensitivity and should probably start wearing sunglasses.  She also somehow knew, by looking under his eyelid that he had had an allergic reaction of some kind, which was what had caused the itchiness. If he wants, he can go on an allergy medication indefinitely or wait and see if it happens more regularly and more severely.  They both decided it would be better to wait and see.

It was a regular check up so he also did the whole eye exam thing. It turns out his vision is not 20-20 like he thought, it’s actually 20-15. And if he wanted they could prescribe reading glasses to make it 20-10!  So he’s not just perfect, he’s better than perfect! He decided not to go the reading glasses route. Go figure… As someone who’s had glasses since they were 8-years old, this is mystifying to me.  I’m in complete awe. I think he just discovered a new superhero power, perfect vision man (or something like that). Anyone have any ideas for a good name? Maybe his one weakness is actually light instead of water?

4
June
2008

Journal0

I’ve always wanted to be the journaling type.  But I’m not. And I’ve got a box full of partially written in journals to prove it. In fact some of those journals end up getting used for multiple things!  But a friend recommended a great journal to me that I’ve been using every day! So I thought I would share.  It’s called The 5 Year Journal, by Doreene Clement. The premise of the journal is that it has chunks of lines that cover 5 years of the same date. Within that chunk there are 3 lines per year. So I can go to June 4th, write in 2008 and use those 3 lines to write about the day, write about each boy, etc. Then next year on June 4, I move down, write in 2009 and use those 3 lines to write about what happened on June 4, 2009. Because 5 years of one date are chunked together I can read what was happening on that date each year. And because it’s only 3 lines I don’t feel any pressure to write a bunch, there’s no room! So every night I write about 1 sentence for each boy, or something about our day. And I do it every night because it’s so easy!

16
December
2007

A Surreal Moment0

Yesterday my friend Chloe and I were doing a little Christmas shopping, on Walnut street in Pittsburgh. We passed a man playing Christmas music on his clarinet and then we popped into a store. When we came out, more music was being played and it had started to snow. It was so neat to be walking down the street with other holiday shoppers listening to live music and watching the snow fall all around us. It kind of felt like we were in a holiday movie. Which is really corny. But it was really beautiful!

Happy Holidays!

14
September
2007

When Balloons Attack1

The balloons attacked again last night, but Noah successfully fended them off. I think we need to remember to put them away before we go to bed, so we all don’t have heart attacks. :-)

12
September
2007

Since When is there an Exchange Rate on Air Miles?1

Okay, so I haven’t gotten to post any Mon/Fayette Expressways in awhile. I guess I was due.

Tonight Mike was trying to book a ticket back home for an event he has to attend. We decided it would be a good time to use our Northwest Miles since we can’t use them at Christmas or in the summer (that’s a whole other post!). He finally found some flights that he could use our miles on (all the better flights wanted 37,000 miles instead of the usual 25,000). He found a flight he thought was reasonable even though he already had to stop twice and leave and arrive at awful times, but that’s what you expect from airlines, right?

When he went to book his flight and typed in his address in Canada, the number of miles he had to use jumped from 25,000 miles to 32,000 miles! When he was booking the flight and they thought he was residing in the US it was 25,000, but when it became known that his address was in Canada, the cost jumped 7,000 miles! Now maybe I’m being rash or quick to get angry, but does this seem ridiculous to you? I fly on their airline several times a year. They’re happy to take my money and give me sub-par service, all of which I can actually live with, with only a small amount of complaining. But an exchange rate on miles? Really? Everything you read, says 25,000 Continental US and Canada. To make matters even more exasperating they won’t even take our credit card to pay the fees that they charge to process a ticket using Miles. It has to be a credit card issued to someone residing in the US! I’m just dumbfounded at the ridiculousness of this.

Friends who know me well, I’m sure can picture the frustration seething at the surface. Wouldn’t it be fun to sit and talk with me about this? Ha ha! This, my friends, may be the next Mon/Fayette Expressway. ;-)

12
September
2007

When Things Go Bump in the Night1

or…when balloons make funny shadows.

At 4:30 this morning Mike and I woke up to Noah barking and growling like crazy. We weren’t quite sure what to do. So Mike crept downstairs with me following close behind. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he turns to me and says, “you’ve got to see this.” “This” was Noah barking and growling at one of the boy’s balloons. There must have been some change in the air that caused the balloon to move slightly and Noah just freaked. After chuckling over Noah’s seeming distress and moving the balloon out of sight, we had a chance to think about how we responded to Noah’s barking. Should we have taken a baseball bat with us? What if there had been someone in the house? We decided that Mike, upon seeing them first would have peed his pants and turned around to run upstairs but because I was following so close behind he would have crashed into me and we probably would have gone tumbling down the stairs. Maybe that alone would have scared them away! Or at least caught them off guard. I guess maybe we have to come up with a plan. Although hopefully the only people breaking into our house from now on will be balloons. :-)

5
June
2007

Oddest Thing4

The oddest thing happened today.  I was asking the boys if they wanted pizza for lunch and lo and behold…a piece of pizza crust fell from the sky!  Noah was excited, Connie and I were a little bewildered until we saw the gull flying overhead trying to figure out how to get it back.  Then we were pretty grossed out!  I haven’t been able to stop chuckling about it all day though.

3
May
2007

Becoming a Composting Mama3

I finally bought a composter last week. As a result I had to clean up the yard so I could gather up all the leaves and dead grass to mix with our food scraps. We got snow so early last fall that no one had time to rake leaves, leaving a big mess for everyone this spring, but lots of good composting material. We’ve been playing outside alot and the boys have been getting to watch the composting process. Brandon has been really enjoying learning how to compost. He helps me put fruit and veggie scraps in a container and then we dump them into the composter. His favorite part is adding the grass and leaves. He says “grass, grass” while standing on his tip toes to reach the top of the composter. I thought about vermicomposting and even found the most awesome article in our local paper on “becoming a vermicomposting mama”, the name alone made me want to do it. But I don’t really have the space for a container of soil and worms in my kitchen and even though I don’t mind worms per se, the thought of hundreds of them in my house is a little more than I can handle at the moment. For the time being I will be satisfied being a “composting mama”.

Both boys are also learning about recycling. They love to throw things away and we have to decide whether it’s garbage or recycleable. Honestly they don’t really care which one it is, they just want to throw it away. :-)

My friend Connie had this little quiz linked to her blog. How green are you?


Your Life is 52% Green


Your life is pretty green – and you know a lot about how to live an eco friendly life.
So congratulate yourself for being good to the earth. And maybe think about implementing some of the ideas from this quiz!

How Green Is Your Life?

6
March
2007

Heroes0

So last night’s episode didn’t surpass last week’s, but it was pretty good.  I guess I was wrong on a few things.  Simone didn’t really come back to life, Suresh isn’t quite as much of an idiot as I thought, or is he? Is it worse not to recognize Sylar, or to recognize him and try to contain him yourself? I was also wrong about the identity of Linderman, but Mike and I guessed that the other person in Claire’s life had to be Nathan’s mom. Mr. Bennet’s new “partner” turned out to have crazy powers!  I wonder who will help him out in the end? And what… will Peter do to escape Sylar? Any ideas about the significance of that building they are always on top of?
Unfortunately we have to wait until April 23rd to find out more! I can’t believe that when the show first aired I wasn’t interested.  I told Mike it could be his show, I wasn’t watching. Ha!  At least I have a vacation to plan in the meantime…

5
March
2007

Heroes0

I’m anxiously awaiting tonight’s airing of Heroes. Last week was so awesome! Hero’s dad, what!? Besides Hero, I think my other favorite character is the Haitian. And who is this other person in Claire’s life the Haitain said he was answering to? Based on previews it seems that tonight’s show is going to be equally as intense. Will we really find out who Linderman is? I have an idea who he is, so I’m curious to find out if I’m right. I called Nathan as being Claire’s dad, so maybe I’ll get this one right too. The storyline with Sylar and Suresh is really creeping me out though. I find myself wanting to yell at Suresh and tell him what an idiot he is.
Unfortunately I do know that Simone lives. I knew that she had some power because when Peter has his dreams about blowing up, the only other people in the scene are other Heroes. But I don’t really like her so I was kind of hoping after last week that would be the end of her. Maybe my opinion will change as the show goes on. :-)

If you don’t know about the graphic novels, NBC puts out an online graphic novel that gives back story between the episodes and it’s been really interesting. We always “catch up” before we watch on Monday night. If you’re a Heroes fan, I highly recommend it. NOTE: Some aren’t as good as others depending on who’s writing and drawing them.
Here’s the link: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/

Happy Watching!