happy monday

this mug makes me happy. it's kind of impossible not to smile when i drink out of it.





i bought it for g. years ago. YEARS ago. one of the legs is broken. wish i knew who made it so i could buy more of them.

good fun thing(s) TO READ (day 9)

let's make that good things to read elsewhere.

is there anyone who doesn't read dooce? i doubt it. just in case, i read this while i was holding ollie (trying to get him to sleep) and it made me laugh so hard my entire body was shaking.

elizabeth is the reason i've recently peppered every conversation possible with "no big whoop." she's always a good read.

this blog is a good read. speaking of, this is sweet.

if you read yesterday's post, you'll understand why i was so happy megan of not martha linked to this.

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inspired by Maggie Mason

good fun thing day 8

he is the best. i could eat him.



So we went to the movie with Ollie. I think it was pretty much what I expected. The minute the movie started he began to cry. Sometimes the sound in movies is so loud, I feel it in my chest and my heart skips a beat (more in a delighted, riding a roller coaster sort of way), but I had a feeling he’d get upset. He cried and I didn’t want to ruin the movie for everyone, so we walked outside and sat on the bench. And we talked. “I scawed Mama.” Finally I convinced him that we should just go inside and peek at the screen. We did. The Muppets were on. Then it was back to the bench. Back and forth—we did this for a while.

I got Gabe’s attention and Daddy joined us in the hallway. I made Gabe hold Ollie. Then I went and sat down. They joined me. He burrowed into me and peeked at the screen. He got into it. Then the small diet Coke, that was Big Gulp in size, caught up with me. Ollie insisted on coming with me. We came back and watched more. Then I had to pee AGAIN. (If you know me then this is NORMAL. I peed three times during Bridesmaids. You can imagine Dances with Wolves. 16 times. (NO, not really 16 times. But yes, 3 times.) Imagine me pregnant.)

When we got outside for bathroom break #2, two of the three kids we were with were running laps. We never made it back into the movies. The three little boys did laps for the last ½ hour.
I think next time we go he’ll do fine.

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Inspired by Might Girl.

good fun things day 6

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l u a u tonight at ollie's school. all week i've been on the fence and then yesterday i decided we weren't going, so i didn't sign us up. one of the moms in his class emailed me asking if we'd be going, so i decided we would go. i asked the director if we could crash the party and she gave us the thumb's up. i'm glad we went. in the past there hasn't always been a big turn out from parents of kids in his class, but tonight was pretty good. it was fun to meet some of the parents i never see due to different drop off/pick up schedules. and tonight there was music and beer. even better.

after the party s. and ollie decided they'd shoot some hoops before going home. too cute.

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today when i arrived at ollie's school one of the teachers told me she had to give him a sponge bath today because he had somehow been covered in dirt while they were playing outside. i can only imagine what he was doing. dirt in his hair, his diaper, etc. i was only half joking when i asked her if this meant i wouldn't have to bathe him tonight. she told me i'd definitely need to bathe him tonight and mentioned that there was still dirt in his hair. i wonder if the teachers are catching on to me. you see, his last bath was last saturday at my folks' house. is that gross? don't answer that. today is friday. it is gross. i've been slacking on bath time because he had swim lessons two nights this week. and he's in a stage where he doesn't ever want to take a bath. i promise to be better about your hygiene, ollie. here is he smiling in the tub. that's because i told him we could watch dinosaur train and eat popsicles after the bath. (yes, i resorted to bribery. i was weak. )

- - - - - - - - -

on the agenda for the weekend? chores, shopping, haircut and o's first movie, cars 2, with a handful of kids from his class. actually it's o's first cars movie period. i doubt we'll make it through the entire almost 2 hours. (thank god.)

good fun thing(s) days 3 and 4

driving down 280 is a good thing. there's never too much traffic and the scenery is pretty. yesterday i went down to palo alto with leonard cohen cranked up high. sometimes i really love driving. the clouds were so amazingly beautiful, i pulled over to photograph them.

maybe i went to too many dead shows as a teenager. i love fluffy, marshmallowy clouds and the way the light plays off of them.

i love the still quiet of libraries. and the way books smell. today i explored the uc berkeley campus with my cousins and aunt. one of my cousins is considering ucb for college next year. (she was born when i was a freshman in college. really, i don't think anything has ever made me feel so OLD.)


cousins and aunts (as mentioned above) came to visit. they spent the night and today i took the day off to hang out. ollie tried to boss the cousins around (he called them his friends.) we ate and talked and laughed. my aunt is amazing and the cousins, aged 12, 14 and 16 are the cutest. last night, before bedtime, gabe put on an ella fitzgerald album and we sat around and listened to music and talked. i made the girls licorice tea. my 12-year old cousin updated her facebook status: "sitting around, listening to ella fitzgerald, drinking licorice tea and looking at the sf bay. it's delovely." cute.