Too tired to type much!

Luciana is sleeping and seems to be back to normal. It was a long night, with her vomitting (or dry heaving for the last half) every 20-30 minutes until around 5:00 this morning. I'm not feeling well tonight--headache, cramps, and exhausted from being up all night. I'm hoping that's it and I'm not coming down with whatever she had.

Here are some pictures of Lila's latest hobby. She discovered that, from the highest spot on the cat tree, she can jump into the decorative bird cage that hangs in the corner of the dining room. She climbs right into it and while the cage swings wildly, she tries to pull and shred the florals inside of it. I worked hard to get the arrangement in that cage just the way I wanted it. It no longer resembles the lovely floral decoration it was supposed to be. It's now a cat toy. I guess I might as well just resign myself to the fact that EVERYTHING I own is ultimately just a cat toy! There's no winning with a cat. If they decide something is fun to play with/destroy, my choices are to remove it or just let them have at it. So, here's Lila, just having at it.

Happy Birthday Mark!

A few more senior pics...

My baby girl is sick--throwing up--again! At least she and M. got to play for a while with the birthday gift she couldn't wait to give him...a catapult. Off to spoil her.

Theory on Hunters ;D

Mark brought home the WI State Journal this morning, and I was happy to see the headlines: Fewer Hunters This Year. I'll take the good news, however minor it may be! My new friend, Lane, 'told' me a very funny story about a note she left a hunter, indicating that he hunted to make up for lack of size. The more I think about it, though, there may be some truth to that. I'm going to stick with that theory until proven otherwise. I have a couple of male friends, who hunted when much younger. They are both veggie/AR now and avidly oppose hunting. Anyway, they both started hunting in an effort to win the approval of their very macho fathers, who I'm pretty sure, had much smaller than average male members. Even as boys, they felt guilt and sadness when killing but remorsefully continued for several years. They bear lifelong guilt and anguish over their past murders. They are now however, great guys, who are very secure in their manhood. So there! ;)

Now for a totally different topic: Here are a few of Dej's senior pics. I will be posting the rest of them in future posts.

Everest Roofing in Janesville, WI

Don't use them. They put our roof on a few years ago, and we developed a few new leaks AFTER the new roof was put on. We tried to call them several times and left several messages. One time, they said they would come out to look at it but never showed. Our final phone call was never returned. So much for the warranty, huh? M & my dad looked at it to see if they could find the problem, and noticed that the portion of the roof outside the girls' bedroom windows was done incorrectly. M climbed up on the roof (and he does NOT like heights) and patched up the incorrect portions with some type of gooey tar (note that this is probably not the technical name for it). That seems to have done the trick. At any rate, they had been using us as a reference. So now I'm giving them a reference. They do not stand behind their work--or under it, as they would end up wet.


SATURDAY
Today was pretty low key. We got up this morning and went to Logan's 6th!! birthday party. I can't believe he's six already. The kids had a blast playing together, and the mom's were able to sit and chat with almost no referee duty. We got Logan a dragonology book--those books are so damn cool! Orinda made a veg-safe cake that was pretty good. We left at lunchtime, so Colton could take a nap and O. could work on her 20-page paper that's due on Monday (for her Master's). I really miss the classes and the learning part of being in grad school, but when I watch her try to get these ridiculously long and difficult assignments done while balancing work and kids, I don't miss it. It makes me really, really glad to be done! I still want to finish up with the PhD but I think I need to wait until my girls are out on their own, if for no other reason than I can't afford to pay for their college and mine! I guess for now, when I start to miss being in school a lot, I'll just watch O. and remind myself how unpleasant it can be at times. Thanks, Orinda. ;D


After the party, we came home and baked chocolate chip cookies. Luciana wanted to use cookie cutters to make fun shapes, but that doesn't work so well with choc. chip cookies. We gave up on that idea. They turned out well, and I think that (vegan) tollhouse cookies are the best in the world, so I'm pretty happy to have them around. We continued our Monopoly game after dinner. We actually started the game on Tuesday, but at bedtime we stopped and put it aside to finish later. We are still not done, so we'll probably be plugging away at it again tomorrow. L loves Monopoly, and I have her do a lot of the banker duties, so it's good math practice for her. She spends an inordinate amount of time during the game spreading her money out and arranging it in various ways. Mark was able to get the garage cleanup done today, so I can park my car in the garage again. He dropped his motorcycle, while trying to move it. Glad he didn't end up underneath it! I think the outside stuff is done now, so we're as ready for winter as I will ever be, considering that I HATE cold weather.


I have a cold/sore throat, which really sucks. What's really odd, though, is that nobody else in the household has a cold now, other than three of the cats. Oliver and Ivan have an extremely mild one, but Baxter is pretty miserable. He keeps sneezing and has a runny nose--the poor little guy. I've been babying him and giving him extra treats. It hasn't interfered with his appetite at all, which is a good sign.

FRIDAY
Hunter spent the day with us yesterday, so the kids spent a lot of time in their "spy lounge". I reminded them not to use the computers unless I was right there with them. I just cleaned up the second nasty malware infection left on our network from their last bout of surfing for spy gadgets online. They made some very cute mice out of paper, ribbon, decorative scissors, and lots of glitter, leaving a lovely tornado in the craft area for me to clean up. We then made some shrinky-dink xmas ornaments. H. had never seen or heard of shrinky dinks, so he was completely enamored of them, and really, who doesn't love shrinky dinks?! They are pretty damn cool! The kids ornaments turned out very cute, and L. is planning to make some s.-d. cat earrings---maybe tomorrow.

FRIDAY - THE EGGS
The kids found two eggs, lying atop the big food station cage in the bird room. Lexi (a cockatiel) is very old and has never show any interest in sitting. She also hasn't mated with her pair-bonded partner, Rex, since I got them several years ago. I had to rush out to pick them up in the middle of winter from an alcoholic ass who decided he didn't want them and was going to let them go outside. Anyway I knew she was laying last week. I was 99% sure they weren't fertile, but even if they were, they had been sitting unattended for several hours (the newest egg) and almost two days (the first egg), so if they had been fertile, they wouldn't have hatched after being unattended for so long. L & H decided that they really wanted baby cockatiel, so they made a nest and carried them around, thinking they were going to hatch in three weeks. I explained that the eggs were not kept warm enough, even in the great nest that they made for them, and that they have to be turned very regularly, and that hadn't been done. I hated to disappoint the very excited kids, but I always try to be respectful and honest, and it didn't seem fair to let them get their hopes up. We candled them to see for sure whether they were fertile. They were not. L. then asked if she could break them open to see what was inside. Of course it was just a miniature version of the chicken eggs people eat. I asked her (totally kidding of course) if she wanted me to mix up a little omlet. She looked at me in absolute horror and said NO WAY! She was pretty grossed out by the whole idea of people eating eggs. Ethically, I suppose I can't think of an objection to eating them (in this case), but eeewwwwwww. It's been so long since I've had eggs that the very thought of eating them--any kind of eggs--is as gross to me as it is to the lucky little girl who has never had them!

A VEGAN THANKSGIVING - MURDER FREE; EXPLOITATION FREE
We spent Thanksgiving day with my parents. My mom made vegan lasagna, green beans, and garlic bread. We all enjoyed a great meal! We had brownies for dessert. We were all a little bummed because we had no banana-nut bread. Banana-nut bread is a Thanksgiving & Xmas tradition, and my mom makes the best b-n bread. Neither my mom nor I had any ripe bananas, and there were no ripe bananas to be found in town this week.

WEDNESDAY - CAT COUNSELING
Weds. evening I spent several hours at my parents' house, meeting with a cat behaviorist about the problems Emmy is having with Camille. Camille has very poor cat manners and has been overbearing with trying to play with Emmy. Poor Emmy is so extremely shy and timid, and as a former feral, she tends to have a lot of little 'issues'. Camille had poor Emmy so intimidated (not from aggression, just from being overbearing with play/stalking) that she was afraid to leave the bedroom or use the litter box. She ended up with stress-induced colitis, and if you've ever had it, you know how incredibly miserable it is. Dr. Krebsbach talked to us for a long time, checked out the environment, and made some suggestions for moving things around a bit. She then taught us a couple of exercises to do each night with the girls to help their relationship. After their second "gentling session", performed by my parents on Thurs. morning, Emmy was downstairs on the couch, in the same room with Camille. It was a huge and unexpectedly quick improvement. It will take a lot of continued effort on my parents' part, but thank goodness they are the kind of people that are committed to their animals' happiness and well being, so they will do it. I really wish more people shared that kind of committment. I'm so sick to death of people giving animals away as if they were furniture that didn't quite match!

MORE DIRTY PUPPY MILL DEEDS
There's a big, notorious puppy mill in Sun Prairie, Puppy Haven. They have been running a classified ad in the Gazette, and I'm sure the Madison area papers as well, looking for people to sell puppies out of their homes. What an interesting move. It's obvious that puppy mills cannot have people coming on the property, as they would run screaming an horrified by the disgusting conditions these poor dogs are subjected to. Apparently, this is their new marketing idea--find some ignorant person who thinks puppies are cute, plop them off in a "normal" home as a front, and sell lots of them in time for xmas. This even cuts out having to pay Petland and their ilk their "cut" of the sale. Please keep an eye out for this type of ad in your local papers, and let me know if you see anything suspicious or if this is something you've seen done before.

Happy "Turkey Day"

...And lord, bless this meal that we are about to consume, with no thought whatsoever for the suffering we have made necessary, and let it make us healthy, wealthy, and wise...


I hate the month of November. It’s not because it’s usually cold, gray, and drizzly. It’s not because we are wondering where the hell we are supposed to get money to buy xmas presents for people who don’t really need anything. It’s not because I officially grow a year older. It’s not even because it is the month in which my beloved and daily missed grandmother died (not that I don’t love and miss my other grandparents!).

It’s because November seems to be the month in which excessive cruelty and barbarism are celebrated and enjoyed by all. The absolutely repulsive holiday, Thanksgiving, occurs, right along with hunting season. Somehow thanksgiving has become synonymous with gorging and overindulging (in the vile way that only Americans can) in a beautiful and fascinating bird—the turkey, along with a generous helping of other mostly unhealthy foods. Some of the “enlightened” Americans salve the guilt of their overindulgence by remembering briefly, before the large corpse is consumed, to be thankful for their excesses. Even fewer, may even be thoughtful enough to give to those in need, which allows them to overindulge with no guilt whatsoever. After all, “good” people deserve to be rewarded with all the excesses that money can provide for them.

It is no exaggeration to say that at all times that I am conscious, there is a constant loop that plays in my head, reminding me of how many animals are suffering at every given moment. The additional atrocities of the month of November are in my face constantly, and really, my head is already full of misery. I don’t need the constant visceral reminders that the humans among whom I live—and some who I even love—are the most vile, selfish, plague that this planet has ever experienced. That the vast majority are capable, due to some flaw in their ability to empathize, of committing and participating in cruelty and violence on a regular daily basis. Are there three species of humans, differentiated by some DNA variance that we haven’t yet identified? We seem to have the vegans—those for whom empathy is overwhelmingly and painfully present and who govern their lives based on this; the vegetarians/animal welfarists—those for whom empathy is present (especially if the animal is cute) when it doesn’t affect them too awfully much; the others—those who single-mindedly live for their own satisfaction and are largely unwilling to endure any inconvenience or personal discomfort despite the pain and misery others may have to endure as a result.

I’m musing honestly here and am fully aware that this comes across as judgmental and arrogant. So effing what. I am forced, every single day of my life, to interact pleasantly with people who are to me, the equivalent of serial killers. Sounds extreme? Probably to some, but that is exactly how it feels. I am usually alternating between sadness, anger, and despair as a result of this. It sucks. You don’t like to hear it? I am sorry for that, because if you’re reading this, you are probably someone I love. You are also probably someone for whom my love is deep, yet conflicted, and therefore soul-crushingly painful for me. How can I so deeply and loyally love and defend someone who has no moral compunction about torturing, killing, and consuming others who I love deeply? That’s another loop that plays in my head on a daily basis. There is no resolution for this situation, so I have resigned to living with yet one more source of deep sadness and pain. Is it any wonder, then, that I would willingly and proudly sacrifice my life and/or health for this movement? I would leave behind worlds of agony interspersed only briefly with happiness.

This is probably as raw as my blog will ever get. I have kept it very sanitized. Yes, for me, VERY sanitized. But I’m raw right now. I have had to endure too many deer corpses, displayed with no respect or regard on the backs of redneck vehicles that get less than 15 mpg. I have had to endure the intense rage that overwhelms me when I look at the way these deer were violated and are continued to be disrespected after death. THEY ARE BEINGS! With thoughts, feelings, emotions (yep. it’s been proven and can no longer be called anthropomorphism), and a desire to BE. What am I supposed to do with all the rage? I realize as I drive along I90, looking at the corpses displayed, that I have no thoughts at that time beyond pure, unadulterated rage. I want to kill these hunters, who find it so enjoyable and sporting to hide like pussies and shoot at an innocent (unarmed) creature, who is guilty of nothing more than trying to live. For every woman who has been raped or battered by men who like to assert their power over the innocent and vulnerable. For every child who has been beaten or raped by men who are only able to exert dominion over the smallest and weakest. For every animal who has been killed, tortured, or perhaps even worse—been completely disregarded and treated with complete ambivalence. I want these men (yes, a few women hunt, they’re included too) to suffer unspeakable cruelty. Worst of all, though, I want to make them feel like the nothings that they are. I am a proponent of nonviolence. How can I possibly entertain thoughts (and find pleasure in them) of making any living being suffer. I am disgusted by the fact that I have these feelings. I am even more angry with these worthless losers for even momentarily causing me to have the kind of thoughts that they turn into deeds.

Then I remember that while, in the month of November, these atrocities are very visible, as are the participants, they are not much different from the rest of society. Those who think that the momentary pleasant stimulation of their taste buds justify ending a life. For every single bite of flesh, dairy, or eggs, placed in the mouth makes a statement to the world. A statement that says your personal small pleasures are much more important than the life/lives that you have sentenced to death. Make no mistakes, in that small action—that small morsel that you enjoy but will soon flush down the toilet—you are an equal partner in the execution. If you can’t forego a small pleasure to spare the lives of others, please, at least take a moment to think about and appreciate the being who once was; the being who had their life taken for your palate. Since they received no kindness or appreciation in life, at least grant them a moment of gratitude in death. It’s the least you can do—really, I do mean the least.

I challenge anyone who is still talking to me at this point to watch this film. If you can make it all the way through, I will be SHOCKED beyond belief at your personal strength. Spend an hour or two in my world. If you're still sane... well, I really doubt I'll have any takers on this one. ;P Maybe you'll understand why I'm such a bitch!
I dare you!

AR people are the best ever!

I've had a crazy, busy few days, so I've been a remiss blogger. Our wonderful friend Anthony Marr arrived this week for a brief visit. We've had a lot of time to visit and just "hang out", which has been very nice. When he first arrived, he was quite ill, but after a couple of days of lying low and resting, he bounced right back. We took him to see Allegrea's art exhibit as soon as he was up to it. Her work is so beautiful, that I really enjoyed seeing it again and being able to share it with others. Dej was able to go with us as well, and as she's an artist also, she really appreciated it.

Thursday morning, Dej and I had to be at the nearest UW for her first college visit. This was a pretty easy one, as it's local, and also happens to be the college where I teach. She went to a class, American Government, and she seemed to enjoy it. She got to choose from several different classes, so I was glad she found one that was of interest to her. She was a little whiney about having to get up early to go to "school" and sit in a class on her day off. How the poor girl suffers. She really liked the big art studio/class room, and since she will probably spend a lot of time there, I was very happy about that.

Thursday night, Anthony, Allegrea, Luciana, Mark, and I went to the Puppy Mill Round Table in Madison. This was sponsored by the WI Puppy Mill Project, The Alliance for Animals, and the Dane County Humane Society. About 30-40% of the attendees were breeders. Of the 12 WI legislators invited, none bothered to attend. As our Federal government no longer even bothers to keep up the pretense of being "by the people, for the people", our state government seems to be following suit. The round table event became a bit heated and rowdy, as the breeders were ill mannered and heckling the speakers. A group of Amish puppy mill sadists were there as well. It quickly became clear that the breeders were there in an effort to align themselves with "the good guys" and distinguish themselves as being different from puppy mills--the "humane" choice. Strangely enough, though, these breeders who claimed to care so much for the animals they pimp and sell, were loathe to have any sort of regulations/inspections that would apply to them. It was actually a clever marketing ploy. No thanks, though, we don't care to be associated with them in any way. Many attendees brought their adopted dogs, victims of breeders/puppy mills, and we enjoyed visiting with them. They were so very damaged--both physically and emotionally--but absolutely precious! The dogs were an excellent visual reminder of why we were there. Luciana had fun with Allegrea and Anthony. She loves to talk to and play with them.

Here's the link to an article in the Capital Times about the puppy mill round table: http://www.madison.com/tct/news/257233

Friday night we had our get together in Anthony's honor. We had a great time with our AR friends and were happy to introduce those who hadn't yet met Anthony. Mark made his award-winning chili (the recipe from the first year he won), and I made a taco bar. There was plenty of good vegan food and drinks for everyone. We really enjoyed having so many of the friends, who we love and respect, all together. We were disappointed that Dej wasn't able to join us, but she spent Friday and Saturday in Sheboygan for a debate meet. L had Hunter stay overnight, so she had someone to play with while the "grown ups" talked.

By the time everyone left and we got things reasonably cleaned up enough to go to bed, it was around 2. The kids were asleep at that point. Shortly after 3, we were awakened by L telling us that H accidentally hit himself in the nose and they couldn't get it to stop bleeding. It was a sudden and rude awakening. We went down to find blood and bloody tissues on the floor, and H bleeding profusely. L told him to pinch his nose, but he thought it would hurt so he wouldn't try it. He let me pinch it though and then took over himself when he found it wasn't painful. It stopped bleeding after a few minutes of that. We got the room and H cleaned up, the kids settled again, and returned to bed at around 4. It was a very short night.

H stayed throughout the day on Saturday until it was time to drop L off at my parents' for date night. We were starting a bit early, meeting Anthony and some friends of his from Elkhorn for an early dinner. We ate at Nee's, which was as delicious as usual. M & I had lard na (which I always get because it's so good). We had some great conversation and really enjoyed getting to know Bev & Greg. They are also AR people, who we met briefly on Anthony's prior visit. I'm sure we will be seeing them again--hopefully for our next Petland protest.

Today was chore day, as Sundays usually are. Anthony came over for pizza and a last social visit before he had to start the drive to Denver (straight through!). H was here again today, and he & L played outside for quite a long time. They made pine cone/peanut butter/bird seed treats for the outside critters and made "carrot cake" for Annabelle (our guinea pig) and Thumper (our rabbit). They also did some work in the spy lounge (an area that they created for themselves in the workroom of our basement) and did some ghost hunting upstairs. They had quite a productive day. We were all sad to see Anthony go this evening!

Luciana's girl & boy owls

I’m still in shock that it’s Monday already, and I’m back to work. My four happy days (non-work days) went so very fast—even faster than they normally do!

SUNDAY

We left in the morning for Dwyers’ and arrived a bit before noon . Dej was unable to go with us, as she had to work. M’s aunt and uncle were visiting from Michigan , and his brother Dan came to join us for lunch. He brought the new girlfriend (who just moved in with him), Beth—also known as L’s competition for Uncle Dan’s attention. I was surprised and impressed, though, by L. She and Dan were building with Legos and all on her own, she asked Beth if she wanted to build with them. L seemed to have lots of fun with both of them, so maybe that will help alleviate some of her resentment toward “the interloper”. After lunch, we watched the video of Mark’s Garden Smart show, as his parents hadn’t yet seen it. Dan, Beth, Peggy, and Gene all had to leave a bit after that. After they left, L wanted to play a game of Clue with Grandma, M and me, so we played until it was time for dinner. We left there dinner, and returned home a little past L’s bedtime. Next thing I knew, it was Monday morning! UGH!

SATURDAY

We spent the bulk of Saturday getting Sunday chores done and catching up with our homeschooling work. We had a Petland protest at noon . After than, Les, Jason, L & I went to Raven’s Wish (I think that’s the name) Gallery to see Allegrea’s art. Her work is on exhibit there this month. It was absolutely gorgeous! There wasn’t a single piece that I didn’t want (but couldn’t afford, of course). And there was one in particular that would have been perfect in my living room—we all agreed that the colors and style were a perfect fit. M was not able to join us at the gallery.

While we were at the protest, Dej called to say she lost her car keys, so she needed M to come drop off an extra set for her. She had a debate meet that was Friday night and all day Saturday. She called us before the protest because she left the headlights on and needed Mark to come jump the car for her. Thank goodness this meet was in town. Most of them are not. She later found her keys (just after Mark left for the hardware store to get an extra set made), but sheepishly refused to tell us where she found them. She returned home after the meet with two friends, who were teasing her quite a bit about where she found the keys. I’m assuming it was someplace painfully obvious, like her pocket or something, but she hasn’t yet admitted where.

Now that it’s dark early and summer’s over, we are back to our family movie night on Sundays. Since we would be at M’s parents Sunday, we moved family movie night to Saturday for this week. We watched The Wizard of Oz, and L ate a lot of popcorn. She’s really into kettle corn lately and can eat obscene quantities of it. Dej was of course out with friends, so she didn’t join us. She doesn’t participate in family movie nights very often anymore.

FRIDAY

We celebrated Orinda ’s birthday Friday (even though it was on Thursday) at El Jardin’s. We both ordered strawberry margaritas. Since my birthday was the 3rd, and I didn’t make it to lunch last Friday (L was sick), we decided that margaritas were in order. I do love a good fruity margarita, but haven’t found one that I like since Chi Chi’s closed. I find that most places make them much stronger than I like. These were good though, weak and fruity, so I thoroughly enjoyed my treat. Since it was O’s almost-actual bday, we told our server who brought out a piece of chocolate cake, complete with a lit candle on top. L asked for the candle, once O had blown it out. My strange, D&D obsessed girl proceeded to remove a chunk of wax from the middle of the candle, and show me that she had made mini nunchucks. She then showed me how they work. Yet another special moment I never thought I would be sharing with my 7 year old daughter!

THURSDAY

Mark was off again this Thursday, so we planned some family activities. We got up and went bowling in the morning. We had fun and reconfirmed our knowledge that we are all sucky bowlers—even with bumpers up. We had a gift card that Mark had received for Rice Bowl, so we decided to go there for lunch. We had never been there and figured we would be able to find something good, as we all love Chinese food. We won’t go there again. There were fewer vegan options than we typically find, and the food was bland, at best.

Thursday night, Mark had to attend a visitation in Freeport for a man who used to work for him. Ray was a very, very nice man and quite intelligent, too. His death was a surprise. He was seemingly healthy, went to bed, and never woke up. He had a blood clot in his brain. I guess that’s about the best way to go, but it’s always sad to see someone so young (around 55) pass. My parents took L & I out for dinner, and then we killed some time at Target.

Another late tattoosday..at least I'm consistent ;D

Well I realized at 3:30 this morning that I forgot to do the last (for now anyway) tattoosday entry yesterday. I woke up (again!) at a little after 3:00, after having a bizarre dream about my two front teeth falling out. Dreams are just so weird! In my dream, I was reaching to get something, and something that looked like a tooth fell on the table/dresser(?) in front of me. At first I thought it was a fingernail (again, huh??), but then I noticed it was my front tooth, and the edges of it were black—eeeewwww!! I looked in the mirror and saw that my other front tooth was just hanging there, so I touched it and it came out also. In all of my dream wisdom, I decided that if I put in my retainer (to keep my lip from sinking in where the hole was) and didn’t smile much, maybe nobody would notice until I could get to the dentist. I woke up with two main thoughts. GROSS!! And WTH is wrong with my brain??! I mean really! Apparently I posses no logic whatsoever in my dream life. As absurd as the dream was, it left me with this icky, grossed out feeling that I couldn’t shake, and it took a really long time to get back to sleep. So it was in that wakeless gap that I realized I hadn’t blogged on Tuesday. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of my horrible nightmare/night terrors and awakened my household with a scream or some other weird noise, so I can’t complain too much. It was a pretty strange dream though. I reminded me a lot of a recurrent dream I used to have for years when I was a teen. I had two birds at that time, and randomly had these dreams that I would be talking to or playing with one of them, and their whole beak would fall off, and they would bleed profusely. I don’t know where that weird dream came from either.

So after the dream, when I realized I needed to get up and go to the bathroom (again!), I began the required extrication process for leaving my bed. I removed Luciana’s arm and leg that were slung over me, gently removed Lila from my left thigh where she was sound asleep, slowly and gently slipped my left ankle out from under Baxter and my right ankle out from under Hallie, and finally—I was free to move. While the other four cats often sleep in our bed, they are content to stretch out near us, not on us. These three are typically on top of me for some or most of the night. Oliver makes it especially fun to sleep, as for whatever reason, he has decided that he can only jump on or off the bed from ONE spot. Unfortunately that spot is on my side of the bed, where my chest is when I’m lying down. Several times a night, he hoists himself up onto the bed, with a little chortling sound, walks his chubby self across my chest, lies down, and then later on, leaves by the same route. He does this whether I’m in bed or not. It drives me crazy, but with cats it’s easier to just accept it than to try to change it.

Alright, on to Mark’s last tattoo. It’s on his left—hmmm, I want to say breast, but I think since he’s manly and all, that I have to refer to it as his pec. It’s a rather cryptic symbol to most people, but I’m sure there are a few isolated nerds throughout the world to whom it is meaningful. ;) He wouldn’t tell me what it meant for the longest, while we were dating. I tried my best to identify it by looking on the Internet, but it’s kind of hard to search for a cryptic symbol in google when you don’t know anything about it. It is the initials of his favorite author, written the way J. R. R. Tolkein wrote them.

Seems I'm confined to the bedroom today. I'm getting a little stir crazy!! My baby girl woke up at around 7 this morning, radiating heat, crying that her head hurt, and OOPS--vomitting all over the floor. She's spent the day napping between vomitting, and wearing an ice pack on her head for the pain. Since she awoke from her last nap, she's kept down a piece of toast and a small baked potato. She's asking for mashed potatoes for dinner. She says her head is feeling a bit better, so maybe we're on the up side of this already. I keep thinking about my messy house and multitude of things I should be doing, but she definitely wants her mommy to be right next to her cuddling and babying her, and I will never pass that up! I have so few years left of her wanting to cuddle and being taken care of, that the messy house and work can wait!

Hallowe'en went very well--a little rushed, as always, but fun. We went to my mom's for our traditional chili dinner. Orinda dropped Logan & Colton off at 6 to go trick or treating with us. This is Colton's first year going out. We always have Logan with us. This is also the first year that Michael's boys haven't been in town to go. Mark and I set out with L & the boys.. As Colton is only two and it's his first year going, nobody was sure how well he would hold up. No need to worry at all! He walked almost all the way (despite my frequent offers to carry him) and kept right up with "the big kids". He did a great job walking right up to the door and saying "Trick or Treat" loud and clear. He even remembered his "Thank yous" fairly well. He liked the "scary guys", too. We have several adults in the neighborhood who like to dress up, have scary sounds/lights, etc. All three kids did great, had fun, and got lots of candy. I'm so glad they are able to come with us, as it is so much more fun for L. to have friends to go with than to go with just us.

Thursday was a field trip day. We went to Milwaukee in the morning to the Discovery World museum. They had a lot of great technology exhibits that we all enjoyed. Everything was hands-on, so we got to have fun while learning. They also have a very cool aquarium area. L & I could probably stay there for many hours longer than we did, just watching the fish and other cool creatures. We spent the afternoon at the art museum, which was also very educational and fun. I could also have spent a lot more time at the art museum than we did. I like to spend more time looking at some of the pieces than M & L do, so I end up feeling like I rushed through a bit. Some of the art I just LOVE. They had one of my favorite pieces there, Rodin's "The Kiss". It's so beautiful. There are always those sections/areas that I just walk through rolling my eyes--you know, the kind of "art" that is really a joke on shallow, rich people, that everyone gets but them. I only consider something art if I could not create it. It irritates me that some of those silly pieces of crap are in the same building as such masterpieces! I found a great art book in the gift shop that I picked up for art studies with L. It's published by Usborne and is one of their Internet linked books. It's a very good compilation of the major periods in art, and for each period, it provides several good examples of the art, discusses the social/political conditions of the time and how the movement related to that. It will be a lot of fun for both of us. I think we will start working on it after the holidays.