Laura

Ask me for my top five favorite [blank] — any subject (but bear in mind that if I'm not comfy with it or it doesn't apply, I may get creative), and I will do my best to answer.

It thinks heat is optional. (Everything else works; I did all the troubleshooting I'm really capable of. Running it ten minutes produces cold damp clothes, not warm damp clothes. Venting is fine. Barrel is spinning. Just no heat.) So, they'll be out Wednesday to look at it. It is, of course, just outside of warranty. Urgh. So we'll see if I need a new one or if it's cheaper to fix. (The folks coming to service it don't sell them, so if they say I'm better replacing it, I'm gonna believe them.)

Discovered broken mid-last-week, we thus had a lot of laundry. I was working with wash-and-drip-dry, but this weekend had to admit we needed to involve a laundromat.

I have a ballpark figure in my head of what laundromats cost, and it's reasonably current given that I wash our king-sized comforter at one when it needs it.

So I grabbed three rolls of quarters, and indeed, a week of laundry for a family of four (actually, a bit less because I let some of the bedding I'd normally wash weekly wait another week) ran $28 in the end. It would have been $26 if I hadn't forgotten to bring my soap, though.

And this is where I point out that there's a meme going around Facebook about an awesome program allowing kids living in poverty to bring laundry to school, and how that causes them to _spend more time in school_, in part because they have clean clothes to wear and aren't embarrassed. I mention it because every time it appears, it seems like I see judgy comments about how their parents should try to do better. Because if you're living in poverty you almost certainly do not have a washer/dryer set in your residence.

So...if you're living in poverty and having trouble making ends meet / covering rent and food / etc., you can afford an extra $20 or so every week, right? Wait a minute...no. And that's ignoring whether or not you have access to a functioning laundry that's nearby. If you don't, you also have to haul the darned stuff to wherever you can wash it. Which is fairly easy for suburban ol' me with my reliable car and money for gas, but not for people living in poverty.

So, unless they're hand-washing in their sink and drip-drying, exactly how do the people saying these things expect people living with these limitations to solve this dilemma, and why do they think not solving it indicates they don't take good enough care of their children? (And sink-washing is a quick answer to toss off, but is a lot of hard work - at the end of a long day, is it work the parent is up to? Does it mean they get less sleep than they need, or trade off helping the kids with homework? And is there enough space to drip-dry everything that was used and cleaned?)

I am, personally, so glad that program exists. If you haven't seen the articles before, one is: http://www.businessinsider.com/washing-machines-solve-schools-big-problem-2016-8

...and here's hoping I don't need a laundromat solution again next weekend, but I'm still glad I _can_ do it, if I need to.

Stress, stress, more stress, and a truly VILE cold (possibly now a truly vile sinus infection, and my doctor could not fit me in, and getting to urgent care is not really doable while on call AUGH).

However. I can let it define the week or I can argue. I've been missing a lot of gratitudes lately (over on Twitter/Facebook, and I haven't copied any here in forever I know), because of stress, and I think that is NOT helping me deal with the stress.

So. I am grateful for:

( The cut tag, which lets me not spam people's reading pages! )

Every so often I sing the praises of something, or grouch muchly about it.

Today is praise-singing. I discovered Postcardly I forget how. I got linked to it, but I don't remember if it was a friend, a post, Facebook, an ad...heck if I know! It sounded like a really neat concept: set up an account and email addresses for your destinations, email in a picture and a small amount of text, and they send a postcard to the address associated with the email you sent to. For a price, of course.

You get three free as a trial. I sent the same one - Drew on his bike - to my Aunt Sandy, Scott's Grandma Brown, and *us* so we could see it.

And I screwed it up. I used the preview and then I changed my text, knowing it would bounce it back if it was too long to fit.

It didn't bounce it back, but when I got the "what we will send" pdf, our signature line was missing. Erk! Turns out they'd just replaced the "what will fit" algorithm and it had failed to bounce it.

They pulled my request out of the queue (after confirming I wanted them to, not before!), and reset my free trial so I could try again and hadn't lost my three free postcards. They were quite friendly and helpful about it, and while it took a couple days to fully reset, a) this was entirely my fault for not previewing again first, and b) I did it on either Friday night or Saturday, so I think it's reasonable that they might not get to it immediately anyway.

I will preview properly what I send in the future...every little change. Because I *will* be sending in the future. The service, in the face of what was my screwup, was excellent - and I wasn't even a paying customer at that time! And the postcard was nice. Solid postcard-level paper weight, good image quality, text properly rendered.

I'm sold! On everything except sending things in without using the preview address....

Um. I may have let these go too long. On the other hand, seeing a two-month span, I'm struck by two things:

1. More days with more than one gratitude posted/sent. This is becoming a habit of thinking - yay!

2. Ian has progressed from an itty bitty baby who needed support to sit, to sitting unassisted, to pushing himself to sitting. From struggling to commando-crawl (and failing) to crawling, to (just this weekend) pulling himself to *standing*. From eating no table food to eating a wide variety of foods.

( May 21-31 )

( June )

( July 1-16 )

Because it's been a while.

( Cut because, well, it's been a while, some have seen them, and hello lots of little bursts of text! )

Today: take the cars down and get the car seats inspected. (Drew's had to be moved out of center position to side, and Ian's placed on the other side.) My car had already had the seats placed; Drew rode in Scott's car, where his seat was in its prior spot, with the intent that Scott would move the seats when we got there.

Clinic started at 9. We arrived about 9:10 or 9:15. As soon as I saw the number of cars, I knew we were going to be there even longer than I've expected. Scott was more surprised than I was; I haven't gone to a clinic before, only gone and had it done at Segal's (a lovely local store, now closed, that did a LOT of inspections/installations, by way of drawing people with kids into their store; we bought the Britax seats Drew uses there).

Scott shifted the seats in his car, then sighed and acknowledged that Ian's car seat base was going to take a noodle to do properly - and we hadn't one with us. Hopefully they'd have one, if not, at least Drew's seat could be inspected and confirmed. As it happened, they did have them - good, as to get Ian's seat *ideally* angled (as opposed to 'okay' angled but not ideal for a newborn) in my car *also* needed a noodle.

The inspector was impressed with the Britax installations, though. Not just correct - when you test side-to-side movement along the bottom back line, it's not supposed to be more than one inch - Scott, having put that seat in MOST firmly, had achieved something closer to 1/16 of an inch of movement. I was amused. It probably owes something to the fact that if I can feel it move much, I worry - Scott installed it to "soothe Laura" specs! :) Hehe.

It was 10:50 when we got out, all car seats properly installed and ready to go. (We still need to check on side airbags, though, in Scott's car, as far as Ian's seat in particular. [Edited to add: side curtain airbags in the back only, up at head height; manual indicates no concern.] Mine hasn't got them, so they are not a risk.)

From there, we took a VERY restless VERY hungry Drew to Olive Garden and had a lovely early lunch. I wish I could always get a waitress as good as the one we had this time (and yes, we tipped accordingly, she was EXCELLENT). I had soup and salad, because it's what I was in the mood for and their soup is tasty. They nicely gave me oil and vinegar (which I ignored) with my salad instead of the usual dressing, as I'm now avoiding almost all dairy. I did take a pill and have some of the garlic breadsticks, though. Small amounts of butter are worth it.

(Why am I avoiding almost all dairy? Because I've hit the part of pregnancy, finally, where the 'right' number of pills is almost impossible to guess for any significant amount of dairy. Alas.)

From there, Scott and Drew went for a short walk and then headed home (hoping Drew would fall asleep and nap, which did not in fact happen, though he's now playing quietly and resting a bit), and I went to the library (to pick up held books) and bank (just before they closed, but I got the paper I needed out of the box, yay!). I was very amused, given our differing errands, to literally pull into the driveway right behind him (close enough that I watched him turn in, never mind close enough that his car was still on when I did).

They were quick errands. And everything got done. Well, shopping's still on the list, but it was an "after-nap" part of the list anyway, so.

Drew now responds to tissues by taking them and wiping his nose, instead of screaming "no no no" and whipping his head around as he would have six months ago. I am thrilled. And appalled, because he is not yet a master at actually wiping his nose, and spreading the problem across both cheeks is...yeah. OTOH, he then tolerates (less than thrilled, but tolerates) when you take the tissue and further scrub his nose and, oh yes, his cheeks.

It's progress.

He loves the back yard and play house. He gives tours of the house to friends who come over. He has been helping his father unpack most of his clothing and bedding into the new dresser in his room. (The dresser that used to be in the spare/craft room...much more useful here. It would not have fit as well in his room at the old house, tho, without removing other stuff.)

He went for a walk with Scott all the way to the post office today. (About a half mile each way.)

We need to either isolate the art, or hang the art, because right now he is trying to play with it. :(

Yesterday, I lost about 1/4 of my steamed veggies from my dinner because Drew kept demanding my broccoli and carrots. Yay! ...not that I wouldn't have liked to eat them too, but....

Some tweets from the past few days:

I have no idea, but he was very insistent I get out of my chair so he could do them ALL. http://t.co/rQpW5ie

Drew is in his playhouse kitchen saying "order pizza" - oh, what we have taught him. :/

Seeing Scott experience an Ikea store for the first time: priceless. [ed: okay, not parenting-related. But even with all the hype, explanations, and warning - even with, when he asked if we should stop there, my pausing and then saying "I think I'm up to it" - he was totally unprepared for the scale and style of the place. Watching his face go twitchy-twitchy when we got to the children's Ikea section was fun too.]

Both kitties are in the laundry room of the new house, with hidey-holes, soft beds, food, water, and litter. Kitties: not real thrilled. [ed: this is from yesterday morning. kitties are starting to be happier, though Ray is still tentative. They come out to be petted and climb all over you, and Drew even went in with me for one of the pet-and-cuddle sessions this morning and gave Ray a hug. Ray tolerated this as usual, so...pretty good.]

Drew got set next to me, asleep. Snuggled tight against my back without waking. [ed: from Friday night, when I was exhausted from a very busy Friday and had already been in bed a few hours, intermittently awake. So. SWEET.]

Yes, these are taken from my tweets. However, I've edited out the retweets, replies, etc., so that this is a consolidated list of miscellany I actually think worth reposting here. :) And expanding where I think it's more interesting.

Toddler sitting as Roomba runs, reacting to the side brush tickling his feet: priceless. He held so still, but he was grinning, then giggling, while carefully NOT squirming....

Amended tax documents in late March: gee, thanks ever so. No, seriously, they DID. We've already filed, so now we get to amend. (For bonus points, no single line on the revised document varied by more than $11, and one varied by ONE CENT. Sigh. All this fuss over...gah!)

And thus, you get those two moments whilst being spared my Carbonite rants (I may ultimately journal, but as the mess continues un-resolved as yet, I'll wait 'til I know how it ends), notes of Leonard Nimoy's birthday, retweets of tweets about Dianna Wynne Jones's death, etc.

Still can't cook that well. No, not explaining, just sulking. But my roasted zucchini and mushrooms came out decent, at least.

I have started using Twitter again today. I do not know if this will continue but it seems more likely. The web interface on the iPhone is much easier than text messages from the old Samsung (plus? I never wanted to pay for text messages - and twitter was not the app to make me start - but the web stuff uses my required unlimited data service anyway!). No need to watch me there if you don't want to; it's for those who like Twitter and for my own notes. Anything I consider important/interesting will hopefully make its way into an LJ post (as is happening now), with more complete sentences/better typing. (I sometimes mess up on the little iPhone keyboard. Okay, I do it a lot, but only occasionally do I fail to notice and fix it. Oh, well!) (I'm at http://twitter.com/kyrielle if you do want to follow for some reason. Not that exciting. I don't get alerts sent to my phone so I may not notice replies/twitters/whatevers right away. Or at all, if I forget to check it or give up on it. *wry*) I'm trying not to let it interfere with my LJing, anyway. If it's just "the next shiny thing" then I'll get bored with it and wander away, otherwise, hopefully it will just be an additional quick thing. (And if you see Twitters in my account tonight, it means I botched the setting where I try to have them post private so I have a record of them. We'll see.)

Scott may have been delayed but everything went smoothly after that - he arrived about 15 minutes early in Indianapolis and is now settled in the hotel. He informs me that I am probably glad I'm not there, as he's on the third floor, about as far from the elevators as it is possible to get. Of course, if I had still been going, I'd every intent of calling the hotel in advance to make sure that didn't happen, trading on my pregnant status to get it (especially since that's why I would have wanted it), whereas he made no special requests for himself. Still, whether I'd have gotten what I wanted, who knows. I am glad I don't have to deal with that at the end of a long day at the con, I admit.

The plumber cancelled today, and will be doing tomorrow. So tomorrow I: take Babe to the vet, appointment at 9:30, go over things with them, and leave Babe there. Hopefully she gets the procedure done the same day, but maybe not - emergencies can preempt. Then I go out to the Ridge to meet the plumber (who may or may not be there ahead of me: I've given the access code for the lock box, so he can get in before I get there if need be), get that sorted out or started, possibly get other things done or not (as long as they do not involve coming back to MY house because after 9 am I can't drive on the street before the slurry seal dries, they think by 4 pm - we'll see). I pick Babe up, about 4 pm, at the vet. (If for any reason the seal isn't dry enough for the car, I park on an unaffected street or parking lot and carry her to the house, as foot traffic is allowed sooner and in any case I should be able to stay on the sidewalks if I pick the right route. However, I really don't wanna have to do that. I think they're sealing the neighborhood across the street also, and if so, I'd have to walk the equivalent of 4-5 long blocks. Babe won't enjoy that and, given the size and shape of a cat carrier as well as the 14-pound weight of the cat, neither will I.) As long as the seal's dry I can just drive home normally, which is an idea that I vastly prefer.

My dentist has lost my business. I expected him to do so, and it's nothing against him. It's just that I need a cleaning and they cannot schedule me in on a Friday (since they aren't open then), nor during my vacation given the short notice. (I didn't call sooner because I didn't get the reminder sooner and, in any case, didn't know far enough in advance that I wasn't going to be out of town during my vacation.) There's a perfectly nice practice in the same building that I saw once when my dentist was out of town for two weeks and I had some kind of problem (I forget which). I called them and they have me in for early September. On a Friday. Otherwise, I was going to hunt for a place that could fit me in Mon-Thurs in Hillsboro, but I admit I'm happier going with a practice I've been to before! (Yes, they know I'm pregnant. Skipping the x-rays. Yay.)

Did laundry today. Need to do dishes. Tomorrow is packed full. I'm not sure what Friday will bring. A chance to relax from Thursday's busy-ness and tension, maybe. That would be good.

Pleased so far with a couple apps I've added to the iPhone: DataCase for file copy/transfer/storage/viewing; Zenbe for lists, which integrates with the website - nice trick is, Scott can add things to the shopping list at the web site (I shared access to that one with him) and I can pick it up on my iPhone when I'm at the store; YouNote tentatively for note-taking. I haven't played with the last one much at all.

I got the shipping notice for my latest Fantasy Bath order today! Soon, soon. And glee. Bunches of fizzies I haven't tried (so I can), and a three pound bag of the Mango Tango fizzy (which I tried on a whim and was surprised to find that I loved it and found it very, very soothing). So that will be good when it gets here also. I'm for bed soon, though - with a soak first. (Not mango-scented, alas, but I've other Fantasy Bath scents 'til then.)

Remember the eggs I posted the other day? They are hatchlings now! Yes, I'm far too easily amused. If you have time and want to help them grow (or just find them amusing), look and click. :) ( They're behind the cut, to spare anyone who's not interested. )