tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55884912007-11-05T20:37:54.035-06:00Adventures of MonkeybabyAmyBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-45393640466897052802007-11-05T20:33:00.000-06:002007-11-05T20:37:54.062-06:00This past weekend I:
*Washed my laundry with OxyClean
*Went to the Firday night services at the Synagogue
*played a lot of online mahjong at work
*Started writing my NaNoWriMo for this year
*Watched American Gangster
*drove to Rockford to buy stuff at the last CompUSA in Illinois
*Almost hit a deer. And I mean almost.
*Designed our holiday cards
*Played pinball
*Attempted to clean my crafty area
Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-20285198509816352632007-10-17T16:08:00.000-05:002007-10-17T16:16:49.033-05:00Still haven't worked up the energy to hunt down my comments or archives. I'm a lazy blog human.
So to elaborate on swan wrangling day last week. These people, specifically two guys in a john boat with a trolling motor, were racing around the pond outside my window with a net on a stick and were wrangling up the swans. Apparently my co-worker actually saw a truck the other day on the Expressway Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-3011107627266845302007-10-02T12:06:00.001-05:002007-10-12T11:32:28.951-05:00My blog is totally screwed up and I don't have the patience to fix it right now for some reason. I don't have comments coming up, my archives are missing, probably kidnapped.
It is swan wrangling day at work and I feel wrangled myself!Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-59935719412156499252007-10-01T17:31:00.000-05:002007-10-01T17:59:42.259-05:00Ah, Asheville... For too long you and I have not crossed paths. I have driven by you many times on my way to the old religious pastures of my youth. (That's Montreat, for those of you that don't know.) M & I flew to Greenville, SC and drove the hour to Asheville this weekend. It was definitely a fun time. When we returned to the airport this morning I had a hard time believing that we had Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-4324501434296963382007-09-28T11:24:00.000-05:002007-10-02T10:02:30.282-05:00I am very spoiled. Not the only child kind of spoiled (although I am one those)but travel-spoiled. I read these things about people, mainly celebs, braggin over how many stamps their child/baby/accessory has on their passport before they hits toddler time. My parents didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up and we instead spent a lot of time camping and going to the beach. I think that Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-63683555338997316502007-09-24T15:05:00.000-05:002007-09-24T15:31:12.115-05:00So I'm still reading the Girls Gone Mild book. The author has ventured into dangerous territory with me and my chosen career as a librarian. As a librarian, banning books, any books, is a bad idea. Maybe it's some sort of fear of a totalitarian state or references my second favorite line from the film JFK, "Fascism is coming back!"
At any rate, I've always been angry at parents who try to Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-19031789746660834332007-09-21T13:16:00.000-05:002007-09-21T14:41:58.087-05:00Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit. You can read her blog here at Modestly Yours. M had brought me a books review from the local newspaper on it some weeks ago and I reserved it from the library. According to the review I am actually surprised that any library would be allowed to buy this book since the review itself made reference to the fact that the book points out some highly innapropriate linksAmytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-2806796392061650982007-09-19T17:29:00.000-05:002007-09-19T17:41:57.488-05:00The Renegade Craft Fair was great. My M went with me and he actually bought something (magnets made from airline safety brochures). The recurring themes of items included the following:
buttons
weird stuffed animals
baby clothes
cute stationary
purses (tons of purses)
I bought none of that. I bought a groovy little necklace with an octopus on it. Not an animated octopus, but a shadow of a what aAmytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-57860512042254563212007-09-11T15:41:00.000-05:002007-09-11T15:42:56.584-05:00I am going to the Renegade Craft Fair this Sunday. Wouldn't you like to be my buddy?Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-3034627545348626302007-09-10T17:50:00.000-05:002007-09-11T16:08:05.980-05:00I know I have mentioned our wasp issues. I think that this would be an interesting solution. I know my mother ate grasshoppers in Oaxaca and I am a known lover of escargot. But I don't think a wasp cookie would be the best thing to snack on.
M & I had a relaxing weekend in Roanoke. It wasn't full of excitement, but we had a great hike at the Cascade Falls. It was a long uphill walk, but not too Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-47111180179955413132007-09-07T13:02:00.000-05:002007-09-07T13:19:51.493-05:00I hope that the rain we had yesterday knocked the tar out of the wasps that insist on living on the edge of our pool. After M's very creative attempts to thwart their habitat, they remained firmly ensconced in their little nest, doing what ever wasps do. He tried to throw the piece of the pool that we believed they were attached to, into the actual pool only to discover that they were actually Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-50125761766945813532007-08-31T11:36:00.000-05:002007-08-31T11:54:01.763-05:00Happy day before Labor Day Weekend.
Actually I'm kind of sad to see the official summer come to an end even though in my job I don't really have an official summer. I'm not sure if I actually envy people who get to have the entire summer off. That's when everyone else travels and the roads are thick with ropes of cars, the airports are crowded with people who only fly maybe once every few years.
Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-90362246489690497802007-08-23T17:47:00.000-05:002007-08-23T23:06:58.870-05:00We are having a helluva storm in the Chicago area today. I'm at work watching the lightening. Hope everyone is safe and dry. I want to go home soon! Or least to go to Ulta to buy this:
I feel like I'm reverting to my Middle School self. Yay me!
On another rain note, the crustaceans on the Black Pearl have probably been washed away. Here is what she looks like on a clean day:
This is a stock Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-82598883737350185392007-08-22T14:40:00.000-05:002007-08-22T14:43:40.733-05:00After weeks of wiggling cords and taking my dashboard apart, it seems that Martin has finally gotten my mp3 player to play through my stereo in the Black Pearl! I'm thrilled because now I don't have to change CDs if I want to listen to Architecture in Helsinki, the Beegees and the Killers all in a row. It plays awesome and now I just need to wash the outside of the Black Pearl b/c she looks like Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-65061357808095176112007-08-16T16:09:00.000-05:002007-08-16T16:10:51.377-05:00How I define irony: People with a camel toe making fun of others with a camel toe.Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-70151485143210685402007-08-09T16:21:00.000-05:002007-08-09T16:36:08.188-05:00Saturday in Quebec City was a little cooler, almost perfect weather. Again, we did not see the changing of the guard with a goat. We wandered around the Old city in the morning, catching the show at the Musee de Fort and a tour of the Chateau Frontenac and then decided to get a sandwich and go for a mini-picnic. We got sandwiches from Paillard ( a fave of ours by now) and wandered up the hill Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-53264782625560294162007-08-08T20:36:00.000-05:002007-08-08T20:48:28.404-05:00Our second day IN Quebec City started out raining and our attempt to see the changing of the guards at the citadel ( with a goat!) ended in disappointment. However, we did take a lovely tour of the citadel and then walked to the Plains of Abraham for a bus tour around the park where the 15 minute battle between English and French troops happened back in 176-something.
We had lunch at a cute Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-54031477896812224072007-08-07T17:54:00.000-05:002007-08-07T17:58:19.232-05:00The entire historic district of Quebec City is filled with little restaurants, shops and for the most part really off-key street performers. The ones that didn't sing or talk as part of their act were more enjoyable.
We arrived in the late afternoon, checked in to the hotel, and decided to wander down the Dufferin Terrasse for a bit. WE stopped when we reached the stairway that winds around the Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-26745981585548955702007-08-07T10:54:00.001-05:002007-08-07T11:14:53.809-05:00OUr adventure to Canada began last Wednesday night. We flew from Chicago to Toronto. (Martin had a meeting on Thursday morning). We had a lovely room near the airport at the Hilton and I decided that three hours wasn't really worth trying to go and do something nearby or in downtwon Toronto so I just hung around the hotel, read the paper and tried to make my sciatic nerve stop hurting.
We made Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-55450726816706151972007-08-01T17:18:00.001-05:002007-08-01T17:19:01.760-05:00Tonight we are leaving on a jet plane for Canada. We will be back on Sunday. Yay!Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-833630662410950272007-07-31T09:19:00.000-05:002007-07-31T09:45:17.938-05:00Wisconsin Weekend!
Since our a/c is broken we decided to leave the house, wander around the lovely state of WI and sleep in the air-conditioned bliss of a Hilton.
First stop: State Street in Madison for the Farmer's Market and shopping. We had yummy scones, bought cashew brittle from Mennonites and used the restroom in the state capitol building. Let me just say the capitol building is really Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-22298512452102120042007-07-27T10:08:00.000-05:002007-07-27T10:31:27.468-05:00I think life without air conditioning in the middle of July should be used as a torture device in interrogations. That is not to say that no a/c in a place like Florida would be worse. Our house has taken on a wet feel, much like the humidity I love. In Florida the a/c would make the humidity cold. In Illinois it's like sleeping in a warm bath. I haven't wanted to cook since Sunday when the a/c Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-85723898637790657152007-07-16T14:49:00.000-05:002007-07-16T15:06:16.636-05:00Martin finally watched "Shaun of the Dead" on Friday. He is still not sure how I never heard the song "White Lines" before I met him. If you've seen Shaun of the Dead, you will understand the connection.
The pool was well used by the neighbors this weekend. I think at one point we had 10 people in the pool. It was fun to get the neighbors in our backyard. Creating good will and all that.
We had Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-1908924443061745832007-07-10T16:15:00.001-05:002007-07-10T16:34:27.086-05:00Today is my first day back at work since about last Tuesday. While I did work last Friday I don't count it because it was Friday and Fridays are always a little less grim.
My parents were visiting us and flew into town on the 4th of July evening. This meant driving to the rumored crowded O'Hare and the warnings of massive towing being enforced because of all the holiday traffic. I think we were Amytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588491.post-16544599793870390432007-07-02T10:51:00.000-05:002007-07-06T11:05:59.454-05:00Martin & I spent all morning (like 4 hours) buying a car on Saturday. It is lovely but I dislike car salesmen trying to sell me undercoating and saying the weather in Florida is not harsh. I bought a black Pontiac Vibe. It has a sunrook that I didn't really want but otherwise it feels like such a big car compared to the little Corolla. I sit up much higher and it just feels like I'm not cowering Amy