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Random Thoughts during a blizzard February 12, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , 2 comments

Ok, you’re right, it was not technically a blizzard. At least not at our house. We only got 18 inches this time, not so bad. And the winds were only 25 miles sustained, not 35. However, I spent the day stripping wallpaper in the living room. I am detecting a pattern here. This is the 2nd wall in the living room. I finished the painting the the last wall on Friday night.

So while I was stripping wallpaper (aka a lifeboat and a life jacket by Soleil who was on the sinking Titanic in our living room), I had my music on. It is simply wonderful to hear music that uses words like "ain’t", "cheatin’", "tequila", and "honky-tonk". Somehow, Dan Zanes and Laurie Berkner just don’t cut it for me.

I wonder what Luna’s future career is. Twice today, she decided to remove all of her clothing including her diaper. This is worrysome.

Will I someday be done with the work on my house? Or does the project just continue until you fall down?

Anyway, just some random thoughts. It’s been a long day and my team lost in the shootout.
Tomorrow will be a busy busy day playing in the snow!

Did you know? February 10, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Spacemom , 2 comments

Did you know that if you miss your antidepressant for a few days because you are sick, it makes you sick? Doesn’t that seem self defeating?

Not much snark or other from me today. I have a busy day followed by a crazy night.
Maybe tomorrow or Sunday when the blizzard hits….

Babysitters! February 9, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , 2 comments

ACK! I am on a search for a sitter for this weekend! And for a new sitter in general. My current one, who I LOVE, is just too far away and she doesn’t do weekends anymore. So we are screwed for this weekend.

I hate searching for babysitters. Somehow, getting a sitter makes me feel guilty. Yes, you work AND you want to get out? What is wrong with you???

Sigh

Who needs sleep? February 7, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 1 comment so far

First off, if you are not familiar with the song from the Barenaked Ladies, please go check out the lyrics here.  I can wait since I’m not actually doing anything…

I sometimes feel like that song. Let’s start with 1996, shall we? Because in 1996, I started my job here in the Boston area. Part of my job description was to travel to Huntsville, Alabama every 2 weeks to work here. Can I tell you now that flying every two weeks is very stressful on the body and flying 1 time zone over freaks out your sleeping habits? I had trouble sleeping then.

As we got closer to launching the telescope, I started having sleep troubles again (gee, wonder why?) I could barely sleep in Florida while our launch was delayed, and delayed again and then finally went off! Then the hard work of making sure the darn thing worked started and we were working all hours of the day and night. It took a while to start getting sleep again.

Then we decided that we actually had to put our money with our mouths were and start a family. We had told people "after launch" and that worked for a while (Except for the people who thought we were saying after LUNCH. Yeah, like I am going to tell you that we will start a family after lunch. Hmm, that was good pizza, now let’s jump up on the table and get going on that family! Good Lord people THINK!) Every month I would go into this fantasy of what our child would be like. And no sleep while doing this. I eventually gave up on that and started fantasizing that we might actually get pregnant one day. (still no sleep)

Finally, I started calming and sleeping. It was nice. Then we started fertility stuff and that damn anxiety kicked back in. When I got pregnant (whoohoo) I discovered that sleeping was difficult again. The anxiety, the worries, the bedrest…How could I sleep? We actually did deliver a healthy child and discovered that SHE didn’t sleep. Whoohoo. Yippie.

Around 2.5 years old, when her sister was 7 months old, Soleil started to sleep during the night. YEA!!!! Now we only have 1 kid to wake up with! The last 4 nights, Luna has been sleeping. Really. Honest to G-d Sleeping. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I will be able to sleep again. Maybe… Maybe…

It is my fantasy now to sleep a full night for an entire week. I forget those days in the past when I could get up at 10am, have breakfast, and then go back to bed for a nap… Not anymore, but just to get a nice full night’s sleep? I would love that  hala hala!

 

Painting, Baking and being Ill February 7, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Current Affairs , add a comment

(this post was written on 2/6/06)
I am finally in bed today. 8:10pm. Trying to stay calm and rested. Yeah, right. I remember just before she went to China to meet LT, T-shaped girl was sick. Really sick. And she said "How can you be sick with a kid?", Well, T, the answer is Television. Lots and lots of it. Thank G-d for PBS sprout..

As you figured out, Luna got Soleil and I sick. Luckily, Soleil inherited her father’s amazing immune system (as least it is lucky for now, as long as she doesn’t develop an immune system disease like he has). She got sick at 2 am and then again this morning around 10, but then she’s been fine.
I was ill all evening last night. Watched the Superbowl in between moans. Then got to bed. Then got sick more times than I could count (which means I should actually subtract calories from my daily quota yesterday, right?). Today I tried to get us out which was not one of my brightest ideas. Soleil got sick on Rt 95. Lovely. The rest of the day I spent on the couch, or trying to rest, but the girls really wanted to play "mommy mountain".

The day had started OK. Luna had kept Dr. Jay up between 4 and 6:30, so I got up with Soleil. We played downstairs until she said she was hungry and we decided to make some muffins. I love baking. I think it is so much fun, and tasty too! So we whipped up a batch of orange chocolate chip muffins. we made kid sized and grown-up sized. Later during the day, I painted the wall in the living room (it is still waiting the second coat that I was GOING to do last night).

I feel very strongly about showing my girls that just because you are a girl, doesn’t mean you have to do girl things. I love baking. Dr. Jay likes cooking. It doesn’t mean that we have to follow certain roles because of our type of gonads. We like to do what we like to do. I like to build things. I rebuilt our bathroom. I am currently sitting on an estimate to rip up the floor and replace it and fix some broken tiles. I did most of the work, except Dr. Jay and our friend E ripped out one entire wall on me. I was planning to do the work, but the babysitter canceled, so I was the best choice (in terms of size) to watch the kids. Soleil has seen this. Mommy does some heavy work in the house. I do all of the painting. Both parents do laundry. Both parents drive (my mom used to only drive if Dad wasn’t with us) and we don’t stick to gender roles. I just hope this really does get across to them to not confine themselves based on their gender. I know I did until a certain point, and I still run into it sometimes…

Thanks Baby February 6, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 2 comments

Luna, I really appreciate how hard you are working on sharing. But, to be honest, sharing your stomach flu with Soleil and I was not what I had in mind
love Mommy

Luna and Mommy February 3, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 1 comment so far

Sorry about that last post. I had to get some energy out of my system!
And a quick public apology to Jen! My reply in email was not to imply you are an idiot! Open mouth, insert foot! Sorry about that!

Luna is sick. She is a funny bird. When she was first born, it was Mommy 24/7. Then around 6 months old, she started to like this daddy guy. Then it became a "I LOVE this daddy guy, what do I need Mommy for?"
It was a love hate relationship. I love Daddy, I hate Mommy. Now, I KNOW she didn’t hate me, but some days it felt like it.

Then Daddy went on that trip to DC in January. And it became Mama time! She calls for me all of the time, she hugs me, she wants me when she is sick. Last night, she was sick. She got cleaned up and Daddy held her while I got things in the washer. Then she wanted Mama. OK, I held her, until she got sick again. Daddy changed her, I changed me, she wanted Mama again and she got sick again. We went through 4 sleepers last night. Poor girl.

Daddy is home this morning. We will switch for his 1:30 meeting.
When I left this morning, she was crying for me….

It is hard to be so loved. It breaks my heart to leave, but I have some work to get done this morning…

A note to SV February 2, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : She Blinded me with Science , 1 comment so far

Ok- I know you are never going to read this, but when you wrote the command load software? YOU FORGOT TO COMMENT WHAT THE F*CK IT IS DOING!!!! I CAN’T FIGURE OUT FOR THE LIFE OF ME WHY YOU HAVE THREE SEPARATE CHECKS FOR STOPPING THE SCIENCE RUN AND WHY IF I PUT THEM TOGETHER, THE CODE PUKES!

Note to any programmer out there. For the love of Pete, Comment your fricken code!

Back to our regularly scheduled SpaceMom

Welcome to the hotel Amazon! February 2, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 1 comment so far

G-d I love technology! I was able to track my Amazon purchase and find that it was delivered at 2:34pm. I was excited to get it, but not as excited as the girls. They opened the box with Dr. Jay. They ogled the rice cooker and then they played in the Amazon box. We were informed it was a "hotel". They were having a ball with it. I forget this part of parenting: $60 toy? Not as much fun as an empty Amazon box. I will add photos later. They are just so darn cute! And they both fit in the box!

Update from yesterday: Yes, we were one of the lucky 202,000 people who had their credit card numbers distributed with the Worcester newspaper on Sunday! Yippie. So Dr. Jay called and we canceled the card, new card in 10 days, yadda yadda… And then I went into the computer system to change the card to something else and oh CRAP! Dr. Jay canceled the WRONG CARD! Lovely. So today, we are canceling THAT card and will be 10 more days without either shared credit card. It’s OK. We each have our own cards, and we don’t keep credit debt, but it sucks because we tend to put shared purchases (like the newspaper, EZ-Pass) on those cards.

Sigh… Life.. some days, the dragon wins! But, today, I have NO OFFICEMATE! Yippie!

As requested by Stephanie February 1, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Current Affairs , 1 comment so far

OK, Stephanie asked for more postings, here we go! I’ve had a busy week (and it’s WEDNESDAY!). On Monday, my day off with the girls, we had a TOO (Target of Opportunity) come in and I am the scientist on that observation.

Picture this scene:
I am in Trader Joe’s, looking for a nice chewable vitamin for Luna. Soleil only likes the gummies, and only the Disney Princess gummies because Evil Walt has struck from beyond the grave and brainwashed all little girls into loving those damn Princesses. My cell rings. It’s Dan, my boss. He starts talking about the TOO as if I have read ANYTHING. Um, Dan, I was at the zoo in the morning, freezing my butt off while we watched the wildebeests sleep and the zebras sleep and the horn bills snork at us. Haven’t seen anything on a TOO, sorry!  Oh wait, yes, I did set up that observation and it was a pain and yes there was an issue with the frametime and SYLVIA SIT DOWN IN THE CART! (poor Dan, I think I blasted his eardrum, but, in my defense, she was standing in the cart and the cart started to roll and I could see her falling). Sigh.

So this is the life of a part time employee. I am on call 24/7 for observational stuff and once every 4 weeks, I am  on duty, on call for space craft emergencies. Even at Trader Joe’s.

Then this morning, I was reading the Boston Globe, and found this exciting tidbit! Check this out!  Yes, Guess who pays for their Globe with a credit card? ME! Guess who is now going to be watching her statement like a fricken hawk? ME! Moron this later!

My office mate is in today. I mention this because YESTERDAY was her last day. She was RIF’d. It is hard to fire someone, but you can be cut if there is a "Reduction In Force (RIF)". Why is she here? Why does she still have a key? And why is that stupid bicycle still in my office?????

So there you have it, Steph! Something to read today while you avoid work! And this gave me a few minutes to avoid work myself! :)

Oh, my Rice Cooker should arrive today! Happy happy Joy Joy!

And lastly, I hope Tink has a great trip! I can’t wait to hear about your daughter!