Scary and happy

DSCN3633
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Big and little... one for each of the kids.

Wait, I don't remember my dad doing 5 pumpkins for Halloween...

Montgomery and Laura

Montgomery and Laura
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Halloween parade, The Beaches, 2005

Trick or Treat!

Samantha and her pumpkin

Samantha and her pumpkin
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Samantha and her Samantha sized pumpkin.

She keeps wanting to carry it around the house. I'd say it's about 50/50 whether this one survives til Halloween.

Meirs and musings

Harriet Miers withdrew herself from consideration on the Supreme Court today. Besides being bemused by the finger pointing going on (Democrats - We weren't complaining, they were! Repubicans - We were complaining, but you were getting READY to complain if we stopped!), I'm most entertained by the letter she wrote. It is conspicuous for it's absence of exclamation points and gushing about GW. As one CNN reporter today put it, it's the best written letter he's ever seen come out of her office. Which leads me to wonder, who *did* write it? Somehow I doubt they are the words of Ms. Miers herself.

Yay White Sox! One more curse broken. Enjoy your year as champions, you AL freaks. Cubs, there's hope for you yet.

Jeb is taking the blame for Florida not being prepared for Hurricane Wilma, franticly trying to shift blame from his beligured bro back in Washington. "We did not perform to where we want to be," Bush said. No, the state hasn't been able to help the millions of people who need help - because the state's resources are also impacted by an event this side. Which is why we depend on federal resources being there as well.

Just paid $2.97 per gallon to fill up my gas tank. :(

Back to "normal"

Life seems back to normal, whatver normal may be. Today, it's both kids in school and Sean in meetings all day.

My hands so cold they are purple. How did it jump right from air-conditioner weather to sweaters-and- 60 degrees in the office weather? I feel cheated out of my 2 weeks of windows-open fall weather. Who do I compain to for a redo?

I've broken yet another coffee maker. Grrr. That's my 3rd coffee maker this year. Tinkered with it enough to get it to brew again, but the electronic clock is busted, which means I can't use the auto-brew feature. I think there's a coffee-jinx on me. Maybe it's time to switch to tea. Or hot chocolate. Mmmm.

Today

12:05 am - change Samantha's pukey sheets for fresh ones, while Sean takes her to clean her up
12:20 back to sleep
12:25 Hear Samantha gagging over the intercom. Catch her in time to prevent the need to change sheets / clothes again, and move her to my bed
12:40 back to sleep
1:30 - 5:30 Sleep/wake/sleep/wake/sleep/wake. Is the fever getting to high? Will Sean please stop snoring so I can get back to sleep? Did we use that whole box of tissues already?
5:45 change our sheets / Samantha's clothes
6:10 tell Sean I need to leave Samantha home with him while I take Montgomery to school. Why??? he asks. Because if she throws up in the car 5 minutes into a 90 minute round trip she's going to be sitting in it for a very long time. Geesh.
6:35 get Montgomery out the door a few minutes early. yay! As we're getting in the car notice he doesn't have his school id. Five minutes later, locate school id in Sean's car.
6:41 pull out of driveway one minute late
8:10 back from taking Montgomery to school. Samantha is settled on the couch with Barney.
9:20 Samantha falls asleep on couch - I can get in a bit of work time. As soon as I catch up the laundry. Where did all these sheets come from? Oh, yeah...
9:45 Laundry all moved along, beds all fresh, Samantha wakes up from her mini nap. "Can I go to school mom? I feel better." Ummm.. no. You threw up today. "But I don't need to throw up anymore."
9:46 Give Samantha Benadryl - hey, she's still got a cough. It's medicinal use only!
10:10 Samantha falls asleep on my lap.
10:15 I manage to get Samantha off my lap while still sleeping. Move the laundry loads around again, then finally start working
11:30 Samantha awake from nap, wants to snuggle. Settle into chair with laptop on the table and fussy 3 year old in lap. Going to be a long afternoon.
11:31 Mother in law calls, offers to get Montgomery from school. Ok!
11:31-1 Spend a relatively peaceful time reading news and message boards online. Find some time to send a few emails. Wish Barney cd would spontaneously combust so we can watch Dora instead.
1:00 Sean home from his morning meetings. Take 10 minutes to return emails while he and Samantha cuddles. Sean decides he needs a nap, since he didn't get much sleep last night.
1:10 back to the chair with my laptop and Samantha. We've moved on to Bear in the Big Blue House. Whew.
2:15 go to wake Sean up, as asked, so he can make phone calls. Am told he didn't need to make any phone calls, and to go away.
2:30 exterminator calls, he's swinging by to check on some noises Sean heard in the attic that sounded like "the pitter patter of feet". This of course was while I was taking Montgomery to school today.
2:45 exterminator says there are no signs of any life in our attic. Possibilities include sleep-deprived delusions, limbs blowing across the roof, a very short stay by a remarkably poop-free cold squirrel.
3:00 I eye my empty wine rack with despair. It's going to be a long night. Sit down at the pc while waiting for mother in law to bring the son home.
3:10 Hear a car in the driveway...

Sick Samantha

Took Samantha grocery shopping yesterday around lunch time. As we were leaving the store, she dropped half her free deli cookie, and started fussing. I explained that dropped cookies = germ cookies, and there was no more cookie for today. She fussed a bit, then let it go - but her cheeks were very flushed, and her eyes more red than that brief spurt of fussiness should have caused.

Then we're driving home, and she tells me she's got a tickle in her throat. It's ok I tell her, probably from the cookie - we're almost home, we'll get some water.

Unfortunately, the water didn't get rid of the tickle. She coughed off and on the rest of the day, then woke up feverish and snotty around 11pm.

Poor baby. She seems to catch every cold germ she comes into contact with. There were about 30 kids running around Cici's Pizza Saturday at the party, and she was playing in the game room (not actually playing, but pretending she was playing - she's 3, she's still a cheap date). I'm just hoping it's only a cold bug, not a more serious something. Kept her home from school today, and she's spent all day either on the couch or on my lap "snuggling".

I'm pumping vitamins into Sean and Montgomery and cleaning like crazy. Trying to nip this little germ before it can put us through another 4 week cycyle of icks, like we went thru in August.

Sleep

As usual, Samantha was up at 6:30 this morning, ready to party. I stumbled out to the living room and snuggled into the chair, hoping to get another 30 minutes of dozing time in while she "Swiper no swiping!"'d with Dora the Explorer. Just about the time I was getting up to start the coffee, Sean came out.
"What's wrong?" I asked him. It was barely 7. It's football Sunday, the only reasons for him to be up this early would be if he were sick or...
"Bad Taco Bell at midnight." He *did* look a bit green. I buried my snicker in my water bottle. "Eww."
We sat for a minute while I tried to work up sympathy for someone that eats Taco Bell at midnight, but that really wasn't working for me. So I forged ahead...
"So, do you think you'll be up a bit then?" Innocence, that was me. Probably to innocent.
"Why?" He didn't look to eager to be trimming the bushes out front or pulling the Halloween decorations out of the attic, two jobs I've got set aside for him.
"I was going to go back to bed for a bit if you're going to be up anyway." He must have been relieved that all I wanted him to do was sit on the couch for a while and watch Samantha.
"OK." I thought about kissing him but the thought of Taco Bell breath kept me away. Instead I left the room as quickly as possible, worried he might suddenly feel better and head back to bed himself.

Booksales

mood: dorky

I love booksales. The Friends of the Library sale is a special favorite, as the books are plentiful and cheap, and the money goes to a great cause - buying yet MORE books for the library.

Today's finds were :
The Highlander's Touch - Karen Marie Moning
A Stroke of Midnight - Laurell K Hamilton (I've read it, but didn't own it - yet)
Strangers in the Night - Linda Howard
Midnight Rainbow - Linda Howard
After Glow - Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz)
Witchcraft - Jayne Ann Krentz
Serpent in Paradise - Stephanie James (aka Jayne Ann Krentz)
The Puppet Masters - Robert A. Heinlein
Daughter of the Blood - Annie Bishop

They're all authors I've read before, but I've only read 2 of these books before - so I'm very happy to have several days worth of books to keep me entertained!

What I should be doing today

What I should be doing, and what I am doing...

Saturday. /yawn.
Samantha has a birthday party at CiCi's pizza today - twins in her preschool. For 2 weeks I've been hearing "Today we go to the birthday party?" I say no... x more days. "Oh. Today it gets dark and we go to Halloween?" I say no... y more days. A look of bewilderment crosses her face.

Five minutes later, "Today we go to the birthday party?" I say no... x more days. "Oh. Today it gets dark and we go to Halloween?" I say no... y more days.

At least after today, we'll just get the Halloween question, not the birthday party question.

Yesterday she decided she is going to be a princess. So we went shopping.
You have to wait til Halloween for the full beauty that is Princess Samantha, but here are her shoes :


and her crown and wand (yes, the well accessorized princess now carries a wand, who'd of thunk).


If the actual dress survives til Halloween it will be a small miracle. She spent most of yesterday wearing it, although I did get it off her while she ate.

So I should also be cleaning the house, doing some laundry, yard work, clean the pool, and about a million other things today, but I think I'm going to go to the Friends of the Library book sale and see if I find any good reads after the party. And then, hopefully read the good reads. The laundry will still be there tomorrow.

Reading now :








Serenity, the Official Visual Companion
Complete script, interviews with Joss the Master, cast, crew, the making-of, memo's pre-production. Joss is a master of dialogue. He's my hero!

Getting in the mood

Today's Happy Happy moment

Sean just called from the accountants office. He had a meeting this morning with the new rep from the IRS. Not sure what stars aligned with which planets, but our last guy got fired, we ended up with a new auditor, who put an offer out for us to just pay the amount of the mistake. No penalties, fees, fines. We're going out to lunch baby!

Sean came home to grab the checkbook (we're talking a pretty low number here, not even something that needs a finance plan). I said are you sure you're happy with this? Me being me, I wanted them to just say oh, bad people, don't write your mortgage intrest in the wrong space again, I hope you've learned your leason. He looked at me like I was crazy. Then says, wait, I never asked them about the child tax credit that we didn't take.

So he takes the checkbook back to the acountants office, and calls me 15 minutes later to say we're going out to a much NICER lunch. Cut that last already-not-so-terrible number by a third. The auditor was very nice, and said if we think of anything else, we can still go back and amend it. !!

No, that's ok... we're done now.
I think it's going to be a steak lunch.

More reading

Finished Bait last night. The book picked up a bit around page 160, but never really wowed me. Into the bin it goes.

Went to the library today and found



Eleven On Top on the shelf. Yay! Finally, a book to sink my teeth into. Gulped it down in a three hour read. Love JE. I can't even imagine writing as funny as she does - literally had me howling out loud with laughter. Guess it was a good thing Sean was out tonight, he does give me the oddest books when I laugh at books. Maybe his biographies and war accounts aren't quite so entertaining.

What I'm Reading

Started Bait by Karen Robards yesterday. She used to move to the top of my must-read list as soon as she released a book, but somewhere around The Senator's Wife she lost me.

This one's moving along ok, but way to much buildup going on. I'm almost 100 pages into it and I still don't know why the heroine is afraid of the FBI, what crimes her father commited (I'm guessing related to gambling, from the "play the hand your dealt" type of foreshadowing), even why she's so oddly attracted to our hero - who is, of course, an FBI agent. I'm already skimming pages waiting to get to the meat of the story. This book's real close to hitting the wall.

Yeah, I think I remember now why I stopped reading her.

I haven't found a really good new book in over 2 weeks - maybe it's time to take a break from reading until I'm past my super-critical phase?

Coffee talk

Coffee talk :

[11:02] (me): i've decided that people that complain that thongs crawl up their butts are trying to wear ones that are to small
[11:02] (sis): :)
[11:02] (me): which means most people wont admit even to themselves what size their ass is
[11:02] (sis): lol

Home again, home again...

jiggity jog...

Our mini-vacation was over. Very glad Sean thought of doing this - it wasn't a planned thing at all, merely a "I was thinking we could take the kids to Universal this weekend" kinda thing. We had a great trip, did a lot of fun things together, laughs and memories and pictures and 36 hours or so of fun. To bad it had to come to an end.

But come to an end it did, about 3am this am. The Radisson had these "great" beds that you could make softer or harder, as you like them. Since one of the hardest parts of vacations for me is sleeping (degenerative back problems, needing very hard beds and many pillows to prop up my back / legs) I was really happy to see this on Friday night. I slept pretty well Friday, although I only had 1 pillow to put under my legs - at home I use one VERY thick pillow, about 8" thick, which takes all the stress off my lower back.

Saturday night didn't go so well. We somehow were a pillow short from Friday night, so I didn't have one for my legs. Finally I took the one from my head and used it. Around 1:30 Samantha fell out of bed, so took a few minute to settle her down. I noticed my back was very, very tight when I was putting her back down. Tried to stretch a few minutes to loosen it up, but ended up just laying back down and going to sleep.

Woke up around 3:30 and was hurting. Nothing much I could do though. Stretched as much as I could and dozed off and on until 7, then got up and stretched as much as I could. Since I could barely walk, that wasn't much. I'm thinking it's just the usual didn't have enough pillows thing - then I look at the bed settings. Somehow in the middle of the night it reset itself from a firmness of 80 percent to 15 percent. Which is about as firm as an underfilled waterbed. Ouch.

It's been pretty painful since then, and everything is totally out of alignment. (Deleted another 3 whining paragraphs detailing how out of alignment...) anyway, hopefully I can get into the chiro tomorrow am and will feel good as ever as soon as he pops everything back into place.

Was the trip worth it? Yep. I just hate that I do stupid things like forgetting to put extra pillows in the car (I only took 1), or not calling down to the front desk to ask for more. I wish more hotels had recliners in their bedrooms. In the absence of my very firm home mattress and abundance of pillows, they're my best road bed.

Trying to think of something quick to fix for dinner so I don't spend much time in the kitchen. It may be a Pizza Hut night.

vacationover

vacationover
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

You know the vacation's over when the kids are sleeping peacefully in the backseat. So close they are almost touching. Ahhhhhh....

Samantha the artist

Samantha the artist
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Samantha's artistic setup

Leaving for the weekend

Heading down to Orlando for the weekend in a few hours - taking the kids to Universal, and I get to enjoy a few days of maid service. I think I like the maid service more than the roller coasters these days, hah. My happy happy for the day was when I called and asked if they had free wifi, and was told yes - and that I should be able to access it from our room as well as the lobby. Should be a fun weekend!

So we get free wifi, maid service, a pool someone else cleaned, pizza for dinner at least once, and some park time. Should be a great weekend!

Web find of the day.

CatsInSinks
Repeated viewing may result in death by cuteness.
You *have* been warned.

Could you pass the US Citizenship Test?

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 9 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

The annoying part of this web site is I don't see where it lets me know which question I missed. Since I'm not aiming to go look up all my answers, I'm doomed to only knowing 90% for ... a while, at least.

But still... could *you* pass the test to become a US Citizen?

Outrage, cont.

My sis talked earlier about her "outrage of the week". Nepotism aside, I have to agree it's outrageous.

But the thing that I can't get thru my thick liberal agnostic skull is, where does torture fit into the theology of the ultra-conservative, right-leaning Republican party we have today?

I admit it's been a few years since I sat down with my christian bible, but from my memory it preached "turn the other cheek". It taught "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." How about "blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" and ‘love your enemies’.

Yet the same people who go to church weekly, professing the need for a moral guide to drive this country to the right (and to the Right), will stand behind torture, assasination, and a war that furthers none of the New Testament teachings in it's pursuit of power and might makes right.

I never feel so much on the outside looking in, as when I see polls saying a larger number of people than those recognized as insane in this country support, nay pursue, these methods. I don't agree that our governments roll is to be a moral watchdog on our country, nevermind on the globe at large. But when these same people decide that they can apply different moral standards to Us than to Them, how far off are we from living in some Orwellion world?

Age vs Function

Age vs Function

My monitor setting has been at 1600x1200 for 2 years, since my wonderful husband bought me a 19” monitor for Christmas.  (Although when I put a ruler to it, it’s only 18” corner to corner… we’ll save that for another topic).  I love how much I can get on one screen, especially with text documents, web sites, graphics files.  Menus take up less space, leaving more actual work space.  In video games with way to many icons, it leaves more open space and less clutter.

But over the last year, I start getting headaches.  Or sometimes face aches … the muscles aching around my eyes, from squinting.  I realized finally that I just can’t function anymore at 1600 x 1200.

So today I scaled my settings back to 1280 x 1024.  Everything looks freaking huge, my menu’s are all over my screen, my text is big enough to read it from … well, from a normal distance, instead of the 12 inches or so I’ve become accustomed to hovering from the screen.

But it looks so ugly.  My pretty cleared spaces are full of huge, lurking icons.  This is going to take some getting used to.  

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

This is definately going on the Thanksgiving menu.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
yield: 1 pie.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 (9 inch) pie shell
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup light corn syrup
* 1/2 cup butter
* 4 eggs, beaten
* 1/4 cup bourbon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
* 1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees F).
2. In a small saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, and butter or margarine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter or margarine melts and sugar dissolves. Cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl combine eggs, bourbon, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Slowly pour sugar mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Pour mixture into pie shell.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until set and golden. May be served warm or chilled.

Sean is home at last

Sean is home at last.  He came in to late to even unload the car, so he’s got a lot of unpacking and such to get thru.  His big plan for the week is to pick up the kids from school every day all week.  Both kids, all 5 days.  Whee.  My own mini vacation, and 175 miles I won’t put on my car, and 9 hours to not be in the car.  Made my morning!  Saying “welcome home” was nice too.

It’s STILL not fall weather here.  To warm to leave the windows open.  Not even 11, and already 79 outside.  And humid.  Where is fall???  

Need to start thinking about Halloween costumes for the kids.  Well, Samantha at least.  I told Montgomery he’s pretty much on his own – and if he’s going to go begging for candy at 11, he must have a costume.   A real costume, not Preppy Boy or Pajama Boy or something such.   Samantha will probably be a princess or a fairy or … ok I probably shouldn’t expect much creativity out of Montgomery if I can’t get more creative than that myself.  Last year she was a ladybug, except the costume was fleece and head to foot and it was, again, in the 80’s outside during the day.  She ended up wearing her costume for about 5 minutes for pictures at the daytime party we went to.  It did cool off enough that night that she was comfortable wearing it – and she walked almost a full mile trick-or-treating.  She remembers it to – ever since the pumpkins went for sale, she’s been asking “When it gets dark, will we go trick-or-treating?”  She’s ready!

Fall yet?

I can almost believe it's fall today. Samantha and I walked over to the park and she did the monkey thing for an hour. The sky is overcast, and it's still humid and 75ish, but every now and then a cool breeze would blow thru the jungle gym. Not strong, just enough to make you lift your face to the wind and hope it continued. Fall hasn't really come to us yet, but I'm looking eagerly for that fist cool night where I can open windows to temperatures cooler than my inside air.

Sean will be coming home tonight - yay! The house seems empty when he's gone this long. I'm a private person, and really don't mind solitude - if you can call it solitude when there's 2 kids around. So it's not that I want people around because I'm lonely. I just want my husband home. And he soon will be.

Making the rules up as they go

A Republican-crafted energy bill Friday, aimed at encouraging construction of new refineries narrowly passed today after Republicans held open voting past the five minute vote window for some party arm-twisting.


Read the full report here :
"CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports there was chaos on the Hour floor as Republican leaders passed the bill by holding a five-minute vote open for almost 50 minutes until they could convince two Republicans to change their votes.

They buttonholed lawmakers for last-minute lobbying as Democrats complained loudly that the vote should be closed. Finally two GOP lawmakers switched from "no" to "yes," giving the bill's supporters the margin of victory.

"Is this the House of a Banana Republic?" Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., shouted at one point, expressing his frustration about the GOP holdup of the final tally. "

Work, work, work, work, play

More work than usual on my desk for a Friday. The phone was silent most of the morning, so at least I did manage to get thru my emails before 9. Then it started ringing, and has hardly stopped.

Hoping to have my desk clear before I get Samantha at 1, so we can have some fun instead of the usual 45 mintues of her watching cartoons while I keep working. Then it's off to get Montgomery, and the weekend starts. Nothing much planned; watching the weather to see if we're going to get anything more than some rain. The news this am was telling us we could have gusts this afternoon up to 50 mph... ??? More watching the skies, and the trees.

If you haven't seen "Serenity" yet... WHY??
You can watch the first 9 minutes in fullscreen on your pc at this site. I wish they'd shown the next 2 minutes as well, since I think meeting Mal and his crew is a more satisfying scene, but the opening is also great. So go see it at the theatres and see what you've been missing!


The White House is (duh) denying Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess you have to decide who you trust more, a trusted news organization or our president. Sadly, I think it's about 50-50 for most people. More like 90-10 for me. The only doubt I have is whether Dubya needed voices in his head to push him to the insanity, or if he was already crazy enough without them.

God talks to Dubya

Is "God told me to do it" justification for killing someone?
How about justification for starting a war that has killed over 1900 Americans (we only count the Americans you notice, not total human lives lost) since the war began in 2003?

BBC report

Tammy

Tropical Storm Tammy is steaming along out in the Atlantic. Was about 195 miles SE of us this morning, moving ... NW. Landfall late tonight they're saying. Luckily, a very minimal storm at this point, and projected to stay this way. Dr. Jeff Masters thinks :
"Intensification into a hurricane is not expected, and would be a major surprise, due to the high wind shear. It is more likely that the center will move onshore tonight, limiting Tammy's maximum winds to 50 mph. In any case, the primary threat from Tammy will be from her rains." I need to clear out the drainage ditch today to get ready for the rain, it's filled with silt and leaves over the summer... anything more than 2" of rain would end up overflowing and making an icky mess out of my backyard. And put up the patio furniture. Take down the umbrella. Etc.

Guess I'd better get to it, it's not getting done by itself. Where are my yard fairies when I need them?

You scored as River Tam. The Fugitive. You are clever and dangerous, which is a nasty combination. The fact you are crazy too just adds to your charm. They did bad things to you, but you know their secrets. They will regret how they made you. Zoe Alleyne Washburne 100% River Tam 100% Capt. Mal Reynolds 88% The Operative 88% Inara Serra 75% Simon Tam 75% Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 63% Jayne Cobb 63% Shepherd Derrial Book 38% Kaylee Frye 38% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

A good book is a good book

Rebecca Brandewyne has an intresting take on books, and the debate between "popular" and "literary" fiction at Romancing the Blog. Basically, she says that "A good book is a good book. Period."

She's not one of my top fav authors although many readers must love her - she's sold many many books. But I wholeheartedly agree with her take on this. Critics who try to classify a book by it's genre are totally missing the point of reading for enjoyment. What does it matter what category the book falls into? If you're reading for the purpose of entertainment, it doesn't matter if the book is sci-fi, fantasy, romance, popular, chic lit, or any of the dozens of other niche genre's that have their titles thrown around. It matters if the book is well written, if the charactors are ones you care about, if the plot is smoothly spun into a tale to drag you into it's clutches.

There are few great books out there. Don't limit your exposure to them by putting a label on them. Read them, enjoy them, and be glad that there are authors with the talent to write them. Then read some more.

Sleepy Sundays

So tired today. Not enough sleep the last few nights. Samantha has decided she's scared of her bedroom. Cries when we put her to bed, wants to "snuggle with Mommy in her bed". All night.

I'm starting to think there's a problem with that bedroom. Montgomery went thru the same thing when he was about 4 - in fact, he moved himself out of there by getting up at night and going to sleep in the guest room. Samantha still has a gate in her door so she can't get out by herself - and there's no where else to go either, since the only guest room now is at the other end of the house. But 3 nights in a row now she's done the "I'm scared of my bedroom" bit, and with it has woken up several times during the night crying for ... milk, potty, tissue, Mommy. I'm not sure if i need to redecorate or perform an exorcism.

Took Montgomery to see Serenity yesterday. Great movie, Joss Whedon does dialogue like no one else. Enjoyed it so much I ordered the printed script thru Amazon - really want to sit down and try to figure out *how* he does it. Montgomery liked it, even though he wasn't familiar with the storyline - he was a bit young for the series when it was on tv a few years ago.

Going to take the kids to the park for a bit and hope Samantha wears herself out enough to take a good nap. Then maybe I can take a good nap.
/sleep