Facts:

This is my 773rd post here

I often contemplate metaphorically trashing this site but then realize I’m not sure what to do with all the content that “lives” here. Sometimes, I’m not even sure how to access the various sites I need to maintain this site.

The irritation of paying monthly hosting fees builds every month

I’m easily paid off with a PayPal transfer for $2 more than my hosting fees from the ad provider

The ads sometimes make me cringe

The ads and ad network sometimes make me smile

I think of privacy concerns, hiding my family’s faces, stories to share and irritation with my laptop on a daily basis

I hate the word blog

C. helped me deal with some of my hosting, WordPress and own ineptitude and I am eternally grateful and shall remain here for the time being for those that are concerned. I don’t know who is concerned or who even keeps up over here. Sometimes, I’m more interested in who isn’t concerned. I don’t know why I really care what I say except for general stranger danger and paranoia because it’s not like I’m saying anything controversial. Is it some odd shyness?

Whatever.

Irregularly Scheduled Musings:

Summer is almost over or rather, the vacation from my children’s daily trips to school is almost over, because summer isn’t over until September 22nd (Fun note: eldest son’s birthday is one week after mine but our birthdays are in different seasons and under different astrological signs). Back to school is upon on us as next week brings all four kids going back to school/preschool and it is the triplet’s fifth (5!) birthday.

Ethan added the top part after I started the official Back to School countdown and I’ve been changing the number of days as we get closer. We’re all very excited. This is the triplet’s last year of pre-school and the oldest’s last year of elementary school which frankly, freaks me out but I’m glad they all like school.

I hope we have as wonderful a school year as we did during this summer. True, there were a few days earlier this month when I was convinced the kids were conspiring against me and I couldn’t wait for them to go back but we had a lot of good times over the past three months. We went swimming so often that I began to wonder if my hair would turn greenish and spent a few too many days basking in the air conditioning while watching Toy Story 1 & 2. Last weekend, we went to the Trout Lodge which deserves a post of its own due to its excellence (spoiler alert: I went zip lining and survived).

Summer is mostly my favorite season and it is fading fast. Today, I noticed my yellow sunflowers popping up on the side of the road and the green ears of corn I drive past almost every day (say what you want about the suburbs but part of me is in love with seeing those fields and watching them change throughout the seasons) is fading into yellow which means harvest is almost here. One afternoon, I’ll drive by to find the stalks were felled that morning and emptiness has taken their place. That’s okay though because that means Halloween is just around the corner. I will miss summer but I welcome fall and new adventures. Maybe I’ll even tell you about them.

I swear I’m trying to update but something has gone wonky. Due to technical difficulties (my computer! the one i paid a fortune to have fixed two months ago has decided it will only power the monitor when it chooses) and a busy summer full of summery summer stuff, I haven’t posted much.I’ve been on unpredicted blog haitus because, well, there are four kids in this house who are constantly IN this house. They expect me to feed them and do meaningful, childhood memory building activities. We go to the library, the pool, Grandma & Grandpa’s house and the grocery store in a near constant loop.

This month, aside from independence day fun, there have also been the birthday parties, barbeques, family reunions, park excursions, and tons o’ cousins. My sister, niece & nephew just left after two weeks of visiting. Her kids folded in with the other six kids as we all attempted to herd a pack of eight children like border collies chasing cattle. 7 kids under the age of 5 are great amounts of fun, adorable and as tiring as you would expect. We actually took the entire motley crew to get portraits taken and out to eat more than once. Now that is mad child herding skillz, yo. We didn’t even lose any and there were no emergency room trips*. All in all, a wild success but busy. So, please excuse me while I soak in these last weeks of summer with the kids. we have libraries to visit and pools to swim. happy end of summer ya’ll.

*Speaking of emergency room trips, my sprained ankles have healed rather nicely and only swell/throb at the end of the day. I would rather not ever sprain both ankles at the same time again and don’t recommend it.

Summer was going along swimmingly- literally* since we had been swimming at various pools every few days- when everything went haywire with one errant step. I was trying to herd the triplets out the door, into the heat and without the constant distraction parade. I’ve lived in this house for seven years and can traverse its rooms in my sleep. After climbing and descending the stairs thousands of times, I usually know right where to move my feet to step down without conscious thought. There’s comfort in knowing my house so well and being completely comfortable in this space (even if it could use a total home makeover). My comfortable familiarity with the dimensions of my front porch combined with the triplets’ inability to leave the house without delay meant I was looking over my shoulder and naggingly shouting “Let’s GO!” when I missed the bottom half of the steps and collapsed on the concrete sidewalk.

It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to brace myself or protectively stick my arms out so I slammed down into the ground ankles first. I wish I could see a video of myself falling so I could pinpoint how I managed to fall the way I did. As I lay there screaming “OWWWW” (do non-English speakers say OW or OUCH when they get hurt or are there linguistic variations of OWIE?), I couldn’t decide what hurt the most and had the dreaded feeling something was not right as I untangled my limbs. I wasn’t bleeding very much, my arms were okay but when I tried to stand, my feet did not want to obey. Great. My feet are my weakest, most painful part of my body and are the right one is extra sensitive since its previous surgeries. Of all the parts to hurt, I really did not want to hurt my feet, or rather, my ankles. The triplets rallied around me in utter confusion and Jack shouted to no one “My mom fell!” as I echoed “OWWW!”. Of all the times for my neighbors to not be milling around, this was the most inconvenient. I wanted to stay there on the sidewalk but I still had to leave to pick the oldest up from camp fifteen minutes later. I had no one else close enough to pick him up so I had to limp off to the van and drive even though my ankles were screaming. I drove to camp with wussy tears in my eyes while telling myself to buck up. A few months ago, Mike and I watched all of the “Band of Brothers” mini-series in a nightmare-inducing week and now I find myself comparing my minor pains to the soldiers suffering in the freezing cold while being bombed in the trenches. As I drove to camp, I kept thinking “At least I don’t have trench foot.” I’m nothing if not over-dramatic but damn, my ankles hurt.

So, I sprained both of my ankles but survey said no broken bones. I’ve spent the last two days with my feet propped on the back of the couch and ordering family members to bring me ice packs. I have crutches but struggle to use them because I can’t put much weight on either foot. Sometimes I use one crutch Tiny Tim fashion then muse to myself how I belong in a Dickens’ novel. I haven’t left the house since Monday but since the temperature has been hovering around 100 degrees, I’m probably not missing much. The kids and I have been having movie marathons and Mike has been taking over my cleaning duties. All in all, it isn’t so bad but I hope my ankles feel soon because I have a date with the pool. Next time I exit the house though, I will keep my eyes forward!

*Literally is an over-used phrase I’ve tried to limit in my vocabulary but my 10 year old son has embraced. He over-uses literally the way some people overuse “like” and it makes me cringe. I’ve been known to snap at people for grammatical mistakes and I’m only a few “literally’s” away from giving him a language smackdown. Like, literally.

A friend (a real life one!) who reads the old blah blah blahg submitted a meme for me to post over here.  Maybe she was sick of the sporadic updates but I’m all for writing prompts. I often have many ideas floating around in my brain but struggle with where exactly to start so I end up not starting and I also excel at procrastination which is not a good writing combination. I daydream about writing a best selling novel but I’ve never even written a non best selling novel. I should get on that.

A Very Soapy Survey
1.  Dish soap preference: Joy or Dawn? I have to say Dawn although I just checked and I am currently featuring one almost empty bottle of Dawn and one mostly full bottle of Tarjay brand, green apple scented dish soap.

2.  You’re stranded on a desert island.  You can choose one song to listen to whenever you want.  What would it be? PARALYZED BY PRESSURE. I have been pondering this question for days. I have narrowed my choices to: Graceland by Paul Simon, Blackbird by The Beatles, Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, Tangled Up in Blue by Bob Dylan, Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix, Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen or some great version of Amazing Grace. Don’t make me decide.

3.  What was your 4th Grade teacher’s name? I do not recall. If I was being thorough, I would go out to a large box that lives in my garage and contains my pre-printed, Scholastic book order, grade school “scrap book” where I wrote down all of my teachers and declared my biggest desire to get a “new boombox”. I used to remember all of my teachers but that minutiae flew out of my head when I had kids. I can still recall  every slight or insult ever hurled at me but cannot remember my 4th grade teacher. Things I do remember about fourth grade: switching schools, catching chicken pox and being accused of cheating on the math portion of a standardized test. There is a good chance a certain reader of mine may remember because he seems to have a much better grade school memory than I do.

I tried to find a picture of it because I know there is one somewhere in my infinite flickr stream but couldn’t so here’s a different picture of my Elvis coloring book.

4.  Do you tan, burn or freckle? Tan within reason. I am currently in my introductory period of slight sunburn because it is the beginning of summer and have been swimming three days in a row.

5.  Name of the person (non-relative) with whom you’ve been friends the longest. I’m not sure how to answer this because I have “friends” on Facebook that I was friends with when I was really young but are they really friends? I am lucky enough to still be close friends with some people I’ve been friends with since high school. I will go with my friend D who I still see on a regular basis and have been friends with since I was terrified during Freshmen year home room even though she mistook my terror for snobbery.

6.  If you could afford it (financially, time-wise, etc.), would you undergo cosmetic surgery? If so, what kind? Yes, I believe I would have a tummy tuck to lessen the damage the triplets did to my belly. The first kid didn’t do much long term damage but the triplets? Well, it isn’t pre-surgery Kate Gosselin bad but I wouldn’t mind a flatter belleh.

7.  What was your most recent purchase over $1000? I guess our flat screen T.V. even though I stayed home while Mike actually purchased it. I wasn’t totally happy about the too expensive television at the time but have grown to appreciate it. It lives in our room and I’ve named it Fred (just now).

8.  Do you play the lottery? No, not really. Sometimes I’ll buy a scratch off if I’m feeling lucky.

9.  List your top three phobias and/or a phobia (or phobias) that you’ve overcome: I’m not very phobic but also not overly fond of high places with floors or steps I can see through. It hasn’t stopped me from climbing lighthouses or other places with scary steps so I don’t know if that counts. In my dreams, I’m afraid I’ll never graduate from college because I forgot to take one necessary class but I did graduate. A real fear that isn’t really a phobia is that Ethan will unlock the doors and wander away because that’s the kind of thing he does. I worry my kids will die or get kidnapped and my family members will die but I don’t obsess too much about it.

10.  Have you ever had your fortune read? No, I don’t think I have. Maybe I should.

11.  Salty or sweet? Both. I like chocolate with chips or Jr. Mints with popcorn.

12.  Do you have to pee right now? Nope.

13.  What is your “guilty pleasure” movie (a movie you’d watch over and over again even though it really kinda sucks)? The Notebook? Steel Magnolias? No, neither of them kinda suck. I guess I don’t watch a movie over and over again that sucks unless you think The Goonies sucks because I watch that whenever it is on.

14.  What one piece of famous artwork would you have in your home? I’m thinking the only thing that would survive our house is some type of metal sculpture or a statue. Maybe I would have the Arch relocated over our house.

15.  What should Barack Obama‘s presidential nickname be? Toots.

16.  Angelina Jolie: thought-provoking humanitarian or crazy-ass bitch? Both but I love her.

17.  Have you ever audibly farted in public, on purpose? I don’t think so but some years are a little hazy.

18.  Did you ever make your Barbie’s (and/or male action figures) pantomime sexual intercourse? It seems like one of those things every kid did but I can’t remember exactly making the action figures hump each other. It seems more likely that I did it to my younger siblings’ dolls to antagonize them. I was never that into Barbie’s but I remember my brother having a lot of He-Man figurines that were probably violated.

19.  Most you’ve ever spent on a pair of shoes? $200 on special shoes for my stupid feet. I have/had flat feet & bunions so my feet like to make my life hell. One foot has been “repaired” so it is no longer flat but the other one has not and I don’t want to go through that again any time soon.

20.  Can you believe it’s not butter? IT ISN’T?

21.  Favorite snack item at the movie theater? Popcorn with Junior Mints (see above re: salty/sweeet) or sno-caps.

22.  What word do you consistently misspell, no matter how many times you look it up? I used to misspell restaurant until I forced myself to remember it as “Rest-au-rant”. Now I can’t remember any other words that I misspell though I assure you there are some.

23.  What smell most reminds you of home?
Dirty laundry? There is a character in a Tom Robbins’ book that he describes as smelling like a mildewed wash cloth (or something to that effect). You know the smell when you leave the laundy in the washer for a day too long and you don’t notice the slightly mildewy scent until the clothes are dry? That smell. I grew up in a house with four kids and I have four kids now. Sometimes, laundry doesn’t quite make the schedule. I could say coffee or dinner cooking but nothing quite makes the nasal connection like laundry that missed its deadline with the dryer.

24.  What was your least favorite required reading novel? I was bored by Moby Dick when I had to read it but maybe I’d be more into it now. It has been a long time since I was required to read anything but I did plow my way through a ton of required reading in school while persuing my English degree. I was a rabid reader and hope to be again some time. Recently, I finished “American Gods”by Neil Gaiman as part of the 1 book 1 twitter “book club” that is going on right now and it was fantastic. This week, I started “The God of Little Things”by Arundhati Roy and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. I often read more than one book at a time and am beginning to read more once again (I went through this after my eldest son too. It takes a while to get the reading novels mojo back after babies).

25.  If you could make pancakes in any shape, what shape would you choose? Round since mine are usually misshaped.

26.  Who was the first person to get to first base? Mark McGwire.

27.  If Luck be a lady, what be a man? Adament.

28.  What was your favorite art project in grade school (or girl/boy scouts, etc.)? I liked working with clay. I’d love to be able to throw pots but I’ve never tried.

29.  If you had to live with only four senses, which one would you give up? Another hard one. I think taste because living without sight seems really difficult (Though I’d love to see if my other senses compensated. A favorite book of mine, Slackjaw, describes the author’s journey through losing his sight in a funny, sarcastic and smart way). I would really struggle if I could never hear music or my kids again so let’s keep hearing (although, my kids are so damned loud sometimes I wish I could mute them) and not being able to touch/feel anything sounds detrimental to my well being since I’m already clumsy.

30.  If you could have named yourself, what name would you have chosen? Zanzabar Buck Buck McFate.

31.  Where’s the beef? Wendy’s, right?

32.  Are we there yet? No but the journey is what is important.

33. This is Kim adding a 33rd question. What do you think Déjà vu is? Random synaptic misfire? Flash of an earlier life? Sideways reality?

 SO. There ya go. If you would like to fill out this handy dandy survey, link to it in comments or email me at ohdarlin at google mail (In case you’re wondering, my email is from The Beatles song. Yes, I’m a bit of a Beatles fan.)

“If you don’t go outside and jump on the trampoline, I’m never letting you play on the computer again.” This is what I had to say to get Ethan off the computer so I could post. He’s a little obsessed with playing insidious preschooler games on a certain children’s television channel’s web site. E gets obsessed with things just like his Dad. Since I’ve gotten used to Mike’s passing obsessions, I don’t fret over the same personality quirk in my son. E is so much like Mike that it is almost disconcerting. It is odd to see my husband’s face as a four year old and recognize the same intricate, brilliant but distracted and bemused brain at work in both of them.

Jack and Ethan look identical to each other and nearly identical to their Dad when he was a kid (but they have my family’s eyes). Their personalities are different though which is how Mike & I can tell them apart from a distance. Jack’s social skills and desire to make friends with everyone he meets is very different from Ethan’s lone wolf strategy that leads him to study and dissect situations and objects by himself. E also inherited the fiery parts of both of our tempers where Jack dissolves into a whiny pile of crying instead of screaming or pushing. One way to tell the twins apart is to watch for their smiles or inevitable emotional melt downs because it is what differentiates them from each other more than their similar blond hair, blue eyes and long limbs.

Parenting twins is strange.In some ways, it is more strange to have identical kids than it is to have triplets. Lily doesn’t act like a triplet in most ways. She acts like an only child which may come from being the only girl. It also may be because she’s had more adults dedicated to her care because of her medical history so she’s grown used to more attention. She’s independent but snuggly and still sleeps with her baby while sucking her thumb. She wants to go shopping twenty four hours a day (she inherited those genes from my mom) and loves to go new places. She loves her brothers but in many ways has more of a brother/sister relationship with them than a twin bond. The boys are so close, they can seem like one person but Lily is a beaming, girly beacon of herself.

Raising four kids is tough. Their personality intricacies butt up against each other and it seems like someone’s feelings are always disturbed.  My oldest son is remarkably patient at school but seems like a dog pulling at its chain ready to attack the triplets through annoyance. He loves them, protects them and plays with them but he is always ready to get back at them for bugging him and dropping a bomb on his three person family. At ten years old, he likes to tease them and knows just how to push their buttons without crossing the line into getting in trouble. He is almost done with the school year and I’m bursting with pride over how well he’s done this year. That kid loves his school, excels in his work, gets better grades than I did and is firmly entrenched with a group of neighborhood boys that also go to his school. He makes me feel like I’m doing something right in parenting these kids, even when he teases his little brothers and pretends he wasn’t in the room.

The triplets’ last day of preschool was yesterday and next year will be their last year of preschool before kindergarten. The oldest is going into his last year as an elementary student and already looks like a teenager. I’m looking at what will probably be my last year at home with the kids before everyone is in full-day school. It is bittersweet because I will miss being home and so involved in my kids’ daily life but I am wistful for adult interaction and the sense of accomplishment that comes with employment and a steady paycheck. I don’t know where I’m going to work or even what direction I’m heading in so now I will try to concentrate on this summer and this next year. The kids are growing at an exponential rate so I need to pay attention before it is gone. We have a whole summer of sweating, swimming and exploring ahead of us and I can’t wait.

(Um, I have no idea why but I can’t get this post to space correctly so I apologize for the lack of paragraphs if you don’t see the spacing. I think something is broken because I went so far as to manually insert the html and it is disappearing. Grrrr. Oh wait, now it is fixed which means this is an unnecessary statement that I’m leaving in so as not to jinx myself. Also, remind me to tell you the hot water heater story.)

I am a nurturer. I have an innate care-giver portion of my being which works well considering I  mother four kids. I joke with Mike that one day we will move to the country where I’ll have a barn full of rescue cats and become a modified crazy cat lady.  This worries the oldest kid who wants to make sure I don’t flip the script like The Simpson’s crazy cat lady so I assured him I’d only be a kind of crazy cat lady still in control of my mental faculties. Well, as much as I currently am.We can’t have cats because some people in our family have allergies and I still miss having a cat. Hence, the cat barn idea. I’ll rescue a bunch of kitties, fix them and store them in a barn (like Bubbles but with better vet care) so I can have cats and not bother anyone’s allergies.Okay, I probably will never have a crazy cat lady barn. Maybe one day the husband will take allergy medicine and we’ll get another cat. Until then, I should just appreciate the world’s best dog and humans that live in my house. Oh, and the birds. I have become increasingly into the birds that surround our house and a cat may clash with the birds.It started with the bird feeder that hangs outside of our dining room window and now it seems birds envelop our house. The main feeder is in a wonderful location (under the gutter and away from trees) because squirrels can’t get to it and the birds are huge fans. All winter, we watched at least one pair of Cardinals that seemed to live in our back yard and have enjoyed the influx of finches so far this spring. We’ve also been invaded by Grackles. Oy, the grackles (Hey, that would be a good band name. “Oy, The Grackles” or just “The Grackles”). They are big, kind of ugly, black birds with yellow eyes that plunk down on the feeder and plunder all of the bird food. I bought a 25 pound bag of sunflower seeds to fill our feeder because the birds, mostly grackles, are emptying it in one day. I have devised a method of filling a pitcher with seed, reaching out the window and refilling the feeder every afternoon then refilling the pitcher every few days. Luckily, seed is cheap but these birds are becoming a larger hobby than I envisioned.Next, came the robin’s nest. Bare with me because I know all this bird talk is probably boring you but we’re very excited about our nest. A robin (or perhaps pair of robins) built a nest on one of our front porch columns just outside of the front door. It can be a busy place but so far, the presumed momma robin flies off when we go through the door then flies back a few minutes later. I’ve been standing on top of a not very safe camp chair while reaching up and pointing my camera towards the nest when momma bird isn’t sitting on it to see what is inside.I am careful not to touch it but I’ve since read it really wouldn’t matter if I did because it is a myth that birds will abandon nests if they smell people (but don’t ever move a nest- they find them by sight and will not be able to find nests if they are moved at all). I’ve been checking the nest and showing the pictures to everyone that pretends to care. The kids are the only ones as excited about the nest as I am.One reason they are so excited about the nest is there are three eggs. Triplets!It took two weeks for an egg to hatch which was cause for much rejoicing. Even if the sole baby looked more like a toad than a bird, we were excited. I named her Eleanor after the crazy cat lady. Yes, the crazy cat lady on The Simpson’s name is Eleanor Abernathy and one day you may win Jeopardy because of that wee fact.It has been three days since the baby broke through its shell and I’m beginning to wonder if the other two eggs are duds. I’m still hoping young Eleanor’s siblings will hatch. She’s starting to look more like a bird.Come on other eggs! Hatch! Meanwhile, I watch presumed momma robin feed her baby, sit on the nest and guard her spot. As I type this, I glimpse up to watch her while listening to the mourning doves cooing outside the back window as they scrounge for the seed the grackles cast off to the ground during their clumsy feeder landings.So you see, I have a bird feeder in the back of my house that is swarmed by birds and a bird’s nest in the front of my house full of excitement, eggs and new life. The kids notice the different types of birds, can identify many of them and ask to see pictures of “our nest” everyday. I’m teaching them to notice the creatures around them and to be gentle towards animals. I think it is an important and interesting lesson. Plus, I’m a sucker for taking care of things.

I don’t want to jinx it but Lily is scheduled to have surgery to close the still open stoma from her trach next week. This will be the third attempt at this surgery since she got sick the previous two times so maybe 3 is the magic number. The trach came out last July but the hole has remained. It has been the size of a pencil eraser for months and she still uses it, at least partially, for an airway. She had pneumonia last month and I was able to give her oxygen and nebulizer treatments through her stoma so it isn’t all bad. She has two airways and two ways of feeding her since she still has a g-button as well.

The g-button is still necessary because when she is sick, she won’t eat and she gets supplementary feedings. She is in the third percentile on the weight growth chart and slowly gains weight but quickly loses it (I wish I had this problem). We also use it to give her medicine which is hella useful. There have been times, while wrestling one of the boys in an attempt to give him antibiotics, that I wished all kids had an extra stomach route.

The last time we were in the hospital, I asked about removing the g-tube but her doc pointed out we’re still using it. He said it will become apparent when we don’t need it anymore like it did with the trach. I really like her doctor and walk away from our conversations feeling like I just met with an extra great professor after class. He has been with us through many hospitalizations and I trust him. The g-button stays for now but we would like to close the hole in her neck hence next week’s surgery.

One of Lily’s nurses has become like family. She’s an integral part of our lives and keeping Lil out of the hospital. At night, she gives her feedings, neb treatments and watches the pulse-ox machine. Last night, she brought Lil a picture frame with a music box on the back. I just realized it plays, “I Love You Baby” which is just about the best thing ever (except Mike just pointed out music boxes sound increasingly sad/creepy sounding as they wind down. He’s right).

If Lil’s surgery goes well, she will probably lose most of her nursing hours which will be an adjustment. We’ve had nurses here for four years. The winter olympics actually marked Lily’s four year anniversary of coming home from the NICU. We’ve had nurses here for the same length of time I was in high school -fighting urge to insert graduation metaphor- so her loss is going to take getting used to for all of us.
Regardless of what happens with her nursing hours, we are looking forward to Lily’s neck being hole free. She wants to lay down in the bathtub and take swimming lessons but she can’t do either until her neck has healed. Hopefully we will be on track to be ready for swimming when summer begins. I can’t wait.

I’m missing keys again*.

One evening, E was being particularly well behaved and I let him play a game on my laptop. I left the room and when I came back, various keys had been liberated from my keyboard. The biggest key, the space key, disappeared completely and my dusty foray into the vacuum cleaner bag was for naught. (I wanted to use pretentious wording in the previous sentence. I also have difficulties spelling vacuum so I really am just frontin’.) (Incidentally, I think I’m parenthetically punctuating incorrectly. I’m never sure where to end with the punctuation.) Should there be another period after that closing parentheses? Why do I repeatedly consider these things and sometimes write about it instead of just looking it up? How did I live before Google? Are people as a whole smarter because of the collective consciousness that is Google (or rather the internet since Google is just the search engine.)? See, there is that parenthetical punctuation issue again.

Geez, is it any wonder I can’t write anything of substance? I write a few lines then get lost in parentheses and tangents.

Mike salvaged the remaining, non space keys and tiny white framing things that keep them attached to the keyboard and rearranged the missing keys so the letters were still there. He only found enough of the white things to re-add some of the keys so I’ve been typing for a few weeks without a space key, an alt and uh, something else. Incidentally, no matter how well or often a person types, it is damn hard to look at an empty keyboard and verbalize what goes where.

My laptop is three years old and came pre-loaded with Windows Vista. I am hoping Vista is behind my computer’s numerous delays, hung windows and general suckiness. The laptop has major performance issues and I’ve been hoping reformatting the hard drive and freshly installing Windows 7 (and maybe adding more RAM) will make using it more enjoyable and make me fantasize about taking a baseball bat to it ala Office Space less.

So, when E freed some keys, I decided I wouldn’t put up with this half-ass computer any longer! Then, I did. But now! I am transferring my files to the external hard drive (does anyone else find themselves wondering if a back up for the back up external drive is needed and then wonder where it will end?) in preparation for taking my laptop to a professional.

I find myself stammering like an idiot in the computer repair place and feeling like the father requesting “I Just Called To Say I Love You” in High Fidelity to the Jack Black techie behind the counter. “Uh, can you just, you know, make this thing work?” even though I know a fair bit about computers. Computer repair places are the new record stores for the pretentious!

Wish me and my hooptie computer luck!

*For those keeping track at home, they have done this to my keyboard before.

all six of us went out of town yesterday to visit my husband’s grandparents which was quite a adventure. this was not the first time we have made the three hour journey to their small college town but it is always a bit harder in the winter where there is even less to do for kid entertainment. the grandparents-in-laws are great and i have come to think of them as my grandparents too (which i just realized as i typed it). the kids adore them and their ever present cookie stash and closet full of original fischer-price toys makes it easier to bring three four year old’s to their house. but, after a few hours, the kids get bored and start exploring or touching things they aren’t supposed to touch and keeping tantrums at bay gets difficult. luckily, we now stay at a hotel when we visit which was decided after a particularly harrowing weekend of sleeping on pull out couches and overly screamy preschoolers. when the inevitable kid boredom hits, we head over to the hotel and let the kids jump on the hotel beds and gorge on cartoons. it works. last night, after jumping, i gave the triplets a bath in a small bathroom whose door wouldn’t close because the toilet was in the way.

i felt a little bad for the hotel mattresses until this morning when, as i pulled the sheets back on the bed, i realized there was a substantial blood stain at the foot of one of the beds. i have watched so many episodes of CSI*  and Dexter that my first thoughts turned to murder but later accepted it was probably something much more pedestrian. it wasn’t enough blood for murder unless the killer moved the body right away- perhaps to wrap it in a shower curtain. the killer may have also knocked the toilet loose (maybe it was murder by toilet lid) which resulted in the management installing a toilet too big for the tiny bathroom hence the reason the door wouldn’t close. A-HA!  it was the hotel owner who did it! or maybe the maintenance man. i’d rather make up murder mysteries than think about my kids sleeping on a stranger’s blood stain or how it really got there. also, i don’t think i want to stay there anymore.

*because of crime dramas, i’m much more aware of hotel room comforters than I ever wanted to be. now, when walking into a hotel room with  shiny, dark paisley, poly-blend comforters, all i can think of is how it would glow under a black light. then a Who song starts playing and i whip off my sunglasses to sum up the situation with a terrible pun.