Archive for February, 2007

Darned Tooth Fairy!

February 28, 2007
Apparently, the so-called Tooth Fairy (if that is even her real name) has a bit of a problem… And it is called forgetfulness! She’s got a simple job, really. Break into houses, and leave money in exchange for bloody little teeth. You would think she could keep up!
The scene:
It is early Sunday morning. The night was a little rough, as the boys were up often, frightened by the howling wind brought by the second straight night of blizzards. I am sleeping, despite the earliest signs of light through the window.

*POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE*

Whatever it is, it is bony and cold and digging into my shoulder. Stop! I will it away. Please! Let me sleep! It is relentless.

*POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE* *POKE*

I acknowledge it. Groan.

It is BDE, feigning excitement (this girl is Oscar material, I swear.): “Guess how much the Tooth Fairy left me for my tooth!!!”

Now I’m awake. One eye opens, my heart is pounding. Desperately, I search my memory. Did I remember? Did I forget? Did Hercules remember? Did Hercules forget?

BDE answers with fingers in my face shaped like a big circle. “Nothing!” She cries in disgust.

I mimic her disgust. “Whaaaaaaaaat?!?!” I reply. “Did you leave your tooth?”

“Yes,” She is exhasperated. “And it is still there!“

I am quick on my feet. “The Blizzard.” I explain. “It is hard for fairies to fly in blizzards.”

That is good enough for now. That fairy chick is lucky she has me to cover her back. There will be dire consequences next time, I’m sure.

Sunday night, before bed, I see this “sign” taped to the ziploc bag which is holding the (really disgusting) little tooth, just in case she missed it:

Monday morning, same poking, same groaning, but BDE is holding the big bucks in her hand. Pathetic fairy. Paying off my daughter like that to make up for her mistakes.

Sheesh.

Best Mother/Daughter Morning Ever!

February 26, 2007
I miss this kid. I’m not exactly sure why she had to go and get all big ‘n grown up on me. I’m only accepting it because she’s cute. And fun. And smart. And sweet. As her teacher said in conferences, “She’s the whole package.” (mm-hmm, imagine me trying to contain my pride!)

Because she has to be in school all flippin’ day long, I have to get a one-on-one Best Daughter Ever fix every now and then. I decided that Saturday, we would have a Girl Date. She rolled her eyes when I told her, then raised an eyebrow. “Girl Date?” That title was not acceptable. We concluded that our morning would be called A Mother/Daughter Breakfast. That was much more civilzed.

We embarked Saturday morning, after shoveling a path in the driveway, of course, and were greeted with slippery roads and un-plowed parking lots. We giggled through it. We both share an affection for the chaos of a blizzard.

We arrived at our favorite little coffee shop, The Coffee Corner.

The most exciting part for BDE was that the barista was her swim instructor last summer, and also worked at the snow tubing hill. Miss Barista said, “Would you like your muffin warmed up, BDE?” (OK, she didn’t say BDE, but she said her real name, and that made BDE feel very cool. Miss Barista is a high schooler, after all.)

Blueberry muffin and hot chocolate for BDE, triple dark chocolate (yyyyyum!) non-fat mocha for me. Miss Barista twisted my arm to accept the whipped cream and chocolate-covered espresso beans on top. *sigh*

She’s nuts. She really is.

We played a surprisingly competetive game of checkers. In this picture, she was beating me mercilessly. It was mortifying.
I did begin to make a comeback, and then she decided to change games. Stinker.

What is this called? I can’t remember. It is our favorite coffee shop game. Throw the dice, flip down the numbers… Jules has one in her classroom. OMG it’s driving me crazy! Does it even have a name beyond the coffee-shop-dice-number-game-thingy?

Next we took a little trip to the library, and picked out some great books. We were called home for an EMERGENCY! Hercules’ friends had just offered to show him how to use his new fly fishing rod!!! Good thing, since fly fishing season in just around the corner!

(pause for sarcasm)

I only conceded because we were pretty much finished anyway… and… I’m thinking that soon I’ll have trouble differentiating between Herc and Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It.

mmmmmm…..
hmm.

CUPS #2

February 23, 2007
Tonight Hercules and I were supposed to rent a movie; you know, to have something to cheer for on Oscar night. We didn’t. He suddenly decided to look at our online banking, and become frugal. boo. The worst part is, this delays my Cafetiere (French Press) purchase until the 30th at least. boo hoo.
Maybe I need a hit from the bloggie bong. I’m not addicted. I can stop any time I want.
ahem.
This particular cup is what alerted me in the first place to my cup obsession. I love drinking out of this mug. I …LOVE… drinking out of this mug. The state of its cleanliness in the morning can make or break my entire day. No kidding. This morning, it was clean. Which is good, for I needed it to get through a day with a sick-ish kid on the couch watching movies all day and another contentedly stacking playing cards and dominoes and legos All… Day… Long. (Yes, sarcasm intended. ‘Twas a very lazy day.)
It might be the spirals. I have a bit of a thing for spirals. That will have to be a post of its own.

Mmmmmm. Can’t you just smell it? It’s hazelnut flavored. Imagine how much better it would smell if it came from a cafetiere. whoops! Not helping!

I especially like the wide mouth for watching the creamer get all swirly. There are people who actually do coffee divination. Like reading the tea leaves… Maybe I’ll take up coffee divination. I see… it’s coming to me… it looks like…

…a cafetiere!

(Ya think Herc would buy that?)

‘Ello, Luv.

She… I mean… IT was purchased years ago with a Pier One gift certificate given to me by my MIL. Wow, second time this week one of her gifts has shown up in this blog!
And the ergonomics. It’s contoured perfectly for holding with two hands, warming up on a cold winter day, engaging in conversation over a cuppa with a friend… Actually I am quite selfish when sharing coffee with friends. I rarely give this one up. They’ll get the butterfly mug, a generic mug, or a Starbucks mug (right?).

See, here’s That Neighbor Chick over for coffee. Notice the butterfly mug. She’s now come to expect it.

(ah, yes. Here she is just being humble for the camera. She doesn’t want to make me fell bad by showing everyone that she is losing weight faster than me, although she joined the gym AFTER me. Isn’t that… sweet?)

Oh, isn’t she pretty?
(er, the mug. TNC is too, but I’m talking about the mug here.)