Time

I am running short on time! I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post. So, let's see...

• It took me 3 whole days to get my tree up! I have a fake pre-lit tree that is only a year old. When we took it out of the box and got it up, the bottom half didn't light up. I thought something was wrong with the light string or the lights, so I went out and bought a little Christmas lights bulb tester. By the time I got back I was too tired to fool with the tree. The next day, I set up the bulb tester but found that there wasn't a problem with those bulbs; I simply didn't have that string plugged in--duh! Well, at least my money didn't go to waste--there actually were two dead bulbs elsewhere. By the time I got done messing with the lights I was too tired to bother with the ornaments. Finally, on day three, I put up the ornaments and a little gate to prevent my boy from eating/climbing the tree and pulling down ornaments.
  
• Graduate school is hard work! I had a team project/paper due, so it's been eating up a lot of my time. I have excellent teammates, though, so I wasn't stuck doing things all by myself or anything--thank Goodness! My final is coming up (a week from today), so I've got reading and vocabulary to catch up on.
• My boy is more mobile than ever! He's crawling all over the place at record speed, and he's turned into a goat. That's right, he wants to eat every little piece of paper he can get his hands on. He managed to find a leaf the other day and almost choked on it. So I can't keep my eyes off him for a second. I'm really lucky that he's not too interested in our tree. Hopefully, it won't spark his interest any time soon.

So that's where my time has gone. I'll be glad when my final is over. School is seriously taking a big bite of my baby and holiday time.

Long Day

Last night my little guy kept me up because he wasn't at home in his own bed (we were at my parents' house). He really doesn't like being away from his own house. Any way, being up half the night meant there was no way I'd be waking up before dawn to get to all those "doorbuster" sales. Not that I was even planning on it--I've been there, done that and just didn't want to even try to do it with an 8 month old in tow.

On the way home from my parents' house, though, we decided to drop by a shopping center. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of chaos. Yes, there were lots of people there but not an insane amount. And all the shops were in order. There weren't any stores that had been picked bare or messes anywhere. I wouldn't have been at all surprised to find that all the clearance and on-sale items had been picked away (we didn't get there until about 11:00). Now, I'm pretty sure that if we had stopped at the shopping mall closer to our house it would have been a completely different story. At any rate, I got some nice shirts for only $4.50. Score :-) Santa was even there, so my little guy got to take a picture with him. Double Score :-D We ended up spending the rest of the day there and didn't even get home until the sun had set. I suppose I should tell you that this particular shopping center is relatively new--it's maybe a year or two old. I'm sure that if we give it some time it'll be just as packed and disordered as the mall.

After getting home, we invited some friends over for dinner and games. We had so much fun that they didn't even leave until after midnight. I'm not complaining. It was an A+ day overall.

Tomorrow I'm putting my tree up. It's Christmas season, baby!

Thanksgiving

I have never really pigged out on Thanksgiving--not that there's anything wrong with that. After all, it is a time for some mighty fine eats! I suppose it's better that I don't stuff myself silly because I'm a little heavier than I've ever been this time of year due to my baby. One of my online friends once said that it took us 9 months to put it all on, it should take 9 months to take it off. Uh-oh, I'm reaching my grace period (it's up Dec 27)!

Ummmmmmm.....I guess I'd better get off the computer and start moving my lazy bum :-P

Makes My Heart Warm

My baby boy is almost 8 months old, and they say that when they say words like "Mama" or "Dada" at that age they don't know what they're talking about yet.

I don't know about that, though. My son almost always says "Mama" when he's hungry and wants some milk. I nurse, so he only gets milk from me. It's possible that he thinks that "Mama" means "milk," but still he's equating the spoken word with something in real life. No matter what he thinks it means, it always makes me feel special. You don't know how sweet that word is until you hear it come out of your own little one's mouth.

He also seems to understand what the word "eat" means. Whenever my husband or I ask him if he wants to eat, he makes his hungry noise and gets all excited. I'm telling you this little guy definitely takes after his Dad, who is every buffet's worse nightmare ;-D

Astonomy, Part II

I was able to get up and see the meteor shower :-) I got up around 4:45am and went outside. I was sooooooo glad that the sky was clear--most of the time, we get bad weather when there are supposed to be fun astronomical events.

I have to say it was not the most active meteor shower, but I had a good time. My husband and I went out in our front lawn on a couple of lawn chairs. Of course, it was freezing cold out, so we had a nice comfy blanket. Due to the cold, we couldn't stay out too long. I think we might have been out there for half an hour, at most. We saw one nice meteor together, and I saw a few faint ones :-D

In other news, I had a busy, busy weekend. It was one thing after another. It's the end of the semester, so I have a group project and a final that I have to think about. Oh well, at least it's my last class. I'll have my Master's of Science in Computer and Information Sciences. I'm glad it's coming to an end. I've been in school since 1986.

OK, I guess it's time to get back to the books...

Astronomy!

Oh boy, oh boy! I love the night sky, a passion that was instilled in me by my dad when I was really young. We lived at the end of a dirt road in the middle of the woods, where sky watching was perfect--unheeded by city lights. We used to take his old refractor telescope and look at the planets together. Then we would try to make out all the constellations.

Why am I mentioning this? Just a stroll down memory lane? Nah, there is going to be a meteor shower this weekend! The Leonids are appearing on a night sky near you early, early morning on Sunday. It's supposed to be pretty good--at least compared to last year, when most of the meteors were blanked out by the light of the moon.

I only hope I can be awake for it.

Let the Madness Begin

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday) sales get more and more hard-core. I always wonder how the retailers are going to top themselves. The year before last, they were opening at 6:00 am. Last year, they were opening at 5:00. Will they open even earlier this year? You bet your sweet biffy! However, this year it's not by hours but by a week. I just saw an ad on tv that proclaimed some department store was having a "Beat the Rush" sale this Friday and Saturday. I think they said they were opening at 7:00 am.

I, for one, love Thanksgiving. I find it sad, though, that this holiday is being ignored. When I was little, which wasn't that long ago, mind you, they used to have Thanksgiving cartoon specials. My favorite was the Garfield one. Where are today's Thanksgiving specials? Is Thanksgiving even recognized in today's media? We might get lucky this year, and they might show something Thanksgiving-esque, but it's a far cry from yesteryear.

I think I'm going to go and dig up my Garfield Celebrations DVD (it has the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas specials all in one) and watch Grandma carve the turkey with a chainsaw. Ahhhhhhh, memories :-)

Life

I just tried to make myself a cup of hot cocoa. *sigh* Alas, that is not what I got. Normally, I run water through my coffee maker and add it to the mix. Well, for some reason, the thing didn't heat up my water and I didn't find out until after everything was mixed and I took a swallow. Blech--for some reason cold cocoa is not as appealing. I heated it up on the stove, and when I tried to taste it I got a burnt tongue.

Sometimes we just have to laugh at ourselves.

Words

I'm pretty concise when it comes to writing. Actually, I'm pretty concise when it comes to communication in general. I try to get my point across with as few words as possible. Not that I hate words. To the contrary, I find joy in words. I simply like to find the perfect one. I like to think that a perfect word exists for everything--every thought, every experience, every action.

Sometimes that word is not in English. Every culture points out what it thinks is important through its development of words. Take, for instance, Hindi--the language of India. People who speak Hindi call their loved ones "Jaan," which, loosely translated, means "Life." How sweet is that? In France, they don't really say sunset. They say that the sun goes to sleep at the end of the day. Very poetic.

I bow down to all those wordsmiths out there who can write pages upon pages of pure poetic genius. I hope one day to be as fluid in my writing and everyday speech.

Family

I love this time of year. The weather is cooler, but I start to feel warmer inside. I love the closeness the holidays bring. I am fortunate that I live close to my parents, so I get to see them pretty often. However, my husband's parents live in the Middle East. They are far away from all the war and hardship that is going on over there, so we don't have to worry about their safety. However, I worry a lot about the fact that they don't get to see their grandchild on a regular basis. They got to see him for his baptism when he was two months old, and they won't get to see him again until he's nine months at Christmas.

Some people might say I'm fortunate that I don't have to deal with the in-laws. I think that if they lived closer that we wouldn't have too many problems, though. Yes, we don't see eye-to-eye on every issue, but does every member of every family always agree? It's healthy to experience different points of view. I think I'm pretty lucky to have an extended family who care so much about me.

Veteran's Day

Today is a day to say a great big

Thank You
Thank You
Thank You

to all our brave men and women out there who are defending our country. I get all teary whenever I think of the sacrifices these wonderful people (and their families) are going through just for our country. I never endorsed this war in Iraq, but it doesn't matter if I agree with our president. All that matters now is that our troops get home safe and sound. So, here's to you, all our brave women and men in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Reserves. You are the reason our country is so great.

God bless you all! I'll be praying for your safe return :-D

My Tribute to Cyberspace

After debating with myself for a very long time and much encouragement from friends--you know who you are ;-)--I have decided to start my own blog. So...here I am, world!

In honor of this magnanimous occasion, I would like to highlight some of my favorite things about cyberspace (in no particular order):

1. Pregnancy.org--specifically the girls on the April 2006 board. You ladies mean the world to me :-D
2. Blogography.com--Dave, you crack me up. I love your 'toons and look forward to reading your blog daily
3. Search tools--I have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, so every time I want to learn about anything I always turn to Google and Wikipedia
4. Strongbad cartoons--I specifically like Dragon and Japanese Cartoon
5. All the fun games!--I am currently stuck on Level 14 of Weffriddles

Of course there are many more, but I just reminded myself that I need to beat Level 14!