So yeah…

We went down to visit my parents for a week over Christmas, and I completely neglected to even mention it here.

Little Girl’s first Christmas was a good one. Everyone oohed and ahhed over her, and no one really cared that we were there as well.

Tons to write about whenever I get around to it. Little Girl (of course), her first Christmas, traveling with a baby, a stupid magazine article that I read, breasts, diapers, pictures, family gone, babybook plans, sewing, and then some.

Then there is the email to catch up on. I am months behind. Months and months and months.

How about labeling your damn CDs just as soon as you burn them? If you did then perhaps next time you want one of your wedding pictures for something, you won’t have to spend half an hour searching through unlabeled CDs to find them.

While on the subject, quit leaving them loose in the drawer to get all scratched up. Jewel cases were invented for a reason.

Despite what the sidebar still says, I’m not actually reading either Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, nor am I reading Clara Calla by Richard B. Wright (not to be confused with Richard Wright without the B - though I have read in the past). It’s all a terrible lie.

Both were great books, but I finished them months ago. I’ll update the sidebar one of these days.

What I am currently reading is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe. You’d think I’d be more enthusiastic about reading it considering how long I waited for it; I was on the reserve list for about five months or so.

The problem is that I do most of my reading during nighttime feedings, and it’s just really not the sort of book that you can get into when you are half asleep. My eyes keep glazing over.

I think this one is going to have to go back to the library unread. I’m sure it must be good though, so I’ll have to try again someday when I can give it a little more attention.

Guess which cute girl just got her very own passport…

Little Girl is having her first meal from a bottle. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that.

It’s nice having a bit of time to myself, but it’s strange not having her need me. M is happy to be able to feed her though.

We are doing this because I miss my horse. Really.

On Saturday we will be flying down to the States for Christmas. We’ll be down there for a week, and during that time I would like to be able to go ride. The barn is quite a drive away, and with all the time tacking up and riding and brushing etc. I would be gone way longer than she can go without food. I could drag her out with me (I probably will one time anyway so people can meet her), but that would be a pain every time I go out, and I wouldn’t want to have to get off in the middle of a ride because she got hungry.

So last night we went out and bought a pump. Let me tell you that using it is just about the strangest thing in the world, but I’ll spare you the details. In any case, it gets the milk out in a form that will be usable later, so it’s a good thing.

Introducing a bottle at three months isn’t the easiest thing. Last night she had a few sips from a bottle, but mostly it just made her angry. We tried cup feeding as well, but I think I’d have to get some better advice on how to do that if we were to continue trying it; it didn’t work.

Tonight she seems to have gotten the hang of the bottle though. I’ve heard a few little upsets from downstairs, but she hasn’t really gotten mad (if she does, I’ll go rescue her) and for the most part she seems to be drinking away happily.

I just have to keep reminding myself that no matter how it seems at the moment, a bottle can’t actually replace me.

She’s sleeping in her swing right now. I want so badly to get her out and carry her upstairs and put her down in her crib upon which she would stay asleep for at least a few hours so that I could go to sleep myself. I just know that as soon as I move her she’s going to wake though, and then it will take ages to get her back to sleep again.

Such are our nights.

While Smokey was calming his nerves, she talked to him.

“See that big plot of empty land over there?”

He looked over. “Yes’m.”

“Years ago, that used to be the most beautiful little lake in Whistle Stop… in the summer, we’d swim in it and fish, and you coul dgo for a boat ride if you wanted to.” She shook her head sadly. “I sure do miss it, I sure do.”

Smokey looked at the vacant land.

“What happened to it, did it dry up?”

She lit a cigarette for him. “Naw, it was worse than that. One November, a big flock of ducks, oh, about forty or more, landed right smakc in the middle of that lake, and while they were sittign there, that afternoon, a fluke thing happened. The temperature dropped so fast that the whole lake froze over, as solid as a rick, in a matter of three seconds. One, two, three, just like that.”

Smokey was amazed at the thought. “You don’t mean it?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I reckon that it must have killed them ducks.”

Idgie said, “Why, hell no. They just flew off and took the lake with ‘em. The lake’s somwhere in Georgea, to this very day…”

Fannie Flagg Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

I can always count on Fannie Flagg to make the world a more beautiful place. even when she writes of unahppy things, she still makes me want to say “well, that’s all right then.”

I could never tire of re-reading her books.

Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!

Michael Moore, of course.

I expected to enjoy this book much more than I did. I expected something along the lines of Al Franken’s Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. The latter was quite scary but also quite amusing.

This book was also quite scary, but rather than being amusing it was irritating. I didn’t find anything funny about it.
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Little Girl is actually taking a nap in her crib. Most days she wakes up just as soon as I put her in, but today she squirmed and stretched just a little bit then went back to sleep. How cool is that?

I should be cleaning something (my house is a wreck), or if I must spend time on the computer, I have tons of code that needs fixing..

Instead I am playing with The Mangler. Mangling my blog is fun. Mangling news stories or online fiction is even more fun.

Calling all kitty-lovers.

Move your cursor around this page and see what happens.

*giggles*