Gnome is Home

For those of you familiar with the Angry Gnome, his Sojourn will be on hiatus for the school year. He's now working as a high school math teacher, and to maintain a certain decorum in the classroom he took his journey down for the time being because his students would more than likely find it. Didn't want them poking at other heart-felt subjects off-topic while he's trying to teach them math.

I know when you click on your link to his page the message says you have to be invited - that's not true and I don't know why it says that. He's just not up on the web right now. But check back again sometime in May 2009.

And, yeah, I'll probably post a little ditty letting people know the Sojourn has picked back up. Cuz if you're like me, you can't remember what's going on this weekend, let alone several months from now.

Hee Hee

I’ve turned around to look at Camille in the car because I hear her fake laughing. She has her hand under her chin and is “tickling” her own neck.

Her “gentle for baby’s skin” laundry detergent ate through the plastic container it came in. Then it ate through the plastic milk jugs Michael put it in after that. Then it ate the non-stick coating off the old pan we put the jugs in. We’ve switched her to the regular Tide we use.

She knows that when things are passed from one person to another, there is usually a “thank you” involved. But she doesn’t always understand the exact process. So when she’s finished with something and wants you to take it from her, she holds it out to you and yells THANK YOU.

Riding the carousel at the zoo produced the most priceless squeal of delight and look on her face that I have ever seen.

She’s in the stage of imitating everything – talking on the phone, locking the doors with the keys, brushing her teeth, blowing on hot food. And she loves helping out – sweeping the floor, throwing away trash, putting shoes away.

Camille got a new toy from some friends that is totally adorable, most of the time. It makes noises and sings songs. It has an “off” switch (which is essential in my mind) with 2 volume settings. Seriously, why any toy maker would think parents want to listen to this stuff LOUDER just baffles me. When the toy is on the quieter setting, it’s great – catchy tunes, cute noises, fun songs. I like it. The louder setting, however, clicks something in my brain and somehow turns those same cute songs into something that screams for me to smash the toy into little pieces. I find that an odd phenomenon.

She will repeat almost any word you tell her. Albuquerque is a great one.

She loves pointing to and naming various body parts. Eye. Nose. Ear. Elbow. Foot. Unfortunately for some, though, hypothalamus and pancreas and thyroid are not among her list. Because, that’s right, she’s not smart. Had you fooled.

Our new favorite word: more. She pronounces it “mo-ah.”

“Up-a-bah” is what she calls “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” It comes from the line, “Up above the world so high…” I get a yay! and clapping after I sing it to her. And sometimes she sings along as best she can.

She, too, possesses that innate kid instinct that eats all the marshmallows first out of Lucky Charms and then asks for “mo-ah.”

:o)

To answer the question:

1. Spend a few minutes adding to a blog post draft-in-progress about Camille.
2. Commiserate with 2 people in the office about getting kicked out of a program and having to start all over.
3. Eat a whole bag of butter-lovers microwave popcorn. (I know I said I didn’t want to resort to food, but it smelled too good to pass up. Someone else in the office had made some, darn them, and I had missed lunch. And because of the mood I was in, I decided to live dangerously and use the “popcorn” button on the microwave.)
4. Have a mug of green tea. There’s just something so soothing about a cup of hot tea.
5. Close office door partially, take off shoes, and get to the work of re-creating the spreadsheet.

FYI.

:o(

I'm sure you, too, have those days you just want to cry.

In a crummy mood for really no reason at all.

And then the day doesn't make it any better.

Like when the program you're working in suddenly kicks you out because they have to reboot (without warning) since for some reason other people can't get into the program. And you miss the 5 second window you're offered to answer the dialog box asking if you want to 'save' since you're caught off-guard and rather confused at the time. And there's no way to recover what you've been working on ALL morning. And so you have to start again, building your spreadsheet, digging out random pieces of information from 10 years' worth of tax returns that are each 1/2 a foot thick.

Getting out of the office sounds good, but then what? Food or shopping are not healthy habits when it comes to nursing a bad attitude. And living in Houston makes sitting outside or taking a walk a bit of a smelly option.

What does one do in the middle of the work day to get out of the crummies?

*sigh*