Category Archives: Stella

Keep her away from the sugar.

Promises, promises.

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Many of you have expressed frustration at how my site is loading (or not loading) these days. Don’t blame me, blame Twitter. It actually drives me a little bit batty too. Although I love the service and the overall concept, I have found Twitter to be a bit spotty in reliability, which has – in turn – had a direct impact on my site. There are ways I could work around this issue, but due to my negative free time schedule, I have not been able to dedicate the time to making those changes happen. Which brings me back to the real issue: redesign.

In an attempt to actually make this site bend to my will a little bit easier, I have scheduled a sit-down with my husband, who has agreed to be my back end guy. [pause for snickering] This is a dicey proposition – turning over my code, my site, my fastidious control-freak ways to my husband so that I can focus on content, content, oh lovely content. Yes, he is a doorknob toucher, but in a completely different way than I am, and this just might have disaster written all over it. After all, when I took over the financial wrasslin’ in our household it took me the better part of three months to untangle his “system”. I needed nothing short of a decoder ring and a pair of mind-reading goggles. Although I have, technically, been doing web work since the mid-90’s, I have been far removed from the day to day grind of cranking out code. Steve on the other hand, has recently become the de-facto campus webmaster for his school, and is more up-to-speed on the various technical aspects that I need in order to evolve this site to match the pace of my life today. Believe it or not, in October this site will be 4 years old. But, my life was much different then, and considering that as of July 1 I will be reassigned to a new unit with a new time base (read: working more hours), I will be adding yet that much more to my plate. Although there are not a shortage of Walscapades to write about, I have struggled for some time now to properly document them all.

As you have seen, our lives have been fairly consumed with becoming dog owners. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit a certain amount of fatigue from the whole process of adopting Ranger. I don’t regret it, but I will be glad when we can assimilate him into our lives and routines and when I stop having to write multi-hundred dollar checks to the vet. In just the one day he was kept for observation after “the shot”, we all found ourselves missing his presence, and in this way I know we made the right decision adopting him. [I can say with some certainty that our cats would disagree with this assessment.]

One of the things that I have really struggled with lately is my lack of posting about all the great developmental things going on with the kids. I have about a gazillion post-its stuck inside my journal that remind me I haven’t written about how Stella has begun reading, or how Porter’s speech and language has hit full stride, where we are headed with this whole Kindergarten issue, Porter’s obsession with keys, Stella’s obsession with talking too much, what it’s like to watch my kids form an actual relationship with each other, and, of course, how Porter now refuses any and all attempts at a haircut. There are funny stories, and maddening experiences and charming tales that need to find their way on to these pages. And so, I shall not give up my attempts to bring them to you – my loyal readership.

Che-WAH-wah

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Right about the time that we started having family discussions about getting a dog, Stella threw her vote on the table: A Chee-WAH-wah! (Yes, pronounced exactly like this.)

Um, Do we look like a chihuahua family to you?

It has nothing to do with her ever actually seeing one in real life, or even on tv for that matter, but rather because her favorite book’s main character is a siamese cat who thinks he is a dog. More specifically, a Chee-WAH-wah! It is this, and this alone that is the sole basis for her vote. Her vote, which ranks 100% opposite of mine, which puts this particular category of dog dead last.

To worsen matters, I came upon this movie trailer today. Perhaps it is because deep down, all I ever want to do is give my daughter everything she wants, but am tempered by the fact that doing so would be the directly identifiable source of my mental unravel; perhaps it is because I thought it was oddly funny and entertaining too, but today I showed her this video clip, which was promptly followed by the question, “Can I watch it again? Can we have that song for the iPod? Again! Again! Again!”

Lemons to Lemonade

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The last couple of weeks have brought us face to face with 2 deaths, a cancer diagnosis and the bittersweet activities of helping friends from our closest inner circle prepare to move to the other side of the country. And, if it weren’t for the fact that people regularly get fired for writing about workplace shenanigans, I’d be able to tell you about things. Things that may finally allow me to check job stress off my list. What I am trying to say here is that if it weren’t for the constant distraction of keeping Stella from trying to stuff her brother in the dryer, I don’t think I’d successfully be able to pull myself out of bed in the morning. Distraction therapy – as opposed to my usual vodka-tonic therapy.

Over the weekend we traveled to the Bay Area so that we could leave the kids with my sister while attending Monday’s funeral. Due to some warm springtime weather, it ended up turning into a mini-vacation for the kids, who got to swim, go to the SF Zoo and play at the neighborhood park which, incidentally, makes even our nicest park look like a weed infested dirt lot with a rusty swingset. I guess when you live in the epi-center of upscale San Francisco suburbia a park isn’t considered a park unless it comes complete with an elaborate water play area and condo-sized play structure.

Click here to witness the reason why Stella routinely asks me why we don’t live closer to our families.