Hug, Hug, Hug... tear.

We had our soccer banquet last night.  Wanna talk about surreal- I can't believe our freshmen are seniors.  That is so weird.  I remember their first game like it was yesterday.  I was a little nervous, because these things usually turn into sob fests.  I try my best to be sensible and tough with the girls most of the time.  Typically I dont get weepy on Senior night.  I tend to lose it over the last game of the season- which is understandable- because for most everyone, the last game of the season is a loss and represents the end of the dream that is the season.  But get me talking about these kids and how special they are- its hard to keep it together.  But we got through...

The parents got us this really cool clock.  It had an engraved message thanking us for the time that we've given to the program.  Get it?  Clock-time?  Very nice!!

Bonus: we came home with a Godiva gift set AND a cheesecake.

True story:  when JJ was here with us last summer, the McCuller's kids made us a cheesecake.  Now, not all of you have had the pleasure, but the McCullers' have some sort of secret recipe that makes their cheesecake irresistable (side note: I would go so far as to suggest that the secret ingrediant is crack, but the McCullers' kids are too good to put crack in cheesecake).  Between JJ, Dave and Me, we ate the whole thing in one day, standing up in the kitchen.  I would get into the fridge for some celery or some fruit and one thing led to another.  And so I would have little bite of cheesecake.  If you have three people doing that- it goes pretty quickly. Yeah... I said THREE people... you know, for someone who doesnt like sweets very much, Dave Royse sure does love their cheesecake.  In any case, I have threatened to cut him if he eats all of it... or all of the godiva.  <-- Oh. if only that weren't hyperbole!

So this cheesecake is pretty much amazing.  I had some for breakfast.  Plus a chocolate covered strawberry (from the Godiva giftset that Shay and the seniors got me us me.)  Is there still a nutritional advantage to fruit if its covered in chocolate?  Which leads me to this assertion:  life would be so much nicer if you could have chocolate and cheesecake every morning for breakfast. 

The other big news around here is that I appear to be sick.  I am actually kind of worried that its menengitis.  My neck hurts and I have had a bit of a headache... my throat feels like I gargled with a bleach-battery acid-lemon juice solution.  I am going to the doctor today- which is kind of anti-me.  I'd like to say that is a philosophical thing, but its mostly a lazy thing.  I would rather just go home and try to sleep it off.  Of course, the last time I did this, I got a sinus infection, bronchitis and pneumonia all at once.  So there is that.  And I also have a kid now... since I dont want him to catch whatever nastiness I am carrying around, I am headed to the doctor. 

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Mental Bandwidth 6

So I have a few minutes before I have to go back to my contract manager training... milka-what?  Yeah, I am going to be a contract manager.   Ha!!

In any case, these are the things I am thinking about:

1. Seriously, I missed the boat with this whole blogging as a career thing.  I could SOOOOO do this:
http://www.dooce.com/.  She is now going to be on HGTV.  Her blog is just about her husband, her kids, her dogs, things that annoy her... and people send her stuff... for free... for her to review.  Cool stuff.  Like this and this.  Damn it!!

2.  Banquet tomorrow night.  Not sure I am ready to see our seniors go. On an unrelated matter- I took two trophies to the award shop yesterday to get a plate engraved and attached.  The guy dropped one of the trophies.  Wha-What?  How is this possible?  They want to know how to make it right.  I am not sure.  

3. Do any of my tallahassee peeps want to join Good Friends Fitness?  I want to join for spinning... they have childcare so Nico could chill out there. 

4.  I really want some cupcakes.  What else is new?

5.  Turns out, this breast feeding thing is a lot more fun/relaxing/chill/cool/not as sucky as I thought it would be.  But I am looking forward to being able to take adderall again.  Productivity: WIN!!

6. Sometimes when I think of the 15-20 minute snatches of life I get when Nico plays by himself in the pack n play, or when Dave is getting Nico ready for bed, I am tempted to go craxy with crafts I want to do, which include:
-make this scarf
-make a wonky log cabin quilt for Nico
-finish Christmas stockings
-make a christmas tree skirt

Then I remember that there is a sink full of dishes to be washed. 

7. Am very happy for my two grad school friends who are about to finish their PhDs.  One has just been offered a job at DePaul.  I am happy but a smidge jealous at the same time.  But I have a baby.  So top that!

That is all I have for right now. 

Bowling: EPIC FAIL.

So- I was asked to bowl last night, as part of a group from AHCA.  I hadn't bowled in 10 years (I think- wait... am I really old enough to say that I hadnt done something in 10 years?  WOW).  In any case- I thought, what the hell? 

Dave had offered to watch Nico, but I figured I would take him, because I really am trying to do as much stuff as possible with him- so I can still do stuff, but not feel like a bad mom because I dont spend any time with him.  I also wanted to see if I could add bowling to my list of activities I can do with Nico. 

Now there is a whole post that I could write dedicated to the rants I have about what are sports and what are not sports.  But briefly: every sport is an activity, but not every activitiy is a sport.  My criteria for judging whether or not something is a sport:  Do athletes break a sweat?  Do athletes get any sort of cardiovascular endurance benefit from playing the sport?  Can big fat guys with beer bellies drink beer and play sport?  Can a girl partake in the sport whilst wearing big dangly hoop earrings with her hair down?  By these questions, I have come to conclude that Curling:  may or may not be a sport- likely not though, because you dont break a sweat whilst curling.  Darts: Not a sport- dont break a sweat (besides- most often played under the influence of cheap beer).  Bowling: Not a sport.  You see how this goes. 

So, long story short, not only am I a terrible bowler while wearing Nico in his wrap, but I am a terrible bowler without being able to blame it on Nico.  One of my coworkers brought his 7 year old nephew to bowl with us.  The seven year old nephew got a higher score than me.  Really.  No joke.  FML. 

Of course, I was dealing with some impairments.  One, my crooked pinky finger doesnt lend itself easily to bowling (hard to hold the ball).  I also kind of hurt by middle and ringer fingers.  Plus, I hurt my left ankle.  And also, what is with the slippery floor?  I would rather just bowl with regular shoes on, thank you very much.  At least that way, I won't feel like I am going to fall down. 

Needless to say- if this was some sort of tryout- like an audtion for the new girl, I failed.  I dont think anyone will be asking me to join the bowling league.  Which is actually okay, because its not a real sport anyways. 

A whole bucket of cute...

Nico and I went down to Ocala on Saturday... it was originally supposed to be a "have fun finishing that degree in Sydney" thing for JJ... but he decided not to go back this semester (insert rant about program).  But Mom had already gotten the hotel rooms so we went anyway.  Turns out it was pretty fun and so we will probably keep doing something like it- it would get us a weekend to get out of dodge.  Maybe do something kind of funsie in the central Florida area.

In any case, Nico was really really snotty.  Like, couldn't breath out of his noise snotty.  He had been getting a little snotty on Thursday and Friday- which makes it hard for him to nurse (because you gotta breath through your nose for that).  So consequently, he didnt eat well, which leads to not sleeping well.  Of course, the constantly running nose and a mom that is always trying to wipe your nose leads to your little nose getting kind of raw... the result is that you have a big fit whenever she gets near your nose with one of those snot sucker things... Nico ran a fever most of the weekend and didnt feel well generally.  He napped a lot and was overall kind of cranky.

So we get back last night and I start taking his temperature- which ranged from 100.5 to 102.5.  He was up and down all night with the sleeping and trying to nurse but not being able to.  So we kept him home today- and he was pretty cranky for most the morning.  We got some good naps in and finally around 330 today he was a LOT better.  I think he's about to cut a tooth- he's been gnawing on his hand all day.   Overall, he's been very snuggly (read: needy)- which is annoying when you called in sick to work... because, damn I could get some stuff DONE!!  But I opted for laying around with Nico and getting some naps in.  And I watched part of Armageddon.  Again.  

In the picture, he's wearing a sweater that Granny You made him.  We've been on a epic voyage to find a sweater that is easy enough for me to knit it... given that I dont have time to learn another language (which is essentially what you have to do to learn to knit.  The bonus here, is that it's almost identical to a sweater that Dave has.  Its a little big right now (made for 18 month old) so he has to wear the sleeves rolled up.  But I think he is pretty much adorable.

What I would rather do...

So.  My boss is good friends with my department chair at FSU.  So its common knowledge that I am working on my dissertation.  I have consequently got it arranged so that On Fridays, I work half a day so that I can leave early and work on my dissertation.  Sometimes it works out... other times (like last week), I ended up not leaving till 200 because I was in a panel meeting.  But I am hopeful that I can leave tomorrow at noon. 

In one sense its awesome... not a lot of employers would be cool with that.  But I'm OPS, so its not like I am getting paid for it.  I think I will definitely make headway on the old dissertation being able to work on it 3-4 hours on Fridays and 6 hours on Sundays.  Its just that there are lots of other things I would rather do on my Friday afternoon:

-Long lunch at Olive Garden with LH, KS, AS which results in a nap for me.
- Drive down to St. Marks have lunch by the river, which results in a nap for me.
- A massage and a movie, which results in a nap for me. 
- A pedicure and a haircut, which results in a nap for me. 
- A drive by the one of the 2 cupcake stores we have, which would result in a nap for me. 
I think you get the point. 

But I guess that can be motivation right?  If I ever aspire to have Fridays off filled with cupcakes, massages, naps and long lunches, maybe I should get it poppin' with the dissertation.  And if that isn't inspiration enough, how about so I can stop paying tuition?  Which sucks, lets be real. 

Dont know if I had mentioned this or not... I joined GOLD'S Gym.  There is one that is ridiculously close to the house- so its pretty convienent.  I had a pretty good workout there tonight.  One thing I wish that someone had told me about pregnancy is that you can expect to have 0 abdominal muscles when you're done.  And to plan accordingly. 

In any case... seeing the parents and JJ in Ocala this week.  Apparently, one of the top 10 flea markets in the country is in Mt. Dora.  I will attempt to resist the urge to buy fruits and vegetables of unknown variety and origin . 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Wiped Out

Good night last night.  We had the Senior All-Star Game at FSU.  Its a really cool event in that for a lot of these girls, they will never again get the chance to play at some place like FSU... in front of such a large crowd, on a field that means so much.  To a lot of these girls (including the Wakulla county girls) they have been coming to Noles games for four years and idolozing players for that long.  So its cool that FSU hosts it. 

Its not really an All-Star game in the sense of the word "All-Star".  Because really, if it were actually an All-Star game, we'd let underclassmen play, and the weaker players wouldn't... but it's supposed to be fun.  Our seniors plus Norma Rae who came to watch!

Here's Nico and me. 

Both Dave and I are pretty wiped out.  Generally, the weekends help us recover from the previous week but also fuel up for the coming week... so that generally we can usually make it to Thursday before we feel the grind.  But then you go into work on Thursday and its lunch time before you know it... you can eek out the rest of the day, then suddenly its Friday.  Fridays are okay... then its the weekend again. So this past weekned with the driving and the stress and everything means that we are pretty much wiped out now.  I guess I should have thought about that before I made us watch LOST when we got home at 11pm last night. 

All for now... Hope you're well. 

Sitting in the corner...

So Nico has been sitting lately.  This is pretty recent... at the beginning of the month, he'd been trying.  But would topple over pretty quickly.  He is now sitting upright pretty well by himself.  Awesome.

\

I ended up making the cupcakes last night with sweet potato casserole filling- as I couldnt find pumpkin.  They were delicious.  I highly recomend. 

I have been on a quest of late to perfect my hummus recipe.  You see, I love the Sabra brand of hummus... its got a lot of flavor and its very smooth.  My hummus, while very good (I think) isn't quite as smooth.  So I was experimenting last night.  I got to the point where the texture was about right, but it had no flavor.  So I got out what I thought was the garlic powder to add some flavor... turns out I misread the bottle and got the garlic salt (instead of the powder).  Which resulted in overly salty hummus :(  which is probably too salty for normal human consumption.  Hummus: FAIL!

Hope you're all well. 

Mmmmm... cupcakes.

So… it was kind of a crazy weekend. Dave ended up having to go to South Florida last minute on Saturday- so Nico and I were by ourselves for most of the weekend. We got a lot of stuff done on Saturday- JoAnns, a soccer game, got an exersaucer from our friend Julie, the post office (SUCK) the UPS place. It was pretty crazy.


Sunday we were off getting groceries when I got a call from Dave. About the 4Runner. Now let me get Tarentino on your for a minute and get you back to the fall. So Dave and I were driving to Galveston for the Southern Demographic Meeting. We were driving on the interstate in stop and go traffic when we heard a very audible THUNK coming from the car. Just once, as it was shifting up from 3rd to 4th. We heard it a couple more times on the trip (combined with the increasing difficulty to shift it into gear) and assumed that it was getting time for a transmission situation.

So we get back to Tallahassee and take it into the dealership. Who was completely unable to replicate the situation? Wha-what? So they sent us on our merry way. It’s still been difficult to shift, but I attributed it to the fact that its getting old (the car is 10 years old) and that it has over 150000 miles on it. But the dealership didn’t have anything to say about the tranny. Fast forward to a yesterday when Dave loses the ability to make it go on the Turnpike. Milkawhat? Yeah, while Dave was driving on the Turn-Pike. Suck. So I had to put the groceries away quickly, feed Nico, and turn around to head down to Leesburg to get Dave. The 4Runnr is at a transmission place down there and we are kicking it as a one-car family for the week.

So we got back last night around 930… pretty late for us. In addition to the fact that this little situation is likely to be costly (any time you lose the ability to drive your car whilst on the highway it’s never cheap), I didn’t get the chance to make Japanese inspired steak stir-fry, Key Lime Pie or chocolate pumpkin cupcakes (or in this case, chocolate sweet potato cupcakes). I know. It sounds gross. Apparently, according to one JD- you take a can of pumpkin (as in you know… pumpkin) combine it with a box of Devil’s Food and it makes the most healthy, delicious cupcakes ever. See, you don’t use eggs and oil… just pumpkin. It increases veggie count for the day, fiber and all that… and it’s delicious. I have in my head, making these beasts and frosting them with marshmallow fluff. Then I was going to bring one to work in one of my cupcake carriers (that I got from Santa a couple of years ago). Sadly, all I have today is stupid salad, stupid yogurt and stupid fruit bowl. Thanks a lot Toyota!

A penchant for snobbery.

So.  I was in JoAnns a couple of months ago when the desire to learn to knit got the better of me and I bought some soft dove-grey bamboo yarn.  And by bamboo yarn, that is to say, its like 25% bamboo and 75% acryllic (which is synthetic and gives yarn a "stretchyness".  More acryllic=more stretchy). So, to me, there are two types of yarn at these sorts of stores:  the good stuff and the cheap stuff.  The good stuff has natural fibers in it... cotton, wool, cashmere, mohair, etc. The colors tend to be a little understated.   The cheap stuff is that yarn where you can buy a ludicrous amount of it for 50 cents and which comes in a whole rainbow of shades none of which looks very natural.  Given my penchant for snobbery, you know how this goes... I get my mind set on this bamboo yarn... I pay for it twice what the other stuff costs and get a third of the volume, I try working with it, realize that I am an idiot and pack up my project and sent it to my mom, demanding like a petulant child that she make it work. Well, well, well, color you surprised!

Well... all but the last part.  So I get this yarn and its wonderfully soft...like almost as soft as Nico's cheek.  That is how soft it is.  LOVE. LOVE  LOVE.  Anyhoo... so, I had, to date, made 4 hats when I started this odessy... and came to the realization that for some types of yarn, it works better if you double or triple it up.  It looks better, it woks better, etc.  So I decide with this grey bamboo yarn that it would need to be triple in order to make a hat.  And guess what isn't very "stretchy"?  Yeah, this yarn.  Making it the worst yarn in the world to work with. 

So I get about half way in with this project before I realize that it may actually NOT be worth the trouble... but ev... I am in it to win it, as Kelly would say.  So I keep going, despite the fact that the hat is a disaster... its a disater to keep the three balls of yarn straight... really hard when Drake insists on grabbing a ball and running all over the house.  In any case, I finished it tonight. 

Definitely not my best work... by any stretch of the imagination.  But I love the hat... its soooooooo soft.  Of course, since its not stretchy, it may actually be too loose for his head... but I love it.  And its the least functional of the hats I have made. 

Oh... and yes.  I do rule, thanks for asking!!

I swear, making them on the loom is amazing.  So much so that I have decided when I am done with the next two (a larger one for a grown up and a smaller one of a sweet little baby girl I know), I am totally going to keep doing it... there is a group that does charity knitting projects on the web... they pick a different charity every month and put out the call on the internet.  and people send stuff... so I think I am going to do that with some of the scraps. 

Nico Noms, Weekend Plans and Milka-what?

So apparently, Nico actually likes food-food, just not mom-made hippie food-food.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to run into Walgreens for something and noticed they were having a sale on baby food... for those of you who havent raised a kid in the last 30 years, apparently you can get it in these little plastic containers, about 2-2.5 times the size of a single ice-tray compartment.  The food comes with a freshness seal peel thing and a lid.  Just as an experiment, I got squash, green beans, and pears.  Last weekend, for grins, I let Nico try some pears.

Now, to recap:  I figured that he wasn't really all that interested in eating food-food because he didnt seem to really dig the rice cereal or the squash I made him.  He seemed sort of ambivalent about the avocado/guac- but whatev.  So I kind of figured that maybe he wasn't really ready for food-food because he didnt seem that interested in it, but also because he looked a bit like Tom Hanks eating caviar in the party scene in Big.

If I had let him, Nico would have eaten the whole package of pears.  Holy what!!?  Yes... They were delicious.  It was great... one for Nico, one for Mommy.  One for Nico, one for Mommy.  Of course, it's hard not to like baby pear food... its basically like a finer "peary" version of apple sauce.

So, that was a win.  I decided earlier this week to go with green beans, because well, who doesn't like green beans?  Even Dave Royse likes green beans.  Less success.  To be fair, the green beans weren't really that appetizing... I mean, there wasn't even any bacon or ham in there. But he ate them a little.

So last night, we went back to squash- only rather than the hippie-fied variety, we tried the store bought stuff... whcih he really likes.  Milka-what? For real!  He was all about the squash.

Which leads me to this conclusion:  with baby food- its mostly about texture.

Which leads me to the realization:  my plan to hippie-fy this kid might not work so well, because its a lot of work to make baby food.  And since using the Cuisine Art is kind of a PITA, I feel like I have to make a lot at once- much more than Nico could eat in any reasonable amount of time.  Oh well...what are you gonna do!!

Milka-what?  I think it when I am faced with something incredulous these days.  It comes from the etrade baby commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlOVRky9lVghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlOVRky9lVg
Its random.  I know.

Not much going on for the weekend.  Last weekend's plan of Mommy and Nico time on Saturday and Daddy and Nico time on Sunday worked out well- (well, if you discount the fact that Nico and Dave ate breakfast at IHOP without me...), so we are going to do it again.  I'm planning on going to the post office to send a bunch of stuff including some boxes to the Bains in Dallas.  One of the boys who used to be in my class at GBP is the son of one of the teacher's at Nico's daycare place at FSU... he and his little sister are playing soccer these days- and their game this week is down in Woodville.  So we might check them out.  There is also this vintage furniture place on Woodville Highway that I have driven by hundreds of times going to and from from Wakulla.  Gonna check it out- I think Nico will really like it, and by that, I mean, he will likely cry the entire time we are there.  Also- I have been making like the Hite's up in here and making a menu for the week and actually making it- which is a lot easier when someone doesnt accidentally throw the menu away (me or Dave) or take two big bites out of it (Nico or Drake).  Dave and I are going to try a "blue-zone" diet experiment- which is to say we are going to try eating a lot more asian-mediternean-nordic dishes and lot less chilli-potatoes type of food.  That is to say, we will be having a baby seal for dinner this week.  Okay, not really.  We're having tofu, not baby seal.  I am interested to see what all the big damn fuss is about with Tofu.  In any case, we may do some grocery shopping on Saturday. 

Of course, if the news reports snow on the ground in Marianna- we may scrap Saturday plans to head over there... you know... because there is nothing babies love more than snow.

Heart!
All for now.  Have a great weekend!

Ringo Nico

Video of Nico playing the drums.  He's pretty much a musical genius.

Chronic Fatigue

We had a pretty good weekend around here. I am trying to build in some structured time to work on my dissertation on the weekends… so on Saturday, I got Nico up and out of the house, leaving Dave to his own devices. Nico and I met my friend Ursula and her baby at the Cake Shop for cupcakes. Then we went to the flea market for some produce (including baby bananas and a fruit/vegetable I have never seen before. It’s about the size of an avocado with green skin, but covered in needles, like a porcupine. I bought it ought of curiosity. The gentleman at the produce stand said you boil it in water (I think)). Then we finished off the day by heading to JoAnns for some yarn to make some more hats… I have a yellowish-orange yarn that has been dying to be made into SOMETHING… doubled with some pale pink, I think it’s going to be an awesome hat for Emme (whoot!!)


The thing is, that when I got home on Saturday, I was pretty much wiped out- so I took a nap, which kind of killed the rest of the day. Then I spent Sunday morning working on the dissertation (booo!!) I have a couple of items that I am trying to find- and couldn’t so it was rather frustrating. While I was doing that, Dave and Nico went to IHOP, Best Buy and to get groceries. So it worked out pretty well… we then went to RJ and Bridget’s to watch the Super Bowl. So while it was a really good weekend, the house is a disaster area. And worse, I didn’t get the chance to stage the week- so no clothes have been washed, lunches haven’t been made and the house is dirty.

This picture is from last night, when Dave and Nico were hanging out on the couch. Dave thinks he has chronic fatigue syndrome. I am not sure that being the parent of a 6 month old baby actually qualifies as CFS.

Hope you’re all well. Have a great week!!

The Mad Hatter

So, I may have mentioned this- but this week, I bought one of those circular knitter's looms things.  Theoretically, you can make anything with it... but I wanted to make some more hats for Nico.  MR's aunt has been awesome and made some for Nico.  Also we got a couple from one of Dave's coworkers' wives.  But I wanted some plain-ish ones that would go with a lot more clothes that he has... plus... he has a tendency to pull them off in the car on the way to daycare... so consequently, there ends up a collection of hats in Dave's car and Nico has none when I get him from daycare.

So it took me maybe 2-3 hours- mostly while I was nursing Nico or watching LOST.  It doesn't feel like real knitting... in fact, I feel like I am cheating by using the loom.  But its cute and easy and fast.  Its a little tight right now, but hopefully it will stay on his head (I kind of have to muscle it on).

But isn't he adorable?

Yes, I will be getting some more yarn tomorrow... I know like 6 other babies that need one- especially since the ground-hog is predicting 6 more weeks of winter.

Not much going on this weekend.  Got some good dissertation work done today.  Am hoping to keep the ball rolling on Sunday- which is when Dave will take Nico out to do whatever.  I am taking Nico tomorrow to meet Ursie and Savannah for cupcakes (be jealous).  Then we are going to hit up the post-office (suck), JoAnns (maybe) and the flea market (maybe) for some veggies and fruits.  Its just that Nico is a lot more fun when he's out in public.  Very chill- I think he gets bored at home.

All for now.

Heart.

Not a disaster aktshully...

Here is a tip: when you get a new lamp for your office and it says to only put 45 watt bulbs in it, DONT put 75 watt bulbs in it... especially if it was a cheap lamp and the little shade things that come on it are made out of cheap plastic.  You might find that when you go to turn the lamp off that the little shade things are melting onto the bulb and your office will smell like burned plastic, and you HAVE to have the overhead florescent lights on. 

Aside from that...

So, it was about 11 months ago when I went into "retirement".  Here is why. 

My "last game" was the game in IMs where I scored a game-winning goal, to keep our play-off hopes alive.  Off a cross from Flav.  After winning in Kissimmee, I thought it was a good way to end my career. 

Until I got an email from LR who asked if I wanted to play against the FSU club team last night.  I didn't (I am really out of shape... and thought that perhaps I at least ought to kick the ball around first before being on the field with 21 other people).  Her response:  "No.  Wrong Answer."  Wha-What?  I didn't realize that there could be wrong answers when someone was asking if I wanted something. 

None the less, LR assembled a team of good players.  Included in this lot are a former FSU player, a former UCF player (who played with Michelle Ackers), a former D-III National Champion, Lincoln standout, and my personal hero LS (who played her last year of college ball in her thirties, AFTER she had had 4 kids- but is a baller in her own right).  My guess is that LR didnt want me to hate soccer forever, because this team was pretty awesome.  I may not have forgiven her if I had gotten shelled.

You can tell I am old, because I spent most of the warmup stretching and doing yoga to loosen up.  I think there was a collective gasp when the first shot came in, low and quickly taken.  One of those shots that relies mostly on reaction time and instinct and much less on skill.  Surprisingly, I was down pretty quickly for it. 

We got out to a 2 goal lead at half time... Kelly the Baller scored a bonafide ninja goal.  Seriously, the only thing that would have made it better is if had had a ninja sword.  The other team had passed the ball around a bit in the back... I was thinking, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?  YOU'RE ABOUT TO GET THAT TAKEN AWAY... then Baller came out of no where (they clearly didnt see her because she was a ninja) took the ball and put it in the back of the net... it was beautiful.  But then they came back.  Goal 1 occurred when the ball came off one of my defenders into the path of a forward, who scored.  Pre-Nico, 29 year old Jessi would have gotten it... but I dont count the goal, because it didnt result from some skill on the forward's part (like I dont count toe-ball goals), just dumb luck.  The second goal happened when I made a save and ran out to the top of the box to distribute the ball (I am a fan of distributing well out of the back in order to maintain possession... ) so I threw the ball to VA, only to find that I have lost a LOT of muscle mass because the ball went half as far as I thought it would.  We lost possession of it and they knocked one in while I was in "No-Man's Land."  The third goal happened off a set piece (DAMN you set pieces!!)  There was a wicked crosswind that caught the ball and swept it out of my path, resulting in a goal.  Luckily we scrapped hard and got a goal with about 5 minutes left. 

Overall, it wasn't too bad... you can tell I haven't played in almost a year.  At one point, I bobbled an easy ball in and actually fell backward onto my a$$ into the goal and as I did so swatted at the ball, keeping it out of the net (idiot).  I did make a handful of other saves, including one near the end where I changed my mind four times on whether or not I would come out for the ball.  Not too bad.  Probably need to get in better shape before I play again.  But I will take it.

French Food.

I am pretty much a cooking genius.

Last night I made a Shepherd's pie for dinner.  I even made a menu for the week... which included 16 bean soup with ham on Saturday, baked chicken on Sunday, a chicken pot pie on Monday and Shepherd's pie yesterday.  The mashed potatoes and gravy that I made on Sunday were pretty much an epic fail, but I recovered nicely with the chicken pot pie on Monday and the Shepherds last night (secret to a fantastic chicken pot pie: phyllo dough for the crust.  FORGET ABOUT IT!)

I rented Julie/Julia on Sunday to watch.  It makes me want to Master French cooking.  Which brings me to another point:  I <3 Meryl Streep.  I know- thinking Meryl Streep is a great actress is about the same as liking Apple Pie.  Boring.  I know.  But I just love her.  I really liked her as Julia Childs... but even more in the Devil Wears Prada as Miranda Priestly.  One of my favorite quotes from a movie is in the Devil:

This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

LOVE. 

In any case, I am tempted to learn french cooking.  But I suspect I do not have the time to commit to such an endeavor.  So maybe I will shelve that till later.  At least till I get a dishwasher :)

Mental Bandwidth 4

Things I am thinking about tonight:

1.  Look at the cute sweater my mom made!!  Yes, this is from the "Oooh, I wish I could knit, how I would love to make sweaters for my baby" scam.  Doesn't my mom rule? You cant see them, but there are turtle buttons on the sweater.

2.  Floored about the jogging stroller I bought on CraigsList today.  I had been lamenting the stroller I bought before Nico came- its kind of cheap and rickety.  This one is pretty pimp.  Am looking forward to trying it out (maybe tomorrow).

3. OMG!!  LOST TOMORROW!!  I DIE.
On the upside...while I am slightly ashamed to admit it (because I think it makes me a bad American), I did join the facebook group to move the state of the Union from tomorrow night (and theoretically pre-empt Lost) to another night.  This is proof that facebook groups DO work.  Its not that I dont care... its just that, well, its the beginning of the end.  And I have a hard enough time following along without missing half of it because my homeboy decided he wanted to talk to America and get his haters off his back. In any case, I am hoping for a strong finish...something that blows my mind.... not like the Sopranos- which I got and ultimately was like, Ok.  But not anything weak like the Wire- or Seinfield.

24 is on tonight.  Meh. 

4.  In case anyone was going to do this: dont make corn bread muffins in muffin papers.  EPIC FAIL. I guess I will be throwing away 10 tomorrow.  

5. I bought one of those round knitting looms today with the hopes of making Nico some hats... he has exactly three right now, and I couldnt find any this morning.  Am wondering if this actually counts as knitting. 

6. Making some progress on my data for my dissertation.  I am running exactly one day behind schedule right now.  Foresee that extending to two days tomorrow.  But my boss okayed me for half days one day a week so that I can work on it... whoot!!  That's Dr. Bishop-Royse to you! I didnt spend 8 years in evil graduate school to be Mrs, Thank you very much!

7. So while most people would agree that this kid looks mostly like his Dad, there are moments when I think he looks like me... mostly of pictures of me when I was little.


8. Playing soccer on Thursday against the FSU club team.  Should be awesome.  And by awesome I mean sucky.  Likely going to get my a$$ handed to me.  So I got that going for me.  BARF.

The T-shirt of Shame!!

True story: I tease my friends.
I never used to. I was never raised to tease the people I love. But somehow in my adult life, I have acquired this rotten habit. I think it may have started at a previous job- a place where a bunch of women sit around and get on each other’s nerves. In any case, I never mean anything by it- usually I tease people over things that they think are funny.

Case in point: my friend JD. She signed up to run the Jingle Bell run a couple of years ago in Tallahassee (for my non-Tally Peeps it’s a 5k that is held annually in Tallahassee around the holidays). During this particular year, she had a series of mishaps that led to her not running (I think infected sinuses, a hurt back, and the opening of the Little Ceasar’s near her house may have been involved). I can’t say I blame her- to be honest, I never really understood what everyone gets all crazy about the Jingle Bell run for- its barely even a work out, it’s almost always cold and sometimes it rains, not to mention, I don’t deal well with crowds under the best of circumstances, let alone with the majority of the crowd is dressed like idiots wearing jingle bells (HA- Get it!! Jingle Bells in the Jingle Bell run. Yes, I am talking to you TK). But I digress.

So because JD generally has her act together, she pre-registered for the race and got a race t-shirt (whose purpose was to be worn during the race). Well, the series of mishaps happened, and long story short, she wore the Jingle Bell shirt to IHOP, although she did not run the race.

As luck would have it, she and her husband JB got the only waitress at IHOP that day that a) was not stoned out of her mind and b) was observant enough to notice that she was wearing a Jingle Bell run tshirt and c) knew that it was kind of a big deal in Tallahassee. So this phenom of a waitress begins an inquisition about the run. Now, rather than admit that her sinuses and Little Ceaser’s got the better of her and that she did not in fact, run the Jingle Bell run or better, tell the waitress to mind her own business, JD figures that there is only one way out of this situation: LIE. Now, anyone who knows JD knows that she can NOT in fact, LIE. She pretty much sucks at it. Which is one of my favorite things about her. I think it means that she doesn’t have a lot of practice at lying which=good person.

In any case, this is how the conversation goes:
Waitress: So, you ran the Jingle Bell run last night?
JD: Ummmm…. Yeah….
Waitress: Wow!! That is great! I was going to run it myself, but I had to work. I am so jealous!!
JD: Yeah, well. It was fun. (This is the point at which her husband looks at her like, “why are you lying about this?”).
Waitress: So was it similar to last year’s run?
JD: Yeah, it was pretty much the same (side bar: it wasn’t- there were like thousands of MORE runners than in the previous year).
Waitress: So what was your time?
JD: I forget- It was about the same as it usually is (as she buries her face in her menu, hoping the Inquisition will end. It is at this point that JB chimes in with some commentary of his own).
JB: What is it that your dad hates, JD? I think it starts with an L… lawyers? Or was it Liars?

So hence forth, the Jingle Bell run t-shirt became the t-shirt of shame. It is also the reason that I tease JD any time I hear that she is going to run in a race. I usually contribute by asking if she was actually going to run it this time or if she was going to just wear the t-shirt and pretend that she did. I also do the same with my friend LR, who actually began the run, but quit half way through to grab burgers and beers that were along the race route.

So why am I telling you this? Fast forward to yesterday. I am clicking around the Pretty Princess race website and I stumble across an interesting bit of information:
“All athletes entering the Half Marathon must maintain a 16-minute per mile pace or faster throughout the entire race.  Anyone not able to maintain the respective paces will be picked up and transported to the finish. You may be picked up at any point along the course for not maintaining pace. If you are transported to the finish line for any reason you will not receive a finisher's medal.”

WHAT? Are they now discriminating against Slowskies? WTF!!??

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Jeeze, Bishop can’t you manage a 16 minute pace? I’ve seen paint dry faster than that!

To which, I would concur. I am not a fast runner under the best of circumstances but definitely not when I have recently had a baby. But given that I have had very little time for training of late, and that is not likely to change in the next month (besides, I think my advisor would like me to finish my dissertation sometime in this century), I decided to pull out of the Princess race. I think Nico and I will still go down to see the girls run. There would likely be an “incident” if someone tried to pick me up in the lame-o wagon. Then I would be in jail and on the news, and that is not a good look for anyone!

In any case, the experience of running the race would be forever tainted for me, were I to be picked up by the Lame-O wagon.  In fact, if that were to happen to me, then I would be open to teasing from LR and JD about me wearing a tshirt for a race that I didnt actually finish. 

On a similar note, Dave has convinced me to join the dark side and get a membership at Premier. This admission makes my soul hurt a little.  Next thing you know, we'll be living in Killearn and I will be driving a mini-van.