Goddess Musings

Good doggie

Roni — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:13:00 +0000

So we had a 5.4 earthquake this morning...of course it was an hour before I woke up so I missed it. Oh yes, our super alert doggie barks like the axe murderer is breaking in when the neighbors come home, go down for laundry, or come home thru the front door, but an earthquake? Snooze. Aren't animals supposed to feel these things and alert us dumb humans?

*sigh*

Oh and the morning news folks are being ridiculous. One guy even explained that there was no noticeable change in Lake Michigan...no tsunami.

For Kate

Roni — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:29:00 +0000

Yep, those are Dora pajamas
Originally uploaded by cinnachick.

Dear Kate,

While I am not the most fashion forward woman you know, I am trying for my daughter's sake. I hope you don't hold this example against me as I was not responsible for the purchase of light-up-jelly shoes.

OTOH, you would be quite impressed at the way she was flipping thru the racks at Nordstrom today. She was very serious about her shopping.

Love your BFF,
Roni

My favorite way to spend a 60 degree day

Roni — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:10:00 +0000

Me 099/366
Originally uploaded by roniweb.

Yesterday we went to our first Cubs game of the year and sat in the bleachers. Ella had a good time eating almost an entire bag of peanuts and pretending to be too shy to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." I even tempted her with the fact that if she was singing the cameras might show her on TV and then Grandpa J would see her. No deal.

The hubby & I had a grand time laughing at the silly drunk peeps. At one point the right field section started their usual chant of "Left field sucks!" One guy stood up in front of us and tried to lead us all in the chant of "Left field sucks!" The hubby & this guy standing behind him just laughed, "Dude, we are left field!"

As for the game it was a good one. Big Z wasn't quite on as usual...maybe he does need all that Red Bull. Especially since he's still 0 for the season at the plate and he's a pretty darn good hitter. We got to see two home runs and a win!

Ella's still not into the game enough to watch for even 7 innings. We left at the top of the 8th as she was almost asleep in the 5th & 6th innings. She kept waking up asking when we were going to sing. Eyes on the prize chica...eyes on the prize. ;)

Overall, it was a great day, perfect weather and outside of the sunburn I have on my right arm, it couldn't had been better.

Ella Update

Roni — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:21:00 +0000

Apologies for letting this blog become a slowly dying blog...Life has gotten super busy, lots of other writing to do, I have two official mentors (one I met with today...love her!), still sitting on the fence about grad school, and the travel season really kicks off this weekend. Off the top of my head I'm out of town from now until July 3 times for conference and once for a bachelorette party. It's in Kansas City...don't get too excited. But if you're near there, come on by. It's a 3 day event! The hubby's hitting Vegas & NOLA without me in May.

All that means that this blog, which is now more of a bitch fest blog or a vanity blog, whatever, is getting the shaft big time. But if you're still reading...thanks.

So Miss Ella? I know that's why you still visit! ;)

She toured the school that most likely will be hers in the fall. I'm hoping to squirm our way into another school, but chances are it won't happen. She really liked it. I think because there were a lot of "big kids" there for her to gawk at. She also hit it off with some of the administrators who walked us around.
She's going to have Crackberry thumb by the age of 5. She has a play cell phone which she has now moved into sending pretend text messages or checking of the email. Oh, did I mention the hubby got a Crackberry? So I'm on the Treo, he's on the Crackberry, and Ella's playing along.
She loves it that spring is here...at least for today. Spring means she can wear dresses without jeans underneath, we go on walks after dinner, and well, she gets to be outside.
She hates it...HATES it when we fight. We had a very short disagreement this morning and she chided both the hubby & I about fighting.
We saw that damned "Angel" ASPCA commercial tonight and she declared that she wanted us to get those kitties. When I said we couldn't (the hubby almost died the one year we did have a cat.) she almost burst into tears thinking the kitties would be homeless.

Well tomorrow I have the day off. I'm having lunch with Brandon to catch on things. We haven't spent any real time together in months and we both have major drama to tell each other. I'm still unsure what to do with my free afternoon. A movie? Perhaps a chick flick that I wouldn't subject the hubby to? Or do I find a coffee shop and write, write, write my fingers off? Because really, I'm far behind on a few submissions that are coming due in the next two months. Especially one I haven't even started. *sigh* Maybe I'll try to get a lot of writing in before lunch. Maybe.

Later!

Yup, I'm a big dork!

Roni — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:38:00 +0000

I just bought this button & bobby pin set on Etsy. ~~Photos aren't uploading on Blogger right now,~~ but click over to see my recent purchase. And yes, they were made just for me. I'm special dontcha know?

Doxie's coming outta my ears!

Roni — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:09:00 +0000

Today we drove an hour to go to a Doxie meet-up for Suburban Doxie owners and some southern Wisconsin folks. We were invited to attend by the woman who adopted Annie to us.

OMG...there were Doxies everywhere!

Not only were there Doxie owners, but there were two Doxie rescues there with Doxies available for adoption. The woman whom gave us Annie came to the meet-up with five dogs and went home with four. Not too bad.

There were at least two Doxies with wheels as their backs were hurt and maybe another 3-4 with visible back issues. Oh, if only the vet wasn't so damn expensive!!

The hubby did find one Doxie who Annie liked and kept asking if we could take her home. I stuck to my guns! I did bend a little with a cute long-haired red head and this guy who came in with puppies for only $300. But we came home with just Annie! If I don't have time to really care for Annie (I do my best), I sure as hell don't have time for a puppy.

Overall it was a great time. Ella had fun playing with the other dogs, but was especially touched by Annie's jealousy.

I'll post some photos on Flickr soon. I'm a bit behind in my posting there!

Ella's first lab write up

Roni — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:58:00 +0000

Ella's first lab write up
Originally uploaded by roniweb.

Over the weekend we took Ella to the Field Museum to see a puppet show as well as celebrate boy-BFF's 5th birthday. To kill time before the show we took in the new Crown Family Play Lab.

It's amazing!! There was a whole section for getting hands on with specimens, microscopes, and fossils. Fossils coming out of your ear! Or in my case, eye.

Ella was off playing with her friends, but soon wandered over to the science area for some alone time. The grrl needs alone time once in awhile. So once she ventured into Mama's area, I asked her if she wanted to learn about fossils. She took the bait...er..said yes.

We had a great time with just half a table of fossils. I explained how they were made, how sandstone was made and did some basic observations of a trilobite fossil. It was uber-geeky nrrd grrl fun!!

March...comes in a lion, out with a placement

Roni — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:13:00 +0000

This is the month that we've been waiting for...kindergarten selection month. Gawd damn this is more intense than medical school selection! We got Ella's kindergarten test results. I won't reveal them here, but let's say that the hubby is one proud Papa. I'm pretty proud too, but they reveal nothing about which school she may be attending.

She was pretty rattled by the testing, so we told her that she did very well on her test. She was very happy.

And a happy Ella is always a good thing.

Ronnie's blogging!

Roni — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:41:00 +0000

Way back before I even blogged, when I just did a lot of updating of my crappy website, and before I posted photos of myself, I used Veronica icons for myself. I was looking thru some referral logs and see that Veronica from the Archies is blogging!

I laughed pretty hard because her blog looks a lot like what my website use to look like.

Amy...she's all over the American Idol thing too!

OK, back to real writing & the new SNL.

Denial

Roni — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:47:00 +0000

I've been in denial for a very long time about aging - my own aging and the aging of those I lust after. It's over. Harrison Ford is old. Which means I'm getting up there too.

But damn...he still looks good. If he's ever in the market for a girl with meat on her bones, I'm right here.

May 22nd...It's in my Treo. No one bother me unless you're toting nachos.

WOO HOO

Roni — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:34:00 +0000

Cubs pitchers & catchers report to spring training today. Oh yeah...

Cinnamon also scored us some tix...

Life is good.

Sent from Treo.

Why I hate winter

Roni — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:12:00 +0000

People who are too damn lazy to brush snow off their car. Like this person.

I really hate people who brush off just a smidge of snow so they can barely look behind or in front of them.

While Panda Prius has a garage at home, at work she sits outside & I brush her off before I drive off.

Come on people!!

Country Mouse, City Mouse

Roni — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Our weekend with Amy & Isabelle is over and as I write, they are still trying to get home to Maine despite a small blizzard happening there. The girls had a great time together. Amy & I estimate that at least 60% of the time they really did like each other. Not only do the girls have to overcome the fact that this was only the 2nd time they've been together, but they are two head-strong, intelligent & competitive only children put together for 3 days.

Perfect example was when they tried to play Chutes & Ladders together. Isabelle has played it many times and Ella maybe once. I sent them to Ella's room and said that Isabelle would teach Ella. Isabelle knows that the youngest goes first. That's where the fighting began. "I'm the youngest!" "No, I am!" Amy went in and tried to explain to Isabelle that Ella is 3 days younger. Izzy wasn't buying it.

They also aren't exactly the same. Izzy is more aggressive than Ella and Ella has yet to master the skill of defending herself, especially from friends. But I think Ella was trying to hold her own at the end, especially the last car ride where Ella kept saying, "No!" to Izzy's handling of Ella's new books.

The best part, for me, of the weekend was celebrating their 4 1/2 year birthdays. I made cheese enchiladas, Cinnamon made a cake (photos to be on Flickr soon) and Amy & I bought them each matching books. It's one of the best family dinners ever.

Ella got this awesome gift over the summer from girl-BFF, Cranium Hullabaloo, that Izzy & Ella loved playing. They also spent a lot of time in Ella's room doing projects aka gluing, coloring, and other messy things to make cute pictures. They also got up before the adults and we would hear them whispering to each other (yes, they slept in Ella's bed together) while playing.

I feel like 3 days isn't long enough for a visit, but for two 4yos, I think it was just long enough.

Thankfully I now know that Jet Blue flies to Portland and not for an arm & a leg, so maybe I'll finally make it out there soon and Amy can put me up for a few days.

Casualties of the Primary Wars

Roni — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:57:00 +0000

Casualties of the Primary Wars
Originally uploaded by M1khaela.

Click to read Mikhaela B. Reid's cartoon on the primary. It's spot on!

Math time

Roni — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:06:00 +0000

The amount of love I have for a visiting friend = 1/cleaning I do for them

That's my explanation for the fact that in 12 hours Amy & Isabelle arrive and I still have dishes to do, books on my coffee table, and the usual every day crap on the dining room table. Oh and Ella sweatshirts all over the couches. But at least Ella's room is pretty much picked up, the hubby bought a new shower curtain, and well, I'm off to wash the dishes & tidy up the kitchen.

Cue Cyndi Lauper...It's a girls weekend!

For the math "impaired" - It's not a real formula rather my lame short hand to say is inversely proportional. Perhaps it's too late for me to do math too...hmmm...should be 1/love = cleaning?

i dunno anymore...someone with a fresh brain comment!

oh...and no one is math impaired. Whether in cooking or figuring out exactly how much those shoes are on sale for...you can do it. :P

Like our parents do more drugs than we do.

Roni — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Heath Ledger's death was ruled an accidental overdose.

�Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine,� Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, said in a brief statement. �We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications.�

So very sad. Soooo very sad.

And I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions when his death was first reported. I made assumptions based on Hollywood stars & their partying ways.

At first, I think, dang that's a lot of drugs! Then I remember how many pills I was popping last week when I had a head cold. Oy!

At least we have a conclusion to all of this and Ledger's family can move on into their healing.

Should I have let my dad sue?

Roni — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Days after I had Ella my dad told me that he was going to meet with lawyers to begin a malpractice suit against my mom's doctors. I remember vividly holding Miss Ella in one arm and holding his hand with the other. I called my sisters over and said, "Mom did this. She made her choices and she did this to us. She was sick. She knew she had to get her leg amputated. Yes, she was depressed and not thinking straight, but I told you that too. Dad, don't do this. It won't bring her back and I don't think the doctors could have done anything."

I'm thinking of this today only because I just read that John Ritter's family is starting their lawsuits. FOUR years after his death. It'll be five years this May for Mom.

I am always retracing my steps. If I had done this or that, would she be her with us? It's rare that I think back on my decision to not sign paperwork to let a lawsuit proceed. I never saw the paperwork, but I told my dad & sisters I wouldn't support it. Was I just so mad at my mom that I couldn't see (and still don't) a reason to sue?

A few days after I got to North Carolina and saw her in the ICU, a doctor sat down with my youngest sister, my dad, & me and told us that she would eventually die. Not in those words, but that's what he was saying. I questioned him hard about why this hadn't been done, this and that. He had an answer for everything. Added to that, my mom did attend some appointments alone, so the doctor could say anything happened.

Would anything had happened differently? I could care less about the money, even if it would come in very handy with the many home repairs we keep putting off. But I just didn't want to wallow in the medical crap for years and years. It's hard enough with all the emotional crap that I'm still dealing with.

And yes for me the person at the end of the "whose fault was this?" path was my mother. I had called the game months before she died. I warned her and the rest of them of what was coming. I was too far away to do more than that and they were too close to see it.

I wanted to do some linkage back to those posts, but wow...the anger, the frustration. I had almost forgotten all of it. I can so better see that I am a numb person now. Such an emotionally numb/dead person with most of the world. How freakin' sad. For new readers the Cliff Notes is this: My mom got a leg wound, never controlled her diabetes, and ended up dying, three months before her first grandchild was born, of gangrene because she didn't want to get her leg amputated.

Poor hubby

Roni — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:57:00 +0000

First, sorry to Kate & Amy for their loss tonight. Gotta say that I ended up explaining who was who to Ella this way: The blue team is Isabelle's team and the white team is J's team. J's team is on offense...Ella butts in, "And Isabelle's team has to get the ball." Not sure if she picked a team or not, but she was happy that one of her friends is happy.

So...we went to Ella's girl BFF's house to watch the game. Girl BFF's dad got a new 50" projection flat screen TV. I have to admit that the picture is beautiful, simply gorgeous. But each time that I get "that look" and the hubby jumps on it, thinking that I'm finally gonna say, "Yes! Let's go to Best Buy/Abt to get that TV!" He is so painfully wrong.

That look I get? It's from seeing some place beautiful on a state of the art television set.

We stopped at the Sony store once and he plopped me down to watch some DVD about Australia. DUMB...I kept thinking, for three grand we could GO to Australia AND the Great Coral Reef might not last much longer! Today FOX showed some fabu shots of the Arizona desert. The hubby turns to me and says, "Isn't it beautiful?" "Yes, I retort. We must go there."

The hubby huffed & turned away.

But seriously, I'm a gadget gal, I am, but I'd still rather spend my extra money on travel than on a TV set when we have a perfectly good one right now. Sure, I can't count the sun spots on Joe Buck, but I can still watch the game. Sorry, hubby.

Dar hearts Obama

Roni — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:18:00 +0000

ACK!

Tuesday is like next week people and the pressure is building! Now I see that my #1 girl crush is playing the Obama fundraiser in NYC on TUESDAY ! Someone get me the Jet Blue schedule! Someone make Wednesday get here!

Can you just imagine her playing at the inauguration? *swooooon*

He's good

Roni — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 02:14:00 +0000

I'm listening to Obama right now give his victory speech in South Carolina. And damn, he's good. He's saying just about everything that I would say...and considering that if you had asked me an hour ago, I would had said that I most likely will vote for Clinton, this is not good for her.

I think Hillary's decision to go negative and allow her people to throw around racist messages is coming due tonight in South Carolina.

I am so very torn.

So dear readers...all 5 of you. Where do you stand?

I want to vote for them both. I want a feminist in the White House. I want a woman. I want a woman who believes so much in the process that she took a seat on the board of Wal-Mart and fought for women's pay equity & promotion in the company. I want a woman protecting my womb & all the things that are under attack in my body. I want a mother who understands what it means to work a full-time job and depend on a caregiver for her children.

Yet I also want a President who hasn't given up on the youth, the poor, or those of us who do, despite all the realities of our lives, still dream big. I want someone who gives me chills when they speak not just because HOW they talk is remarkable, but because what they say touches every atom of my being. Someone who reminds us that this is just the first part of a much larger race and that we are fighting a much bigger enemy than each other.

He just keeps going and going...

Shit...I guess this is what happens when we complain that we are voting for the lesser of two evils all the freakin' time.

Thanks for the laughs Randy

Roni — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:45:00 +0000

I am at work in utter and total shock. Randy Salerno of CBS 2, formally of WGN TV, died in a snowmobiling accident last night. My heart is so very heavy. My morning routine the past few years has been to watch the CBS news while eating breakfast & getting ready for work. I started doing that when Roseanne Tellez moved over from WGN-TV. Randy was a fellow Cubs fan who lived & died with each win and loss as I did. When he would report on the previous days game, he never masked his feelings. If the Cubs would start to win in September, but were a zillion games back, he would grunt and mumble sometime about "it's about time guys" or "oh, now we're getting it together." There have been many times when I've told the hubby that I wish that I'd run into Randy at a Cubs game or a bar so I could buy him a beer and we could wallow in our Cubsdom together. And now he's gone.

I did notice that he wasn't on the air this morning but assumed it was a vacation day, which I guess it was going to be. And instead of watching the very last of the telecast, I switched over to Xena so Ella could watch. It was one of the few non-violent episodes. I'm sure I missed a great tribute to him, but I bet it'll be on the website soon.

To the Salerno family, my heart is so with you today. I'm sure he was a great dad and partner. Dear lord, if he could make me laugh each morning just reading the news, he must had been a riot to live with. To the morning crew, it'll never be the same, but I'll keep watching.

Thanks Randy. Sorry I never got to buy you that beer.

update: CBS 2 posts their remembrance.

Sadly it looks like the driver of the snowmobile was drinking. The driver was a long-time friend and may end up being charged with murder. Such a sad day all around.

Heath Ledger

Roni — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:28:00 +0000

I've been noticing that most of my traffic from search engines the last few months has surrounded a certain dead actor that I adore. It really puzzled me why now people are looking for stuff on River or rather why my site seems to be so popular (to me anyway) to River seekers. Maybe it was the People Magazine special issue on "Gone Too Soon" that I did flip thru in a bookstore. Even my devotion to River isn't enough for me to give People magazine $10 for info that I already know and not even a new photo. Althou that photo on the cover and the one on the inside are some of my faves. *swoon*

Now we have another beautiful, wispy haired, and lime-light shunning dead actor. *sigh*

There aren't words to express my anger at the fact that Heath Ledger OD'ed yesterday. Somehow I still buy into the idea that having a kid settles you down, that it brings a sense of mortality to your life (the hubby has hung up his plans for sky diving after Ella entered our lives), and that you try to do whatever you can do to make sure you live as long as possible for your child. That's where my anger is born from. That Heath leaves a 2-year-old daughter who will never really know him is one of the saddest things. Whether it was suicide or not, it doesn't really matter.

Here's hoping that his loved ones find the strength to move on.

I'm headed to a work trip this weekend. I think I'll pack "10 Things I Hate About You" to watch in my hotel room. Heck, I might even throw in "Sneakers" even if River looks pretty stoned in that one.

Technorati tags: Heath Ledger, River Phoenix

It's not a preference, it's biology

Roni — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Pitchers & catchers report to spring training in a month. Soon spring will start to bloom and with it the hope that yes, this will be our year. Yet my brain will kick me and say, "Come on, get real!" Then it goes into a "well, maybe..." I've always known that being a Cubs fan was something special. Something only the strongest can endure with hope intact (witness the bitterness of famed Cubs fan George Will). Today I found out that it is an illness as well.

WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight had an interview with Cubs fan, Dan Gordon, who has edited a book of essays called, Your Brain on Cubs:

A group of today�s leading science writers and neuroscientists explore here the ways that our brain functions when we participate in sports as fans, athletes, and coaches, taking baseball as the quintessential sport for all three perspectives. The contributors tackle such questions as: How does a player hit a ninety-mile-per-hour fastball when he barely has time to visually register it? Why do fans remain devotedly loyal year after year? And what allows them to believe in superstitions, such as a curse? Other topics investigated in the book include how a ballplayer�s brain changes as he gains experience and expertise, why there are a higher percentage of left-handers in the major leagues compared to the general population, and the ethical implications of neurological performance enhancement.

See...it's all neurobiology people! It's in my neurons! In my wiring! I can't be helped!! Does this mean that someone out there might find a cure for this? I hope the hell not.

Technorati tags: Chicago Cubs, WBEZ, neurobiology, baseball, book

Ugly Betty ? Hillary!

Roni — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:01:00 +0000

HRC Nevada Rally
Originally uploaded by Hillary Clinton.

OK...this may be the most unfeminist thing to think, but if America is on board, I may need to jump on that ship.

How much is that monkey in the window?

Roni — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:50:00 +0000

Ella on the climbing wall
Originally uploaded by roniweb.

Tonight one of Ella's classmates had a birthday party at this new place where there are rooms of "moonwalks" and inflated obstacle courses. She had a ball! But the best part was the climbing wall.

Miss Ella was bound & determined to get to the top of that wall. The first time she tried, she went a good distance and showed a natural affinity for climbing. Well, of course, we knew that. Then she came back. Three times! The third time lasted about 20 minutes. Don't worry...most of the kids wanted to jump, not climb so I didn't rush her to get down.

There were plenty of times when she stopped because she didn't know which way to go. Her boy BFF's mom & I helped her find new places to put her hands & feet. But she kept climbing up to sheer spots where she is just about 1 inch too short.

She got pretty high up as you can see from this photo. I can't recall the last time I saw her so proud in front of so many people. Part of me was scared, but I had faith in the safety equipment. Of course, I was so proud. It's just too bad that I only had my Treo to take photos.