2007 September « Two Mommies and a Shmoo

ready to sell

September 30, 2007 at 11:34 pm (moving)

So, we’ve been working on the place this weekend. I am now supposed to be cleaning my closet. Yes, the walk-in closet in our bedroom is apparently 99% my stuff and 1% Lois’ stuff.

Lois only needs 2 t-shirts, a pair of jeans, one button down shirt, one jacket, one pair of shorts, one pair of sneakers and one pair of flip-flops and she is set for life. Next to her, I am the most high maintenance bitch on the planet.

I just listed the condo on Cr*igslist and in the local paper online (haven’t figured out how to list it in the printed version or the NY/Yorktown P*nnysaver- I’ll leave that to the wife).

We got a lot done yesterday, but it’s not “showable” yet.

On the news front, we told Lois’ parents and the reaction was vastly different than what I expected. I couldn’t imagine that Lois’ mother would be at all happy that we were moving further away from them but to include the fact that her grandson would be living with my mother, I thought she would just blow a fuse.

I’m absolutely shocked by this.

She’s…

She’s totally in support of the idea!

She went on and on about how the schools are so much better in the new town (duh – the incoming superintendent of schools is going to rock!), and that a condo in the ghetto is not a place for the boy to grow up, and that he needs a yard and that it’s only a few more exits away, etc.

I am still stunned about her positive reaction to all this. Kinda makes me think the other shoe is about to drop.

We did find a house we really liked that would be wonderful for our price range too, but we are not going to make an offer on it until (a) there is ink on paper for my mother’s contract and (b) we get a nibble on the sale of this place.

Therefore, I am not going to show any pictures of it yet because I will get all excited about this house being “our future house” then someone will come in and make an offer while we are hemming and hawing and the favorite house will not be mine and I will be crushed. (says a little something about my personality, doesn’t it). I’m trying to not think about the purchase side right now and just get this damn place sold.

I better get to work before Lois comes home and wonders why there are the closet is still a disaster but I’ve had time to post blog entries and eat popcorn and drink Diet Dr. P*pper in front of the NFL games. (Dee – it was another abysmal day for my NFL picks and I think I have officially begun my worst NFL pick season ever.)

Here’s a picture of the place that I’ve put online. Wish us luck (please pray that we don’t have to take a loss – or at least make it only a small loss)!

11 Comments

MLB playoffs

September 30, 2007 at 11:10 pm (sports)

My mommies are arguing over the best New York team, so they have put me in the middle.

Those flippin’ Mets! How could they blow it!?!?!? How could Momma L. put me in this Mets jersey?!?!

I guess it’s obvious what team gets my support!

I guess I’ll just be watching the post-season games with Mommy H.

Go Yanks!!

8 Comments

Best buddies!

September 29, 2007 at 7:31 pm (Kaden, video)

I still have not figured out how to get my video camera stuff on the computer. What I really need is an adapter that goes from the camera to the firewall card (or whatever you call that thing). In the meantime, I was inspired by Caroline in this post to try to use my digital camera in the video camera mode.

I know. So smart, right?!?!

So, here is my first attempt at video uploading/You Tube. I hate my voice on this thing. Do I really sound like that?

BTW – check out Lois’ shorts in the end! Hot!!! Can you tell we haven’t been out of the house yet today?

19 Comments

all work and some play

September 28, 2007 at 1:50 pm (Job, moving)

The little meatball has been taking the bottle a little better. He apparently wants to control whatever terms he does anything: eat, sleep, bottles, playing, etc.

I had a day of play yesterday and it’s coming back to bite me in the ass.

Our firm wants us to “network” and put me and 3 of the younger male associates in a celebrity golf tournament. My boss seemed a little miffed about me being out for a day, but he’ll get over it. It was fun and I had a little “coup” of my own.

Since it was a male-centric tournament and they neglected to do Longest Drive prizes for both men and women, I had an advantage since the women’s tees were about 30 yards forward from the men’s. Needless to say, I won the Longest Drive and got a few high fives from some of the men in the tournament as I accepted my hardware! It was fun.

Our foursome got to play with a former M*nnesota V*kings player (from the 1960s). He was fun (I’m sure he wasn’t happy to play with us but we had a great time in the bar afterwards!)

Now, it’s back to the grind. The work doesn’t take a day off, I guess.

In moving news, we are spending this weekend cleaning to prepare for showing the condo. I am placing ads in papers and C*raig’s L*ist as well. Our realtor has told us that the sellers of the house we really like are telling us to just make an offer – meaning they will consider a H*ubbard C*lause (an offer which is contingent on us selling our place). So, we’ll see if we get any bites on our place next week and play it by ear.

8 Comments

eating issues

September 26, 2007 at 2:07 am (cranky baby)

He’s been a little cranky and needy lately. I thought it was the cold.

Now, he kid won’t take a bottle. He’s averaged 1-2 bottles a day for the past 3 days. He flips out when we try to give it to him.

I got him to take 1/2 a bottle tonight and it was only because he was too tired to fight me on it.

He will, however, try to grab my Chinese food and freak out when I won’t give him any.

I’m not sure if it’s his cold, if he’s teething or if he’s just wanting to be a big boy. He wants big people food and we have been able to get some fluids in him by getting him to drink out of a glass, which he loves.

Here’s a quick pic of the boy from a few days ago. He was showing off his new shoes that we found in his closet. This was the few moments of time he was distracted enough not to keep trying to take them off.

***UPDATE

Lois told me that she’s gotten him to take 8 ounces this morning already, so we’re hopeful that he will keep taking the bottle today. We’ll see.

18 Comments

a work analogy.

September 25, 2007 at 5:33 pm (Job)

I’m typing a quick entry while I’m eating at my desk. I can’t be seen lollygagging by going “out” to grab lunch or anything.

The work stress is still on. I’ve been supervising a “project” of sorts that was to be done by the paralegals and only officiated by me. The boss man gave us directions since this was my first project of the sort as well. He gave us 10 directions and sent us on our way. I think he’s now wondering why he can review 20 documents in 4 hours and we’ve taken 3 weeks for 2 paralegals and 1 attorney to review 350 documents (AND TYPE THEM ALL UP AS WELL).

I reviewed the work by the paralegals a little too piecemeal in the beginning and it was not until the project was 90% finished when I realized so many things were missed, so I had to re-review all of the documents. Hence my stress of last week and this weekend.

Yesterday, we were hoping to finish and I thought I had sufficiently reviewed everything. I brought him the smallest stack and had him look at them. 1o minutes later, he called me in to show me all the points that were missed within the first document.

So, basically, of the 10 things were were supposed to do, there are now 18 things, but those extra 8 things I should have known since I’ve been doing this for 32 years. Oh wait, I haven’t been doing this for 32 years. That’s him.

One of the partners who was here with me after 7:30 pm last night (yes, I did arrive at work at 7:30 am) stated to me that the type of work is too complicated to give to someone who doesn’t have the experience (i.e. the paralegals who were working on them).

sigh.

It’s like me taking in a trainee at one of my former jobs. My analogy is something like this:

Ok, Joe (who has played tennis once before), you are new here, so I’m going to give you a rundown. You are now a tennis instructor for the first time with no training. Here’s your first private lesson with Jane. Make sure she has the right grip. Continental forehand grip, one-handed slice backhand or two-handed topspin, or two-handed slice or one-handed topspin. Make sure her grip is correct for serves, like this….did you catch that. Oh, yes, and for volleys you want to make sure the grip position is here and the racket head is here. The drop shots and approach shots have a half backswing, but the groundstrokes should have a backswing parallel to the sidelines, make sure her toss is out in front of the baseline on her serve. I’ll be back to check on you in an hour.

What? You didn’t make sure the grip position on the forehand volley was a western grip? I thought I was very clear about that.

Oh, you need more guidance on how to break down a swing and teach a beginner? You can ask Dick but he’s on vacation until November.

You get it now? Ok, I will be back to check on you.

What? I’m back and you haven’t got Jane to master the slice serve yet? I thought I was very clear on that. And why do you have her using a wide body oversize racket? Didn’t you know that with her swing she should be using a racket with head size 90 instead of a 110? And that head weight is way too light? How’s that overhead slam coming? You didn’t practice that with her?

Why is this lesson taking more than an hour? Why are you confused?

By the way, I will need you to set up the ball machine for alternating groudstrokes for Mr. Jones on court 3 when you are done. You’ll be okay, it’s self explanatory. Oh, and I will need you to string a racket for Mrs. Clark in about 20 minutes. Sally will show you where to find the string and the stringing machine.

Good luck.

That’s kinda how I feel.

****

Edited to add to the analogy…

What you should really do is have the two young women who work in the accounting department of the club give teach Sally for you. I know neither of them are tennis instructors, nor do they even play tennis, but they work for a tennis club, so they should be able to wing it.

15 Comments

a timely weekend

September 24, 2007 at 3:15 am (Development, house, moving, weekends)

The Meatball (who just this weekend was given the nickname Tank by friends and already my mother has joined in the name) is this close to crawling. At least, he’s as close as he was this time last week, maybe even the week before that.

And, trust me, I’m not rushing it.

However, he has recently decided that he loves standing. Standing is wonderful, with help, of course. Then his legs feel the weight of his hefty frame and they buckle causing the entire Meatball weight to list sideways like the Titantic and extra strong Mommy arms attempt to stop the Meatball from slamming his face into the hardwood floor.

But he needs to crawl first. This is my mother’s 2 cents. Yes, my mother who doesn’t really ever put her 2 cents in.

She is a superintendent now, has a PhD in something and before this spent most of her career as some type of behavior psychologist or something of the sort.

She finds it imperative that a baby must crawl before he/she walks. She even went as far to say that the kid must crawl in the alternating hands and knees fashion.

Apparently some study suggests that there is a correlation between babies who never crawl (like my nephew C) and go directly from sitting to walking/running and developmental problems. i.e. if our kid doesn’t crawl, my mother is convinced that he’s destined for a learning disability (like my nephew C). sigh.

This kid better crawl before he gets too excited about this standing thing.

- – -

On the homefront, we are hoping to get the house ready to put on the market by October 1st.

That’s a week away.

This weekend should have been the beginning of what is going to be a major clean up effort (including getting rid of lots of shit that I seem to accumulate. Lois is an extreme minimalist compared to me. Remember “Lois has some stuff, Holly just has a ton of shit”)

How much shit did we shovel this weekend??

Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Instead of working on house stuff all weekend, I was working on work stuff.

We blew off church this morning (blaming it on Andrew’s cold) and still made it to an open house (which would be the most perfect house ever but won’t be on the market in a month) and even made it to a long lunch with my mother this afternoon.

All so I could keep working on this damn project that shouldn’t be this massive but for the shotty work of others that I will be held accountable for.

Anyway, the good news is that I billed 14.8 hours this weekend.

The bad news is that next weekend, we are going to have our work cut out for us.

16 Comments

password post

September 20, 2007 at 7:47 pm (Uncategorized)

Sorry for being so “super secret” but I needed to get something off my chest. Kinda also explains why there’s been a little radio silence lately.

The password is the same as the last time, but if you don’t have it, email me at hollykr1976 at yahoo dot com.

It’s a really long one this time.

Protected: my own drama

September 20, 2007 at 7:45 pm (Job, house, money)

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weekend in pics

September 17, 2007 at 2:17 pm (fabulous photography, weekends)

The weekend came and went. It was a little like a blur.

Here’s a quick post. I will have a chance to catch up with my blogger friends tonight!

I went out for a drink after work on Friday (well deserved if I do say so myself) and the rest of the weekend just happened.

Saturday it was a mall visit to return some outfits that don’t fit Andrew. I ended up bringing everything back home with me since even though I had tags on everything, I would have gotten $2 per outfit. I’ll hang onto them and donate them to the church or something. It turned into an outing that including Lois’ sister-in-law, niece and nephew and us all piling into a Suburban, playing with car seats, etc. Before I knew it, the day was shot and I missed most of the college football games on my agenda.

Saturday night was a quick appetizer get together with our new gay guy neighbor friends, then off to N’s (one of Claire’s moms) surprise 50th party (not a surprise at all). Poor Claire (our P-Town trip babysitter) was surrounded by adults and was ecstatic when we offered she come home with us to spend the night and go applepicking on Sunday.

We didn’t get into bed until midnight and Salina and Emma were over for breakfast by 9 am.

They all took off for Lyman Orchards and since it was too far for me to go with and make it to my golf outing, I didn’t join them. (Yes, I was a little bitter about them all deciding to go apple picking an hour away on the same day that I was to play in a mini-tournament that I committed to 4 weeks prior!) But they had fun and we will go to a local orchard in October for more apple picking and cider donuts.

The crew was Suz and K*, Salina and Emma, Jamie, Jen, Lois and Andrew and Shawna.

Here’s some pics from the outing.

Andrew and his best buddy, K*