to do

Hmm.   I haven’t mentioned ‘Saver Month’ on here, have I?  January in our household is known as ‘Saver Month’.  It sounds silly but the name just happened so shut up.

In January we do not spend a cent on non-essential items.  This means no eating out or non-nutritious food.  This means no personal expenses or item accumulation.  Not even socks.  The budget is limited to bills and food-y food.  This is why today, the day that my work week starts, I must put together enough food for the three of us to survive on without turning to outside forces.

Today is also laundry day.

Today is also the Iowa Caucus (which means I will be distracted by my computer, which is working today, all day)

Today is the day I promised my husband I would set up some sort of wheeled vehicle depot area in the living room and get rid of some of the other stuff that Joseph doesn’t use anymore.

Today is the day I should return emails from over the holiday week because I will be too tired/busy to write lucid replies until Monday and, well, that might be too late for some.

Today is the day I pretty much have to clean everything or the place will be a total pit by the time I have more time again on Monday

Tonight is the night I have to clean the central areas of the hotel and do way too much laundry.

Today is the day I have to try to get a serious nap in or I am walking into walls at 3 a.m. while doing that cleaning and laundry.

So far today?  I have leisurely enjoyed breakfast with the Joes.  I have read too many political blogs.  I have read and not replied to a few emails.  I have done some painting at the kitchen table with my son.

I need a fire under me, I swear.

Oh yeah, I need to get some stuff on to my little short story blog.  I said I would post the link here but I am not sure I am ready for that yet.  I have to have a body of work on there that I feel safe sharing with anyone I might possibly know.  I have a bad habit of being overly aware of my audience.  That influences me a bit too much.

Now I must get going on ’stuff’.

(Oh yeah, in case anyone wonders, I am torn between Obama and Edwards and am hopeful either of them will be triumphant in Iowa today)

(and for anyone that doesn’t know, the Maine Democratic Primary voting will be February 10.  I will have more details on this site as the date approaches as I will most likely be trying to bully people into voting for one or the other of my favorites.)

(as a complete ticket I think Obama-Richardson would be awesome.  Richardson would be an interesting choice for vice-president, don’t you think? I have to find out more on his social values, though.  Sometimes those big g0-getters can be surprisingly conservative in a few dangerous ways and we can’t have that)

(see? I can’t get anything done today!!!!)

jck3 is 3!

I am due for two tribute posts.  My hubby’s kind words are overdue and will have to wait another day or so.  He has not yet told or even hinted that my icky illness has wrecked his week and any fun anniversary plans we may have had.  I guess that in itself is testimony to what a stand-up guy JCK2 really is.

It is JCK3’s day.  I can’t believe he is already three!  I mean, I sort of can, because a lot has happened since they finally ended up snipping him out of my abdomen.  He has gone from a tiny, staring little thing to an intense and plotting little package of fun.  I could go on forever and I never know where the line is when it comes to bragging about one’s kids.  I would brag and brag and brag if I was sure it wouldn’t offend anyone but since I know people tire easily of such things I will give you a list of five ‘fun facts’ about the boy of the hour: the one and only JCK3 (don’t let his 3ness fool you, he is indeed a ‘one and only’).

1-He is an intense lover of fruit.  Given the choice of a pear vs. any other sort of food he will ALWAYS choose the pear.  I can’t think of a fruit that he will not eat.  There are many sorts of cookies he will not eat.  He is not always a fan of pasta or pizza.  I have seen him turn away many pieces of cake.  The kid will always eat fruit.  Good for him.

2- It is a good thing he does not have much to work with when it comes to cursing.  The child is a born cusser.  Currently he has only ‘cwap’(crap) and “ma’am”(man) to work with as far as expletives but he uses them astonishingly well.  Example: he was watching JCK2 play a video game.  He encountered a particularly menacing bad-guy.  JCK3 whispered a very serious “cwaaaap”.  When he gets mad he storms off mumbling “I don’t ablieve it… oooh ma’am, cwap, cwap, cwap.”.   We have been trying to work on this “cwap thing”.

3-Probably common knowledge but his first word was “gourd”.  It was his first and only word for about 6 months.  “Gourd” is a pretty cool word for a first word.

4- He is a bit of a teeny-tiny academic.  He spends a large portion of his days viewing  pages and pages of  encyclopedias of sorts with his grandfather’s old camera phone.  He can already count as high as anyone probably will ever need to, he can read more than we know and likes to spook people with random reading of words in public and has had all of the solar system as well as an impressive amount of geography under his belt for some time.  This is the part that makes me uneasy when it comes to other people.  This sort of just happened.  He has his own ideas about what is worth knowing and what is not.  He has his own agenda.  We haven’t been preening him for anything, I swear.

5- His favorite song so far is Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me”.  Runners up include Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay”, The Beatles “Hey Jude”, Wire’s “the 15th”(that is sort of a family anthem, actually, don’t judge us), Bjork’s “Human Behaviour”, The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” (he digs riffs) and any excruciating depressing Moby song.  We learned this when we had an extremely random selection on the mp3 player for a while.   He won’t do kids songs.  Mostly because he seems to go for over the top emotional stuff- he likes Yann Tierson (sp? sorry) Amelie soundtrack sort of thing, etc.  or stuff like Led Zeppelin.  Dan Zanes isn’t offering much in the way of “Whole Lotta Love” now, is he?  Gosh, I am sure we are terrible parents somehow….

So there we go.  A post about some stuff that is our birthday boy.  He has already enjoyed himself some “Strawberry CakePie” as he called it and some ice cream.  He got a pretty good stash of stuff this year.  He seems to get the whole birthday gig this time around.  So much so that he has suggested doing the ‘Happy Birthday’ thing on more than one occasion since the big celebration on Saturday night.

If he were to have resolutions for his third year I would suggest the following-

-wear a hat without a tantrum!

-USE THE POTTY

-stop chewing your clothes

hometownbaghdad.org

I didn’t put up an entry yesterday. Yesterday just flew by and I don’t think that I had much time to spare (actually, like now- I am being asked for an apple so my thought will be interrupted….. there- apple doled out to small person). I remember it was cold, I did kundalini yoga, accompanied my husband to the mall where he bought a used video game- more on that trip later.

The thing about yesterday I really want to get to is hometownbaghdad.org. Joe found it and we watched all of the clips last night. Before I go on at all I will say that I did add the link to my blogroll and I really hope that people who read this will take a look. It follows a few Iraqi university students and reveals what I knew to be true (but needed a visual example to persuade other people with): that people here, people there… not so much difference. I get the sense (when I talk to certain people) that some Americans don’t ever take the time to visualize what it might actually be like to live every day in an occupied country and just what the people in Iraq might actually be like.

I have had this theory (before I saw the videos, even) that as the world gets smaller and so much media becomes accessible to so many people that things like occupation and wars will seem more and more ridiculous. I mean, war probably makes sense government vs. government, but is there ever a reason to make ordinary people suffer? Would any society ever endorse war if they saw the lives of working/studying/child having/just living their lives people like everyone on earth people? I don’t really think so. I really believe that after the babyboomers retire (and all their born before civil rights ideas retire) the world may be a better place to live.

Anyway, I wanted to share that link.

I guess I will close this up on a lighter note. We did, as I mentioned, go to the mall. I don’t really ever go there. Anyway- I didn’t know that Santa would be there. Here is a good opportunity to judge me: we are not doing the Santa thing. I mean, he can think whatever he wants about Santa, we just aren’t going to lie to him. He doesn’t need an imaginary guy to overwhelm him with gifts. He has my parents for that. I just can’t do it. I can’t lie. I can’t even be really super fun. Let’s face it, I am one of ‘those’ people. I spent my early 20s volunteering on Thanksgiving and eating Indian food with a couple of Jewish friends on Christmas. I am getting a tree this year. I am taking him to see some Christmas music and Christmas lights. We are donating some toys. We might even go to midnight mass- I am just not going to go along with the Santa thing. ANYWAY- took him to the mall for the Da’s video game errand and ran into Santa, seated in a plastic winter wonderland. What did my son do? He started yelling to leave. I was pointing all of the stuff out to him (‘ooooh, look at the giant candy cane… ooh, look, that is the guy they call Santa’) and he was saying ‘no, no, no, no, no, calm down mumum!’. He always tells me to calm down these days. He ended up wanting to look at a rotating ad for a local real estate team. What a guy.

I have to get up and start the day!!!