Blog? What Blog?

The sheer tonnage of bloggable stuff which is thus far un-blogged is enough to drive me to drink, or at least to hide under my covers (some more). So for now I'm just popping in to point y'all to a very cool idea which needs your vote: Inclusive clothing for kids with autism, Asperger's, and Sensory Processing Disorder. Part of a contest funded by Advanta, they're awarding six grand prizes of $10,000 each to the entrepreneurs to fund their projects.

Many kids with the above-mentioned disorders are extra-sensitive to clothing tags, seams, and closure systems -- some to the point of hysteria. Thankfully, Garrick and Quin have never taken this issue to such extremes (though I do still catch Garrick with his pants unbuttoned), but I can well imagine how challenging it is for parents with kids further along on the spectrum to navigate this.

The website is a little funky, so go here to register (email and name are the only required fields) and then here to place a vote. Voting ends tonight. Parents of autistic kids will thank you!

Half Full Or Half Empty?

As long as it's tequila, I don't much care.

Accomplished thus far:

• All Chanukah gifts purchased, wrapped, and mailed.
• Chanukah party duly thrown with great success -- dinner and dessert for 20.
• Open House party duly thrown with great success -- 60-ish guests over 7 hours, lots of hot apps and desserts (pix and a full report to follow once I find my brain -- I may have left it in the big Whitman's Sampler box left behind by a guest).
• Michael's half of the holiday cards all mailed.
• Kids' Chanukah thank-yous mailed (5 each).
  
• All family Christmas gifts ordered and received (with one exception, which is en route).
• Christmas tree purchased and strung with lights
• Basement renovation complete and new storm windows installed (yay!).
  

Still to go:

• Bake for Garrick's class's holiday party.
• Purchase gift for Garrick's class's holiday party.
• Bake and wrap treats for both kids to give to teachers, school librarians, etc.
  
• Bake and wrap treats for co-workers.
• Bake and send care package to brother in Singapore.
• Wrap all Christmas gifts.
• Write and mail my half of the holiday card list.
• Kids still have 9 Chanukah thank you cards each to write.
  
• Buy stocking stuffers.
  
• Decorate Christmas tree.
• Plan Christmas dinner/dessert and bake/cook accordingly.
• Master bath sink faucet still in pieces on counter top and closet still needs painting.
• Basement still not re-assembled post-renovation.
  
• Decide what we're doing for New Year's Eve.

Perhaps New Year's Eve is when I'll schedule my trip to the Nervous Hospital?.....

We're Saving This One to Show His Prom Date

Blog? What Blog?

Um, hi! I'm still here, I just fell into the Holiday Vortex of Doom and couldn't get up. Still can't, quite, but that's probably as much due to the large bruise on my ass as anything else.

The last several days have consisted mainly of baking, cleaning, and partying. Oh, and some nose blowing. And other stuff involving contractors and bosses and auditors. It's been busy, is my point.

We had our annual family Chanukah get-together on Sunday and we have a large open house this coming Sunday, after which I should be able to emerge from the Vortex of Doom. I'll post pictures of baked goods, I'll write about what cute things my sons are up to, and I'll tell you how I got the huge bruise on my ass. I know you're dying to ask.

Parental Sacrifice...

... means giving the current, un-read Newsweek magazine to your kid so that he'll have something to bring in for a school project.

On the plus side, you can blame being disgustingly uninformed on 6th grade social studies. For this week, anyway.

Why It Is Hard to Live with My Husband

Scene: Kitchen, evening. Michael is chopping and frying a huge quantity of onions.

Me: Ouch! Onion-eyes! I have onion-eyes!
Michael: Workers of the world, onion-eyes!

Later: Michael, working as my sous-chef, neglects a task I asked him to do.

Me: That's it, you're fired.
Michael: You can't fire me, I'm onion-eyesed.

(That last one cost me a good 3 minutes in lost productivity.)

Cognitive Dissonance

Quinlan started his four-week-long Health Class rotation this week.

While signing the permission slip yesterday my rational mind almost blew a fuse at the realization that Quin is likely to be the only kid in middle school who both knows how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and believes in Santa Claus.

Is such a juxtaposition even possible in this universe?.........

Holiday Gilt Guilt

Yesterday I headed out in the sleet and rain to do some holiday shopping. The parking lot of my destination store is always an over-crowded mess, and the foul weather had not deterred any of the usual hoards of shoppers. The parking lot was mayhem. I nonetheless headed down an aisle quite close to the entrance, and was rewarded for my optimism by the wink of back-up lights from a truck in the 3rd parking space from the door, on my left. Primo! No other parking vultures in sight, I hit my turn signal and gave the truck plenty of room to back out. As the truck cleared the space, a sedan rounded the front of the aisle, facing me, and it immediately headed into MY space. Whoa there! I tapped my horn lightly and indicated to the driver of the sedan that I'd been waiting (okay, for all of 5 seconds) for that space. He backed off and let me in.

The guilt comes from the fact that all this time there was another perfectly good space on my right, 5 spaces away from the entrance (and a little farther away laterally). The driver of the sedan grabbed this space, so he was not terribly inconvenienced by my stubbornness. So why do I feel like a greedy, selfish person for insisting on capturing the better of the two excellent parking spaces?......

Overheard

My 9-year-old, on his way to the kitchen to fix a snack: "Look out, kitchen, here comes Garrick!"