June 29, 2004
Replay Mission
One of the great things about video games is the opportunity to learn from your experience, start over with a clean slate, and replay with your newfound wisdom. Sadly, real life does not give you the "Replay Mission" option (or maybe it does, and I just can't get the &%$! option menu to pop up).
This is a particularly poignant observation for me right now. Let me recap for you.
* I have not made dinner in lo, this past week or more; wacky hijinx ensue
* For example, I had a Starbucks Chai Frappuccino for dinner last night
* Nonetheless, my kitchen is a disaster
* I had exercise once, like two weeks ago
* I have no less than seven Band-Aids on my feet due to a tragic error in choosing my footwear yesterday
* My demo, also yesterday, went terrifically well, except for the part where I started up the Windows Imaging viewer and got about fifty runtime errors and popped up Visual Studio to debug it
* The upper reaches of our home are strewn with laundry, clean and dirty alike
* There are no sheets on any of our beds
Well, I can't replay last week. And quite frankly, although I might do better the second time around, it just wasn't fun enough to bother. But what I CAN do is forget all about it, in favor of preparing for the similarly unfun and overextended week to come!
However, despite all of this misery and housework, I do have to say one thing: I look really terrific today. New lip gloss! New skirt! Hah! Take that, crappy week! Even you cannot beat down my girlish trendiness!
My kitchen is: Er, bubbling, actually. Dinner on the stove. Mmmm, shelf-stable tortellini, better than something from the freezer, but not as goos as anything fresh...
June 22, 2004
Vocation Precognition
This evening, we all went to a lovely little birthday party for Sasha's Grandpa (on her daddy's side). There was cake! And hats! There was singing! And we saw a glimpse deep into Sasha's future.
Grandma was trying to take a picture, and had some trouble with the camera.
"Broken?" Sasha asked, with a penetrating gaze.
"Yes, the camera is broken," Grandma replied.
"Batteries?" suggested Sasha, helpfully.
Yes, my friends, at two years old, already she is doing tech support. My heart swells with pride. Also she counted to ten tonight. When is it too soon to pressure her to go to engineering school?
My kitchen is: Rather on the sticky side. There was an incident with some apple juice. A better person than I might have cleaned it up by now.
June 15, 2004
At Least She's Not a Pepsi Kid
So Sasha and I are coming home from the library. As I strap her into the carseat, I say "I love SASHA!"
She beams.
As part of my ongoing effort to teach her to say her own name, I ask "Wait... WHO is it that I love?"
She says "Diet Coke!"
Don't ask me, your guess is as good as mine.
My kitchen is: Garlicky. Getting back into cooking and cleaning after last week's demo push.
June 04, 2004
Two Years
Sasha has formally turned two years old, after actually being two for quite some time. We had a party! And a cake! The cake was not as cute as last year's, but it was much tastier, so I think that's a net win.
Auntie Michelle was visiting, and took a really terrific gallery of pictures to document this auspicious event.
My theme for this year was, primarily, "do it the easy way." I used canned cherry pie filling and Jell-O instant pudding in the cake! I bought pre-made hummus, cole slaw, and potato salad! I made the guests do all the grilling their own selves! I didn't even wrap Sasha's presents from us!
Michelle and Jake stayed with us for the weekend, and although Jake left early, Michelle stayed on for a longer visit. They were instrumental in running a smooth party again this year, being pretty much the entire decorating and grilling crews, between them. Maybe next year I'll, like, pay them or something.
Although next year, we may have to have a kiddie party instead of an adult party. Argh. Well, I have a lot of time to block that thought out of my mind.
Michelle was a model houseguest during her stay. She ran the dishwasher! She picked up the living room! She baked muffins for me! And now, alas, she is gone, and I must go back to running my household on my own. I have to tell you, it hasn't been going so well...
My kitchen is: Well, it's not exactly DIRTY, but it isn't really CLEAN, either.
June 03, 2004
Three Magic Words
So I was playing DDR Max2 for PS2 on Endless Mode. And I had it on Light, sure, but there are still some 6-foot songs on Light mode. For those of you who are not Dance Dance initiates, this means that the game gives you a course to play of every single song in the game.
This can take a really long time. Forunately, it's automatically set to give you a break every five songs to go use the restroom, or get a drink of water, or use your asthma rescue meds, or whatever. I did eventually fail out, after what amounted to TWO HOURS of gameplay. I started during my lunch break, and wound up continuing through the day in little five-song snippets as I waited for downloads, CDs to burn, huge apps to install, etc., etc.
During this time, I heard three words I never thought I would hear in my life:
ONE THOUSAND COMBO.
This means that I got one thousand steps absolutely perfectly, without missing one. I actually got my combo well over 1200, but the announcer didn't go all spastic over that one the way he does over a thousand. When he says "ONE THOUSAND COMBO!" he sounds like he got so excited that his spleen popped out or something.
So does this mean that I'm really cool, that I'm a sad, sad loser, or just that I have too much time on my hands?