What's in a name?

Not much to it... a random question, whether simple or thought-provoking, is posed, giving you something to write about on days when you fail to be inspired by original material.

I logged into my LJ for the first time in a looooong time, and browsed through some of the questions. I came across this little one that I thought would be fun to answer:

How have people pronounced your name? How is it supposed to sound?

It's funny, isn't it? The name "Kelly" is actually quite common, people have no trouble pronouncing it correctly, and yet swap out one measly letter to make "Helly" and all of a sudden nobody can pronounce it.

The 2 most common mispronunciations of my name?
"Hee-ly"
and
"Hay-ly"

Every once in a while I get "Hal-ly" (as in Halle Berry)

Equally often? I get called Kelly, Holly, or Helen.

Then there is my last name. Y'know, neither of my names should be that hard to pronounce. Just look at the letters that spell them, and enunciate accordingly. "Kwee" should sound the way it is spelled (like "queen" without the ending "n").

But I've frequently gotten "Kee", "Kiwi" (my nickname as a cadet was "Kiwi"-- since everyone in the Army goes by last names), "Knee" (!!!) and everything else you could possibly imagine-- mostly garbled mumblings as people struggle to make sense of the 4 letters printed on the sheet before them.

My favorite comes from a classmate of mine, who studied the "Helly Kwee" I'd written on one of our lab writeups to turn in. She remarked:
"That makes my eyes cross. It looks like it should be 'Kelly Hwee' instead!"
Sadly... she wasn't the only to one to say it, as I've gotten that same remark a few times in the years following.

As a bit of a digression-- Allan has a different problem: not pronunciation, but spelling. Since he uses the less-common British spelling, most people assume his name is spelled "Alan" or even "Allen".
Surprisingly, the same befalls Todd: a lot of people think it's spelled with only one "d": Tod. Which is unnerving because "Tod" means "death" in German! O.O

How about you? Any interesting stories about common manglings of your name?

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/360373473)

Warning: Powerful speakers cause false alarms

A few years back we rummaged through a garage sale and came across a little stereo system. It had a 3-CD changer which was broken, but the radio and cassette player portions worked fine. Its price tag? $5. Not bad, considering we did need a cassette player, but it seemed a bit large and unwieldy just for that. Allan, however, noticed something else: the nice Bose speakers attached, good quality ones which would easily have been worth over $100 retail. So we bought it, and then promptly put it in the corner to collect dust for the next few years ;-P

Since Todd moved back in with us temporarily last month, we had to rearrange the bedroom a bit to make room for his extra items. So, I moved the stereo to the nightstand on Todd's side of the bed, figuring I could play classical music cassette tapes for him to listen to as he drifted off to sleep at night. That worked well... until the following weekend, when it came time to vacuum the bedroom, and the large speakers sitting on the floor proved yet again unwieldy.

This weekend, Allan hit upon the perfect solution. He has long owned one of those fancy-schmancy sound systems with the big subwoofer and all those little speakers you can scatter around your living room, creating the perfect surround-sound experience, yadda yadda yadda... Well, he swapped out two of the little speakers for the two Boses from the garage sale, and voila! Problem solved! Except... now there was the matter of where to put the big Bose speakers with respect to our tiny living room's entertainment center (keep in mind our entire apartment is maybe 800 sq. ft total, so "big and unwieldy" is a relative term). Allan discovered that they fit perfectly on the TV stand behind the TV itself. Proud of himself, he flopped down on the futon and settled down to watch a movie, trying out the new speaker hookup for a test drive.

Things sounded great! And heck-- if you were a blind person you would never have noticed the next mishap-- odd color effects on the TV screen.

"Oh crud", thought Allan, "the TV's finally going out". His next thought was one of glee: "Yay, that means we can get the big flat-screen monitor!" Fortunately for our bank account (and for his physical well-being), he wisely decided to investigate and see if he could fix the problem first. Sure enough, what do you suppose the cause was? The strong magnetic force of the speakers was distorting the TV colors! He put the speakers back down on the floor, the TV returned to normal, and he shook his head sadly-- gone was the excuse to get a nice, big flat-screen monitor :-P

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/359604236)

Valentine's Day

I don't feel very strongly about Valentine's Day, which seems to put me in a strange minority, as a lot of folks seem to be either loving it up or adamantly against it. Both camps have their points. I agree with those who dislike how commercialized it has become-- though that is also true of any holiday these days. At the same time, I don't buy into the "you should show her you love her more often than once a year" argument because if you think about it, that sort of "special attention" holds true at birthdays, anniversaries... and those come but once a year as well, and nobody lambasts such celebrations. Besides, if you shower your loved one with that kind of affection too frequently, the effect kind of wears of. Sort of like building up tolerance...

Anyway, our Valentine's Day was pretty low-key. We were so busy that we both forgot about it, until I dropped Todd off at school yesterday morning and noticed that all the othere parents were bringing their kids in with cards to hand out to their classmates! Eep! I felt bad that Todd didn't have anything for his friends, but looks like almost every kid brought something. Here is his little cache of Valentine cards:



At work, we got cupcakes! And in each person's mailbox was a little tin filled with "motivational" M&Ms. I guess they served a dual purpose: remind employees of the company's mission (the tins were labeled with "Connecting people like never before with fearless innovation and flawless tools") and give them a little Valentine's Day treat, as the candy was colored red, white, and beige. You can see the words "fearless" and "flawless" stamped on the back of each M&M:



As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I've been in training all week, which adds a bit of variable flexibility to my schedule. Yesterday we managed to finish ahead of schedule, which allowed Allan and me to pick up Todd together. He didn't seem too fazed at the sight of BOTH of us there, surprisingly. I was expecting him to say "Why are TWO of you picking me up?". Anyhoo, we trooped straight to IHOP from school, enjoying a nice little family dinner in honor of Valentine's Day :-) Nothing quite like breakfast for dinner, and then sharing some chocolate chip pancakes with my son for dessert! :-9

So... not the most sweepingly romantic of days or anything, but lots of fun nevertheless. And there's nothing quite like hearing "Happy Valentine's Day, Mommy" from little man... even if it was said in reciprocity :-)

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/358372420)

Food Pilfering, Part 3

It doesn't seem that long ago, but after trawling through my blog archives (made easier via my feeder) I realized I last blogged about lunch thieves over a year ago. Back then, I was at my former employer and the stolen goods consisted of generic, unmarked (with name tags, that is) frozen entrees stored in the community fridges. Here, the lunch thieves were a little more brazen.

I've been in training all week-- full day of class from 9 to 5 everyday, hence my current status. And as is the case in most companies, all-day training comes with free lunch. Nothing fancy-- sandwiches one day, lasagna another day, sammich wraps today... the usual catered fare. Most of the time, the food is delivered straight into the conference room where the class is taking place. But if the room is too small, where does it go? On a table outside the room, of course.

As you can imagine, that pretty much leaves it up for grabs for anyone that walks by. And most-- I repeat, *most* people maintain a bit of integrity and don't touch the food until the leftovers have been transported to the kitchen-- and by that point it's fair game for anyone.

Yesterday we ran out of food a little too quickly. Fortunately, everyone got to eat (at least I hope so!) but our admin coordinator was puzzled as to how we ran out so suspiciously fast-- there were only 11 of us in the class (including the instructor), and there was enough food to feed more than that. We realized that the people working nearby were taking liberties to assume that because nobody was lined up in front of the table, it meant we had all eaten, and they could raid the so-called "leftovers". Gee, not everyone immediately grabs food when we break for lunch. Some of us visit the bathroom first. Some of us linger in class, with extra questions or simply finishing the exercises. It's natural to assume that there will still be enough to grab when we finally make it to the table, right?

So, today, our AC put up not one, but two notes warning people that the food was for us, and to please wait until 2pm before assuming the leftovers were free for the taking. It's not even 2pm as I write this...

What do you think, dear readers? Do you suppose this deterred yesterday's pilferers? What do you gather I witnessed today?

Photobucket Survey

Swiped from Kendra :-D

1) Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into Photobucket
3) Take a picture from the first page of results and copy the html code.
4) You can't copy the persons answers who posted this before you!

1. The age you will be on your next birthday:


2. A place you'd like to travel:


3. Your favorite place:


4. Your favorite object:


5. Your favorite food:

 
6.Your Favorite Shape (not really, but I love saying its name):


7. Your favorite color:


8. The town in which you were born?


9. What did you do last weekend?


10. The name of your pet:


11. The first name of your love (after pages of weird-looking guys, I decided to pick the most offbeat one I could find!):


12. Your nickname/screen name (obviously, my screenname yielded nothing, so I had to go the nickname route):


13. Your Current Job?


14. Favorite Show?


15. A habit of yours:


16. Your first job:


17. Your grandmother's name (no results turned up, of course, so I used the name Todd used to call her):


18. Your favorite book:


19. Your favorite animal (this little guy is so cool, he's my new IM icon)?


20. The town in which you live?


21. Your name (anyone recognize this brand logo)?


22. Your middle name?


23. Your last name (no, that is not me :-P)?


24. Favorite Band?


25. Something that you love (it was a tossup between 2 answers, so I put both):
and

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/356488067)

How to diffuse an argument

In my previous blog entry, Kendra made a comment that referenced a status I had up sometime last week-- something about how Allan is a "normal" person (emphasis on the quotation marks here). I promised to elaborate more later, so here I am now.

Couples argue. That is a given fact. After all, we're all individual human beings and we're bound to disagree from time to time. And, all arguments must end, some way or another. Sometimes they end because one party concedes that they were wrong and the other was right. Sometimes they end via compromise. And sometimes they end because both parties ran out of steam but will pick up again right where they left off, the next time this issue (or something similar) crops up.

Then, there is the solution that seems to work well in the Kwee/Knight household: laughter.

Allow me to illustrate:

A few years back, shortly before his birthday, Allan and I were having a pretty intense argument, about what exactly, I no longer remember. But I do remember bringing up a point about his maturity (or lack thereof?) for I emphatically said: "You are a 36-year-old man!", as if to say "you should know better!"
Which... isn't really so bad. Except for the fact that he was still only 34 at the time. I didn't do it on purpose, either! In the heat of the moment, I honestly thought he was already 35 and just a few weeks away from his 36th birthday! With such an unintentional yet hilarious insult, how else could the mood go except for us to dissolve in a fit of giggles?

So how about the heated discussion that brought about that "normal" status?
Well, a person invariably talks differently to their spouse than they do to other (i.e. "normal") people, right? There's less formality, fewer inhibitions, more familiarity. And we were arguing about how I talk to him. He pointed out that he was my husband, and then emphasized that point with: "I am NOT a normal person!"
It was all I could do to keep a straight face... for about 5 seconds. Long enough to dawn on him what he just said, and for both of us to start up the raucous laughter again. This was even better than the "36-year-old" remark, because this time HE foisted the insult onto himself-- all by himself, too! I've never let him forget that "not normal" assertion ever since!

They say laughter is the best medicine. Apparently, sometimes it even serves as a pretty good antidote for major quarrels and minor spats!

The Week in Review

Wow, talk about time flying by. Has it really been nearly a week since I blogged? I guess the days are just both too long and too short. The days are long because they start so early (compared to what my scheduled USED to be, anyway!). Up a little after 7am, and after dropping Todd off at preschool, it's a busy day of work until around 6pm. Come home, and take care of little man until he goes to bed at around 8pm, then household chores and a bit of relaxation before bedtime. At the same time, the days seem incredibly short because there's just soooo much to do, and keeping busy helps make the hours fly by faster than a Concorde. It's not just any kind of busy, either-- it's a good productive busy. You know, the kind that leaves you feeling tired at the end of the day, but it's a good feeling anyway because you know you're tired because you've accomplished a lot.

Work has been going pretty well so far. I'm still struggling to get my programming environment set up properly and get stuff running correctly, but progress continues. At the very least I'm gaining a good understanding of why I'm getting these various error messages. I've learned quite a bit this past week and a half, and actually look forward to coming in everyday!

My team lead works remotely from the Midwest, so it's definitely a bit different to have to correspond with him via media that don't involve face-to-face contact. Still, it works pretty well all around, though I do wonder how inconveniencing the 3-hour time difference can be for him sometimes...

As you can tell, the company is pretty cool about working remotely from home. Heck, our main focus is on software solutions that enable exactly that-- real-time remote access from anywhere. That'll bode well for the inevitable days when Allan and I will be busy and have to put in a few overtime hours, yet still manage to get Todd to and from school.

The company also has a very dog-friendly policy-- you can bring your faithful canine friends to work with you! Of course, I brought Rocky :-D Sorry Scot, no bring-your-cat-to-work policies yet! ;-) My team lead's cat was getting in the way while we were troubleshooting some of my problems over IM, and I mused at how at least home can be very cat-friendly!

What else? Todd's faring well in his new school. Still eats too slow to finish lunch in time, and still a bit shy about asking for important things like going to the bathroom, but they say he's starting to get familiar with all the other teachers, so that's progress. Almost every day a kid is featured as the "Christian Soldier" of the day-- in other words, it's that kid's turn to bring in something for show-and-tell. This month's theme is "my favorite dance moves", so we're gonna have to think up something creative for Todd, as it's his turn on the 21st. I'm thinking something from Blue's Clues. Any other ideas?

So, that was my week in a nutshell. Not much to write about, just a few observations on what makes this job (or more accurately, this work environment) unique and how little man is doing. One thing's for certain: I'm having fun so far, and that makes all the difference in the world!

p.s. The score seems to have evened out a bit-- I experienced a host of technical, IT-related difficulties this past week, while Allan did not. So, will someone please tell him to stop pouting!? ;-P

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/355137464)

Allan Gets No Love

... from work, that is!

Despite the fact that he started 2 weeks before I did, I seem to have gotten the royal treatment compared to him. Take my first day, for instance:

I arrived at my new cubicle and found not one, but TWO computers: a Windows machine and a Linux machine. Allan has only one. Okay, that was probably justified because my group needs to do development on both machines, so it's a given that everyone has 2 machines. But still, this bit of geekish "competition" was amusing ;-)

Not only that, but on my desk were also some basic office supplies, including more "luxurious" items like a nice leather binder, and gel wristpad for the keyboard and mousepad. Allan just got the basic office supplies. No fancy gel wrist rests. And no leather binder.

(to add insult to injury, I actually had TWO mousepads on my desk. And yes, I decided to be nice (for once!) and gave the extra one to Allan)

We all get magnetic key cards so we can enter the building through the side entrance. Allan's card didn't work until a few days after he started. Mine worked instantly. Well, I didn't get a chance to check until my 2nd day, but it worked when I arrived that morning :-D

Then, today-- the real kicker! We passed by the mailboxes section on the way to the kitchen for a snack, and we inspected it to see if our names had been added yet. Sure enough, there was a slot with my name on it. As you can imagine, there was nothing for Allan.

Well, at least Allan has one thing going in his favor: the printer next to his desk does duplex printing. The one near mine does not. I guess he had to catch a break eventually, eh!

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/353232018)

New Beginnings, cont'd

Is it Friday yet? It sure feels like it. It seems surreal that we haven't even reached the middle of the week. For the first time in my life I've got a taste for what it's like to juggle full-time work (for both of us) with parenthood.

Allan dropped Todd off at his first day of his new preschool/day care yesterday. Though I was confident that the drop-off would pose no problems (since Todd is used to going to school every day, he no longer has separation anxiety over it), I had trepidations about what would go on IN school. Like his slow eating. Or his shyness at asking for help (i.e. going to the bathroom, asking for a drink). Or his tendency to let his eyes and mind wander and not pay attention, esp in new surroundings. I was also concerned about how the kids would occupy their time after school (which only runs till lunchtime).

Sure enough, when I went to pick him up, Todd was playing in a freezing cold room where a harried teacher was busy minding a half dozen other rambunctious (some shrieking and wailing) kids. His jacket was barely staying on, as it wasn't zipped up. His hands were freezing. Worse yet, he was wet, because he had been too timid to get up from his nap cot to ask for a trip to the bathroom. Lord only knows how long he was wet in that cold room. Then I opened his backpack-- except for the empty juice bottle, the food was more or less intact. He'd eaten nothing for lunch. Off we went towards home, where I quickly gave him a hot shower and stuffed him full of good food. All the while, I repeatedly instructed him on what to do the next day, like asking for help zipping up his jacket, and making sure to go to the bathroom, and eating all his lunch!

It must have helped, for today he ate most of his lunch (at the expense of not drinking, though :-P Well, we'll get there). He was dry. And his jacket was zipped up and the playroom wasn't freezing like yesterday. Small steps. Now we just have to figure out how to get him to give us more than an "I don't know" when we ask him what he did at school today :-P

As for me, my first day was about as busy as can be expected, mostly with admin stuff. Then today I "met" with my team lead, who actually lives in Kentucky and works remotely. So, lots of phone calls, and keeping mindful of the 3-hour time difference. Still, it's great that the company values him enough to allow him to move across the country (due to personal reasons) and still work for them. Our project manager is a British expat who commiserated about the recent record-breaking spate of rain we had. After all, he'd left England to get away from precisely this kind of dreary weather! ;-) And of course, because the company is based in Santa Barbara, it recruits heavily from my alma mater, UCSB, and I've already run into a ton of familiar names and faces just roaming the halls. Quite an eclectic mix, all around!

The days so far seem long, but the hours have been very productive, so the time flies by very quickly. Having a commute under 10 minutes is a welcome change from the near-hour commutes I used to make to Amgen. And nothing beats having my very own personal slave-- ahem, I mean, loving source of help, both technical and physical, just downstairs :-)

I'm actually looking forward to another busy day tomorrow. No more meetings to interrupt me, but I've got a nice long laundry list of things to do, endless sources of help when the need arises (and I know it will, a lot) and interesting projects to jump headfirst into. And, with a little luck, Todd will settle down in his new school and actually start paying attention and learning stuff!

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/352963416)

New Beginnings All Around

It's been raining so much this past couple weeks that the ants have sought refuge indoors. Fortunately I only saw about a half dozen in the bathtub, let's hope that's all there is, and not just the advanced party conducting a recon mission. Kinda ironic, isn't it? Wasn't that long ago that I was complaining about the warm, windy, skin-parchingly dry weather, longing for rain instead, and wham! I sure got my wish, didn't I? And I didn't even have to move up north for it!

I let myself get a haircut before the weekend. Turned out a wee bit shorter than I anticipated, but it's been really nice not having all that unruly hair to mess with in the morning, and the nights I wash my hair are definitely more pleasant. I use up far less shampoo, there's less hair clogging the drain (don't worry, I do use a hair-catching net) and my hair dries a lot faster! Allan, whose job it is to clean the floors, likes that there aren't as many notorious "Helly hairs" to clean up anymore-- I typically shed worse than a dog or cat.

Tomorrow both Todd and I begin something new. I start at my new job and Todd starts at his new preschool. I was a bit sad to take him out of his old one in LA, as he'd made friends and was learning some really good stuff. Now, the stuff they covered there was already pretty advanced, but as it turns out, his new school in SB is even more advanced, covering things normally taught in kindergarten, even first grade! After taking the tour on Friday and hearing about where the pre-K kids were in the curriculum, I realized Todd was actually a bit behind. So, I don't have to worry that he'll be understimulated in the class, at least!

Time to get ready to head out and meet some old school friends for brunch. Many have graduated and scattered to the four corners of the earth, and a lot of them are in town for the film festival this weekend, so it will be a great opportunity to catch up with folks I haven't seen in months, even years! Let's hope we don't drown on the way from the apartment to the car! ;-P

Good News

I got a call from the recruiter at Citrix yesterday, giving me the official job offer. Now I just have to wait on the paperwork and stuff. But I should be starting a new job in a little over a week! Allan's already there-- he started Monday. Should be fun to have lunches together :-)

More randomosity:

Mom's started chemotherapy this week, too. It's really taking its toll. Not too badly, but not that great, either. She can get by on her own but doesn't have enough strength or energy to look after a rambunctious and difficult Toddler. Which means that next week will be Todd's last week of preschool. Such a shame-- I really liked his school, they teach all kinds of good stuff there! They've already started learning basic addition and how to tell time, and most of the kids are only 3-4 years old! But since my mom won't be able to care for him during the day, and since I'll be starting to work again, I have to take him to a preschool/day care in Santa Barbara. I've found one that's reasonably close by, and they seem to have a good program, so fingers crossed that things work out with getting Todd placed there.

Our brief respite of warm weather is over. It's been replaced by cold Santa Anas again, which really sucks. There is nothing I hate worse than cold, dry winds. I'll take constant rain over skin-parching 50mph winds anyday!

Jenna's citrus peel soap gift has really turned me on to aromatherapy. I really needed some yesterday, but I'm down to a tiny sliver. So I'll have to be on the lookout for more next time I'm near one of the Lush stores in LA. In the meantime, I treated myself to a fruity-smelling bath gel from the "bath and body" section of Target :-9

I'm addicted to El Pollo Loco's $1 Loco Nachos. The cheese sauce is incredibly delicious. I blame my husband for this new unhealthful addiction :-P Fortunately, their $1 salads are sinfully tasty as well, and provide a nice, healthy balance ;-)

The little man and I had fun making silly-looking headwear out of towels yesterday. I decided to take some snapshots for posterity, what a giggle!
http://toddsdiary.blogspot.com/2008/01/towel-hat-silliness.html

Time to go brave the winds and do a bit of last-minute shopping before I pick up Todd!

Back With My Phone

As you probably gathered from my status, I'm back in LA for the next week and a half. And as some of you know, it means I've been reunited with my cell phone, which I left at my parents' house when we returned to SB after Christmas.

So I wanna know which one of my wiseacre friends left me a text message to say "your phone misses you!" ;-P

It gave me a good laugh when I got home on Tuesday and read it.

 I played endless phone tag with the recruiter this week, and it didn't help matters that I had to use Allan's phone for part of it and she had my cell phone number on file, etc... so it's safe to say that *I* missed my phone this past couple weeks, too!

:-D

Jingle Bells with a Bonus

In April of last year I found a website that features online karaoke, and went crazy making my own recordings:

http://www.singshot.com/user.html?userId=9CszAnQKOps%3D

You can even tell at what point I stopped using my laptop's built-in mic and plugged in an external one (the sound of my computer's fan disappears). After blogging one of my songs on Grab, I promptly forgot all about the website.

Then, when Allan got his new laptop this past weekend, I rediscovered the karaoke sites, including one that lets you film yourself with your webcam as you sing. Since Allan's new computer comes with a built-in webcam, I waited until he put his new toy down before seizing it and exploring those features.

Here's a little sampling, a duet performed by Todd and me: "Jingle Bells". It's pretty ordinary and nothing to clamor about, but the entertaining part comes at the end of the song. I had forgotten to hit the "Stop" button when we finished singing, and though the mic shut off, the webcam continued to record. What follows is several (silent) minutes of Todd and me playing with SingSnap's various video settings and having fun observing our recorded selves onscreen. My new turtle, Pistachio, features prominently in this (don't laugh. Okay, laugh-- but not too hard :-P)






(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/345402522)

New Computer

I am typing this from Allan's new laptop, which arrived safe and sound last night, poor UPS man looking like a drowned rat. It's a pretty nice laptop, even if it IS a Mac ;-P The keyboard is a bit funky-- the keys are spaced out a bit more than they usually are, but I like it! It also comes built in with a webcam, here's a sample photo taken just minutes earlier:



I'm still miffed that there is only one mouse button. I don't think I'll ever take Macs that seriously until they start making laptops with TWO buttons. And yes, I know I can emulated right-clicks and middle-clicks but I prefer the convenience of actual, physical buttons :-P I also use the PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys with more frequency than I realized, and the lack of such keys on a Mac laptop keyboard make it that much less user-friendly for me.

I enjoyed a nice, quiet day today, sans boys. Allan took Todd on an extended shopping trip south of town and I got to enjoy a nice, peaceful apartment in which to do whatever I pleased. So, I got a chance to catch up on lots of reading, yay! As much as I love my boys and love hanging out with them, it's always nice to have a "just me" day once in a while. Back to the grind now... starting with dinner! :-9

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/344737135)

It's Raining, It's Pouring

... the old man is snoring!

Feels like the storm of the century has hit. Gusty winds AND cold, pelting rain all day today. When I came back to the apartment this afternoon, I had to haul my umbrella and wet shoes INSIDE because even the covered parts of our front porch and back patio were getting soaked from rain blowing every which way. My pants were instantly tossed in the hamper due to all the dirt I splattered on it, just walking. We're supposed to get record amounts of rain this next couple days. I suppose, as dry as So Cal normally is, we do need it. Plus it makes for coziness indoors-- warm and listening to the pitter patter outside.

I stopped by the store today and grabbed some excellent after-Christmas deals, 75% off everything holiday-related. But my biggest amusement came in the form of a "sale" item-- sweaters originally marked at $25 apiece and that I saw priced at $10 last week. Today they were marked "Clearance!!"... and priced at $12. Yeah-- more like a clearance of shoppers' wallets :-P

My New Year's Eve was relatively uneventful. I had put Todd down for a long nap earlier that afternoon, figuring it would cause him to stay up till midnight and catch some fireworks on TV with us. At 11:30, however, he was yawning and actually saying "yes" to the notion of going to bed (something he rarely does), so I tucked him into bed and headed for the living room. We watched the ball drop on Times Square, toasted each other with sparkling blueberry juice, and then watched a bit of regular TV. At 12:30 I went to check in on Todd, who was still awake!! Ah well, 4th of July shall provide an opportunity for even more fireworks, AND a warmer environment in which to watch them.

Yesterday Todd surprised me by choosing the library over shopping (where he knew there was an ample selection of toys to browse). I told him I wanted to go shopping, but he chimed in with "I want to go to the library". So, off we went to the library instead, coming home with an armful of books-- a couple for me, and a dozen for Todd :-)

Then today I read him some of his books aloud, and I just wanna know-- why is it so tiring to read books out loud? I was absolutely bushed by the time I'd finished a round of stories. I mean, it's not like it's very physically taxing-- sitting comfortably on our futon, maybe a bit of strain on my vocal cords, but other than that... so why was I tired and sleepy at the end of it?

Time for dinner... Allan has been waiting home all day today for his new computer to arrive. I guess UPS is waiting till the absolute last minute to deliver it to our doorstep. In any case, it's made for some fun ribbing at Allan's expense, getting his dander up over the slight possibility that he might have to wait yet another day for his much-anticipated new toy ;-) Aren't women evil? ;-D

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/344422846)