Thursday, July 28, 2011

Junkfood & Exercise

The Kid is currently enrolled in Soccer Camp. This is thanks to Coach P. -- who is not just a coach but a family friend and has been kind enough to help facilitate getting our child there, otherwise there would be no opportunity.

(truthfully we are that family that our friends help out with rides and pick ups all the time.)

We were a little worried how The Kid would do. Not the stamina -- the Kid can run. However how does one's loving mother say this politely? He is not a natural and he's not very competitive.

He's fine. He talks a bit about the types of drills and watching soccer videos during digestion time. He sleeps hard, is harder to wake up in the morning and is constantly snacking and eating when he is home.

However he is obsessed with the food perks of soccer camp. They are fed by the USF cafeteria which is also feeding the baseball camp. They feed them college kid food: Chicken Tenders & French Fries, Pizza, Hot Dogs & Mac n' Cheese and everything comes with fruit salad. It's kinda junkie I know, but these boys and girls are running around playing soccer and baseball between 2 - 4 hrs a day and need to eat something. They need to feed towards what the majority will eat I suppose. I wonder how the vegetarians are hanging... Part of me winces, but the other part me figures he gets two meals out of me and more a day to balance that out.

Now ask me if I have.

Hm, those apples look nice on the kitchen table don't they?

The other thing that The Kid loves about soccer camp is their "snack shop". Parents and Guardians hand in a "deposit" and the kids can buy things against their account balance. The kid started off with $10 in the kitty and we've added $5 to it. Apparently he has quite the affinity for Gatorade.

I like the junkfood too. However the weird thing is, I try to take class so I don't have to think as much about how much/what I want to eat, yet after I take class, I don't want anything junky. Exercise days, I want things like won ton soup or Salad.

Did I just write something positive about salad? sigh. Next I'll say I prefer water over wine. HA!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Verbal Butt Pats

So I was talking to Zupan about her softball team. The late summer season just started, and she rallies her troops on a Saturday morning to throw the ball, run the bases and spit a little innocent chatter.

It's still fun to get out there she says. I asked her if they still do the verbal butt pats. You know:

"Good Eye!"

"Good Job!"

"Nice Hustle!"

"Shake it off!"

And so on...

I told her HM said to me at the end of a mtg, "Good Job!". It wasn't quite running off the infield after a double play to close out half an inning, but you know, I'll take it.

I told her I think I need more verbal butt patting.

Zupan said, "No kidding huh? When else in life do we get that? I'd love if after a class that I busted my ass preparing for, a student would come up to me and say, "Nice Lecture!!"

Until then I'll have to try and manage my own neediness -- maybe tape up a "Good Job!" affirmation under my keyboard. ha!

nah.

Monday, July 25, 2011

An Oldie but Goodie

No, I'm not talking about the Man Friend! ha!

I was actually talking to Coach P. yesterday about the Atlantic Monthly article that I posted about earlier. He agreed that the Atlantic Monthly really is an enjoyable read.

He then sent me this old article from the New York.

Sometimes I am crippled by propriety, sometimes from self doubt in every aspect of my life. I loathe it, but I need to learn to trust my instinct, and then temper it.

The Man Friend is on board in the new regime of consistency, and non negotiations. He is on board to help find The Kid's inner drive. I'm feeling more comfortable pushing (within reason). I'm okay that I have expectations.

Mind you I say all of this like it's the first week of my new "Get Healthy: Lose Weight, Gain Life!" personal campaign.

Check on me in a month and see if we're still team, "Grow a self sufficient, confident well adjusted competent kid"

You never know, all three of us could be back on "Team Lazypants Parenting".

Sunday, July 24, 2011

WTF Knitting Moment #1145

So, I sat down with a sleeve last night. I was thinking, "Ahhh, I'm almost done with my decreasing. In my head I was sure the pattern said, "Decrease every 10 rounds 7 times." I even used my row counter, using the tens side to count my repeats along w/the rows ...

I knit a round, and picked up the pattern to see what exciting inches were coming next in sleeveland, and to my dismay, I read this:

Decrease round: K1, ssk, k to last 3
sts, k2tog, k1.
Repeat this decrease round every 10
(9, 8, 7, 6, 5) rounds 5 (6, 7, 8, 9,
10) times more.
[39 (41, 45, 47, 51, 55) sts]

Now it is important that I am honest and tell you, that I DID pick up the instructions while working on my rounds every now and again. And each time, I would always read the same thing. (Not what was actually printed.)

Somehow I transposed AND ignored parenthesis all at the same time. Pretty impressive screw up right? I know. My mother would be proud. Bananas! is prolly just laughing at my latest attempt at self sabotage.

Well looks like I'm pulling out a sleeve tonight, and starting again. I'd make it short sleeved, except then it would be ugly.

*Sigh.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

This could've been a facebook post 3x

1. Why does Yahoo mail really really want me to check out the singles scene ... in El Cerrito?

Why are they blonde men and 20 something women?

2. Haha. annoying facebook friends. Which one would you be? I'd like to say, living a great lifestyle and constantly reminding you. Maybe disingenuous dude?

Misery Lady. I know her. I'd rather do sit-ups than read those posts. Maybe she has some good lemon curd recipes for a "creative day" to go with that sourpuss. Ha!

3. Whoa. new levels of crankypants. Maybe I need some starch.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Coming to Conclusions

I have horrible taste in music.

I get the most unfortunate pop songs stuck in my head. I will find myself singing along to the ipod radio in my cubicle, and immediately want to run into the bathroom like it's Jr. High School all over again.
MoRe THAN I died, I felt mortified. Okay I can't recall if that really happened, but I was(am?) melodramatic enough that I am unable to completely deny it either.

I watched a video on the Sunday morning video show and thought, gosh this is long, monotone and kind of boring. Not just the video of these "cool, fun guys" playing music and showing us what good friends they are ... but the song should've ended like 2 minutes earlier. I didn't even make it all the way through the video. The Kid asked what it was (like he cares if it isn't Green Day!). I said "I don't know, it's kind of boring." and then I said, "I kinda liked it though."

WHAT?? with half-cocked dog ears.

Total true confession: I'm that person that they pick the car commercial "pop music" for. However I have NEVER bought a new car. I would not buy a Hyundai b/c the pop music told me to. I promise.

I think I might be the person when the hip hop song comes on with egregious cow belling that The Man Friend would say, "Is that really necessary?" I will say in my head, "What? It helps keep the dance shaking on rhythm, duh!" I think my ManFriend fears egregious shaking. Seriously!! I remember we went to a dance club to gawk (careful with the brown booze kids) and he was watching some really bad "freak dancing" Like the girl was a stripper, and the guy was the pole and the Man Friend looked like he vomited it a little in his mouth. Ha! I wonder if he equates all cowbell music shaking with that now. Is he scarred for life now. Ahh, but that was a fun night! Ha!

I think you get my point. I think I am going to just keep my love for stupid whackadoo pop music that is known to start wars and end divorces on the down-low for now. I know it's not a huge secret, but it doesn't really need to get out there either, just how Low my Low Brow can go.

I do think there is more behind my attraction to pop music. Hmm -- something else to over analyze later, naturally.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Missing Pieces

I haven't posted in a bit so I will put in a bullet list to suffice. These are missing pieces in my life.
  • Clean surface space
  • Consistent flossing
  • Parenting this is clearly defined as "parental expectation" opposed to my son's version of "parental suggestion".
  • Proper dinners. (lately we have fallen shamelessly into way too many make do with leftover nights. Which would be fine, but we are snacking, grazing and not sitting together and having normal conversation, which I hear is ALL the rage.)
  • Cake. I have been craving it and not having it. I've tried a piece of chocolate, I've tried eating something else to keep the desire at bay. Here's the truth, it's something else I've eaten, it's not chocolate cake, and I'm not stupid, and apparently neither are my cravings. I am going to have to bake some chocolate cake this week.
  • Spare time. Yeah yeah. "Blah, blah, blah.", as The Kid says.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Periodic Periodical Reading

So I think I've blahed on and on about my love of the brief but informative articles within The Week ...

But this weekend when we were at Barnes and Nobles doing the "go to your grandparents house" drop off in Corte Madera I think I found my big girl pants in the Periodical section.

I was excited about getting them home to read (without worrying about neglecting my 8 year old ... again) like The Kid with a Lego Catalog in the mailbox.

I got Vogue Knitting, because suddenly I think I need to knit vests. I blame HM. Then again I like this other Vogue pattern as well ... http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/08-long-cardigan-vest. Bananas do you have this issue? We can discuss more later. For now, I really need to focus my attention on finishing something in progress, after I read my periodical.

I also got The Atlantic which I have been wooed by again. I really like reading the letters to the editors too. Fun times. I really enjoyed the cover article. It was important for me to hold up the mirror in my own contradicting parenting style. (great, I've always wanted a style of my own, and the only thing I can actually muster up is parenting? pah-thetic.) On the other hand, I think that I feel better knowing that other professionals out there agree that, you can't hope that one day your kids will be able to figure things out on their own, if you've never given them the skill set until the end of childhood.

Do I think you need to go all Spartan parenting style on them like I often feel like I want to? No. Balance Ellen, Balance. Yeah I'm crap at that too.

It got me thinking back to basics. I love holding his hand, literally. I love that at 8 he still wants to, he is a sweet boy. Snobby a lot of the time, but sweet a lot of the other times too ... but back to basics. Stop thinking so much. Communicate, but appropriately. Don't think for him.

Basics what is our job? Not necessarily in a hierarchical order:

#1 Keep The Kid Alive. Survival. This is important. I need someone to make sure I get my snacks when I'm an elderly lady. (Hopefully I'll make it to elderlyland)

#2 Teach the Kid to Survive on it's own.

#3 Teach Kid to be a kind compassionate person. Respectful and considerate of others.

#4 Teach the Kid the value of their own voice and happiness.

Not very impressive, I know other people have got more dazzle and determination for their progeny, but this is us.

Ah yes, but moving out of tangent #4569 I got ONE more periodical ... The Economist. Right? Right? I like the stuff in there, but DAMN that crap is D E N S E, like an ACME anvil. Hmm. I feel smarter just looking at it ;)

Right! You know I'm secretly thinking to break-up the Fantasy Fiction problem I might read the new James Bond novel. Mmmm, escapism. Tastes like See's Candies Scotchmallows (preferably in Dark Chocolate ... oh yeah)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Exciting Things

No Mom, I'm not having another baby. Seeing how I can barely do dishes daily, it's not so sad as you are probably going to tell me that is.

Also I noticed if you are knitter and you blog about knitting and then you have a baby ... your content suffers ... at least it seems to, to me. Your patterns are small people centric, super cutesy, your words are more ... cutesy, and I'm usually envious that you are able to have someone under 5 and still knit and write and make homemade baby food while experimenting with focaccio recipes and high res SLR photos. whoa. I N S E CU R E much?

I am not a baby hater. (and no that is not an exciting thing.)

This article on Slate about how Freakin' Fantastic Ravelry is, as a focused social network. For all my friends that mock me, IT or not about knitting and my constantly saying, you can find me on Ravelry, not on Facebook ... Validation at last!(Thanks Harrigan for the sharin')

July 15: HP7 Pt II. The trailers look soo good. I may have to re read Book 7 again.

Which might keep me from pre-ordering and devouring this: A Dance with Dragons

Funtime Japanese snack shop opening in Westfield Mall ... just two MUNI stops away!!
Calbee

Pale Horse is a new Ms. Marple Masterpiece Mystery! on PBS this Sunday. I "Nook'd" it and thought I'd read ahead for best marks on my Compare and Contrast essay. ha! Well lesson #1, Agatha Christie has her main narrator NOT as Ms. Marple but as a Mark Easterbrook. More interestingly Mrs. Oliver the Mystery writer is a notable character, but I remember her from the Poirot mysteries. Then again, were those the screen plays ... or the novels. Who Cares Yay for Mysteries!

Okay and knitting. Let's not forget that I am getting my money's worth out of those Addis. I must have some progress on my projects finished when Lu and Bananas! return from vacation.

More Ellen Excitement to come!!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Independence Weekend!! Free to be Me!

This weekend I attempted the Ellen re-versionist history of "America's Birthday" with The Kid of Nutella toast and tea ... I think I got a C+. I think I could've done better given more time to prep and of course ... more coffee.

This weekend, we got rid of some more crap. Not much, but things that needed to be done.

The Kid and I went and did a big walk from Downtown to the Embarcadero back up through Chinatown after a Dim Sum stop and then back through Union Square. We got keys made (You heard it HM & Harrigan!) when the kid stopped me going through the Stockton tunnel and said, "2 sets ... one for your office, one for my backpack ... in case you forget them ... again."

The Kid managed to embrace the cleaning with minimal yelling on Saturday. (I'll take one day out of three thank you very much)

We ate out of the fridge. We didn't try to plan every meal, but there was food enough for another family.

I worked on my stir-fry noodles for breakfast (needs work, needs cabbage and more onion and higher heat etc.)

I got in a Zumba morning class on Sunday (Yay Koolaid!) at a Mobu Studio: http://www.mobudancestudio.com/. Super fun, really a hard work out, I was dying at the end, and again, people so nice it makes you feel like humanity has a chance ;)

I drove to class and back. I drove way too fast. I didn't mean to, I wasn't angry. It was almost so empty it felt like I should. I wanted to race a taxi on Folsom. I didn't but I looked at him so he would know that I was faster than him. And then I did get to the stop light faster than him, but ... we weren't racing.

As if exercise and not racing taxis wasn't enough to make me smiley face, I got some alone time in too, as the boys were set to Beyblade AND video game battle. The Kid received $20 from Great Aunt Deb and had been reading product reviews online Thursday and Friday. After a trip to Toys R Us together, I knew I would be useless to him most of the day except as someone to report back his toy research findings. ha! So spoiled I know! But not as spoiled as me...

I spent enough money at Imagiknit to make sure all the staffers get paid. I bought 10 hanks of Peruvia Quick to knit this: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/aidez

I know, bulky ass wool yarn during one of the hottest weeks San Francisco has ever known in July? Dude, it's called inspiration -- go with it. I see all these friends, bloggers, knit shop kindly staffers who knit what is fun.

Stockinette loses it's fun, even if it's easy.

So even though Aidez is pieces that must be seamed together, think positive!! big yarn, big needles + cabling = fun times! I'm looking forward to it! That's what knitting is about!

And I couldn't leave the shop without a little happy squishy shawl stash of Madelinetosh Worsted. Oooo dreamy and a colorway chockful of warm that I never knit. It's different. I'm feeling different.

Besides I think that one stockinette sweater on the needles is enough ...

Yet, once I decided that it was okay to take a step back from the "Have To" of finishing the Effortless cardigan, I wanted to knit it.

I know, I sweeten my coffee with twisted logic every morning.

So even after I picked up a sleeve and it looked like an armpit had two holes in it, after 7 rounds or so. I pulled out the sleeve. But see, I had let go again, and decided sleeves aren't so bad and tried again, with better results.

I was able to go to a fun-time BBQ with the family and come back and wind two more balls of yarn that I will probably need to finish this sleeve and the next and the 3 inch ribbing all the way around. (Endless I tell you.)

This is all fine. I also balled 3 hanks of the Peruvia Quick, just lookin' at me all seductively. "You know you want to cable me ..."

!giggle! Oh how I do.

So the weekend started out a Mother and son meandering about, snacks and chores and screwed up knitting, we both got new shiny distraction and ignored each other for appropriate amounts of happy time.

Yay Independence Weekend!