Dagnabit that's fun...

After Thanksgiving we discovered the fun of Dance Dance Revolution for our unused PS2. Julia would play this for hours and hours. Dan, Anna and I would fight for our turns. We had some friends over and they were desperate to play. Hilarity ensued. We have had many a cold afternoon or snowy evening in spent dancing away.

Julia received Singstar 80's and High School Musical Sing It for Christmas. As a family we had fun singing along and Julia and Anna just love singing HSM tunes. Once again, it was mentioned in passing at a gathering with friends, and everyone was begging to play SingStar. Seriously it was so much fun. Without drinking (I do believe it would be even more fun fully plowed, but this is the "non drinking" group). I know.

It was great to see the wallflower stand up and belt out Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". Some took it very seriously and some just giggled their way through it.

Sunday morning after this little shindig the phone calls and texts confirmed that much fun was had, and everyone was hoarse from all the singing.

Shockingly, everyone was trying to make plans for another night of SingStar excitement. Challenges were laid out, emails exchanged debating the next version to be played (Pop won out over Rock and Amped).

Round two was just as much fun (although I can't wait to do Singstar Rocks!!) and there are discussions of multiple TVs, some with DDR and some with Singstar, and all out tomfoolery.

I have never felt older in my life. Geez we're dorks.

More rain on the way...

I like to add more craziness to my life...

Wednesday is a half day for the kidlets at school. Julia has an afternoon birthday party (involving swimming). Then after that she has her first rehearsal for the play she's in. Did I mention we're supposed to have 3 to 10" of snow (an amount somewhere in that range I guess) and sleet, ice and rain? Nice.

Normally we don't have anything going on. Days and days go by with us just hanging out at the house, playing outside in the snow, playing board and card games at our way too big kitchen table, cooking together, you know, the good old boring stuff. Then all at once everything will get shoved into one weekend, or even better... one day.

Did I mention I'm done with the rain?? We just put our furniture back after last big rainy day flood, so I'm not looking forward to more of the stuff.

I have something to admit.

I like snow.

The icy, slippery stuff is annoying, but other than that, I like winter.

I'm not counting the days till Spring, I'm not frustrated by rumors of more white stuff.

I can't believe it. Me, who loved those balmy winter days in Arizona is in love with cold weather and snow.

I think part of my ability to stomach this weather is that for the most part, we have blue skies and sun most of the time here. Gray, overcast days are fewer and far between than the Michigan winter days of my youth.

I will say here though, that this rain in February stuff is a load of crap. Crap, I tell ya.

Last week while Dan was out of town we had way too much fun here.

It started out onWednesday, my first day covering the office for one of my clients. We had 7 inches of snow. Did I mention Dan was out of town? Yes. Julia is off school for a snow day. I head out to shovel out the van and then head back inside to dry off and get everyone up, dressed and ready to head out the door. We spend the next 8 hours cooped up inside the office and watching the snow turn to an actual pouring rain. It rained all day. Getting home we walked through 6" of puddled water because the 2 foot snow banks on the sidewalk wasn't letting the water go anywhere.

After finishing dinner our neighbor calls and asks if we were flooding. "No, thank God!" was my answer. After two more minutes of conversation I promptly respond again with, "Oh shit, we are flooding!" I notice the carpet in the dining room is wet.

The next three hours are a blur of moving furniture and rugs and trying to minimize damage.

Then as I get ready for bed I realize that the hallway is wet too. The storage closet was also flooding and the water was coming in that way too. More furniture moving, more fun.

Here it is 5 days later and my dining room table is still pushed against the other wall with chairs on top. The giant fans are gone and replaced by a giant dehumidifier.

So, it's raining again today, and so far, so good.

I say, bring on the snow!

I have a love hate relationship with Santa.

Santa hates me.

I love Santa, but curse his/her name on a daily basis.

Each year Santa gives one of my girls a present that I would never allow into my home. 2 years ago it was the dreaded Barbie guitar. Loudest, most annoyingester, did I mention annoying? toy ever created. I'm fairly sure Satan was involved. Julia wanted it with the force of a 1,000 suns, and damn it if Santa didn't bring it for her.

Santa's a sucker. Santa hates me.

Last year, Santa brought Julia what I was sure to be the death present, a Razor Scooter. Julia is, how shall we put this delicately... ummmm... not exactly graceful. Santa, being the smart mofo that he/she is also brought a new helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist pads... to protect from death.Santa earned a reprieve with that one, since so far (knock, knock) no broken bones.

This year, Santa outdid him/herself. I'm pretty sure I did something terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing to deserve the gifts my children received this year. Books... that's nice, right. No biggie. Emma got a little baby doll. It doesn't talk. It's nice. Anna asked for a "practically real" doll, which Santa (the dumbass mo fo that he/she is) promptly believed to mean the Little Mommy So Real doll. But Santa was sorely mistaken.Anna is known as the most grateful little girl in the world. Case in point: She was opening her presents and took the wrapping paper off of one box. Meemaw said to her, "Oh look Anna, you got a box" Anna said something to the effect of, "oh yeah, I love it so much" and bless her little heart she meant it. So, when Santa screwed up the "practically real" doll she happily accepted the subpar, incredibly inferior subsititute with a smile and graciousness. It wasn't until bedtime when I asked her if she had a wonderful Christmas, she said in her sweet sleepy little voice, "Yes, I love my toys, even if I didn't get the one thing my little three year old heart was praying for with every ounce of my being, but yeah, it was great" Ok, so maybe she didn't exactly say that, but it was close. She was soooo grateful and sweet. That's when I swore that Santa was a fool, and that Target was happy to exchange Baby Almost What I Wanted with the Baby That Makes So GD Much Noise And Is Incredibly Creepy Looking But Makes My Heart Happy And Costs $30 More doll.So. That could be then end of the story, but the title suggests there was something to do with a bird.The bird. Ugh. The damn bird.Squakers Annoying Never Stop Talking Like EVER bird. Julia of course is the one begging Santa for a bird that talks and did I mention it doesn't ever stop talking.So, it's February, this bird is still around and hasn't been banished to the closet yet. I wish I could, but everyone loves this bird. He talks all the time. He sings a squaky rendition of "Hot Hot Hot", he kisses, he clickingly moves his head and eyes. He is how I know Santa hates me. For reals...

You want some Emma???

Can you believe how big she is???? Oh my baby is almost 2!!

Snow and more snow...

We have had some snow in the last couple of weeks. Quite a bit. It's crazy. The girls are having the best time.

Finally, birthday party pics...

Julia had a party at the performing arts school she goes to. It was sooo cute. We decorated in lack and gold. We had gold stars (they are on the tables) that said "STARRING XXXX" and had their names written on them. We had mylar decorations with gold stars. The cutest part was this garland that looked like stage lights.

It was a great time.

Caucus what???

Hey Mainers... today is the Democratic Caucus! Get out with your neighbors and have your voice heard. The caucus is an amazing part of the political process. Stand in a room with other Democrats today and let your voice be heard.

Find your caucus location and time here! It's not too late in a lot of municipalities.

High School Musical

Julia and Anna went on their Daddy/Daughters date last night, to see the High School Musical play a local school was performing.

Anna thought it was the best. She couldn't believe they were right there acting and singing! She came running in the house last night telling me how amazing it was. She told me all the songs that were in it (as if I don't have them burned into my head as it is) and that they kissed at the end.

Julia had a good time too, but a little less awestruck than Anna. She was more excited that some of her friends were there.

Dan sheepishly admitted he enjoyed it as well (as much as I guess a grown man can enjoy something like that) and that Anna was hysterical to watch. She was bopping along and singing. He had to tell her to sing quietly on a couple of occasions. She caught on and stopped singing along but still bopped.

Loooooooooooooooong week

I swear last week was more than just 7 days. 20 to 30 feels more like it. Julia's birthday party seems like it was weeks ago.

I am fighting a cold/flu thing and I haven't reached the point where it's knocked me out, but I'm tired, achy and have a cough thing going on. It feels like I have permafog in my brain.

I did manage to pass my P&C exam on Saturday, so that is a huge relief.

I am disapointed about the Patriots loss, but man that last drive for the Giants was worth losing to. Eli Manning was a superstar last night. I would have loved to see the Pats have a truly undefeated season, but you have to stay in the game to win it.

That's it from here. Exciting, no?

Cha cha 2.0

I've had many emails asking me about cha cha. I thought I'd answer some here. You can find more answers here.

Yes, they are hiring. They have opened the gates again, and are bringing in many new guides right now. This is due to the fact that the SMS/textchacha feature is apparently a big hit.

No, I don't have a schedule, I just log on when I want to work. I don't have to keep specific hours. I like doing internet searches, so it's not a chore for me. I sometimes get 20 queries in an hour and sometimes only 1.

Yes, you do get paid per search. I'm certainly not doing it only for the money, since it's not exactly going to make me wealthy, but yes, you do earn money, it's not a volunteer position.

Yes, you do really have to pass a text, but if you know how to use the internet, and have ever looked something up, you will probably do just fine.

Apparently I do get paid for referrals. I didn't know this until I went to find the info to answer these questions. I think I get paid 1/10 of a penny or something like that. Think of it as paying for the interest of one of the dollars in my daughters college fund. Thanks in advance. My daughters' brain thanks you as well.

Any more questions? If you really are interested, let me know and I can get you the info.