AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

In-Laws.

de Gallo Milestones

Oh we have many to report today!!

Milestone #1: Kindergarten registration (and I managed to only forget one important document)!! Piko de G is going to school next year!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! That's my excitement. Not hers. She's a bit unsure of the "big kid school", and of going every day. I'm planning on staying home at least one more year so that I can volunteer at her school alot, and hopefully make her transition easier, without being a helicopter parent. Well, that and the fact that the school is not in the best area, nor does it get the greatest of recommendations from other parents. BUT, we are determined to give public school a chance.

Milestone #2: Big girl's jump from the side of the big kid pool! Yes, that's right, Miss. "I-don't-like-to-get-my-face-wet" actually jumped from the edge of the big kid pool. Huzza!!!

Milestone #3: SWIMMING IN THE BIG KID POOL WITHOUT A LIFE JACKET!!!
That's right, you heard me. Holy poo on a stick! It was great! She still has a bit of a hard time when she has to come up for air, but she swims a good 3-4 feet from the stairs to my arms.

Ok, so the swimming milestones are more for the folks that actually know Piko de G IRL. Let me 'splain. Piko was a child that up to the age of 2.5 could not stand to have her hair washed. Seriously it was like trying to wash a cat. I don't know why it took me so long to come up with a method that worked, the "Magic Towel". It was just a wash cloth or hand towel that she held over her face so that the water would not get on it. She hated the pool, but liked the beach, I guess since it was sort of shallow and there was sand. Something changed though last year late in the swimming season. She started liking it. And this year, Ba-da-BOOM! Swimming. I'm so proud of her, I could burst.

Now The Librarian's nickname for her really fits. "Little Fish"

Oh yeah!

I did have some news to write about. And I totally forgot!

We had HAIL!!


It was quite nutty. I have some video of it pummeling our van. We were a bit worried, but there was no damage. We would have felt like right fools if we finally had a garage, and our car was dented by hail.

Six years we have been living in this area, and this is the first time we have ever seen it. Weird.

It's 1:30am and I'm up coughing a lung out.

Freakin-A I hope that the NyQuil kicks in soon because I'm tired.

So, nothing much to talk about at the de Gallo camp. The move is finally totally and completely over, we are checked out and cleared from the old place. All ten fingers and toes accounted for. For now.

The Librarian came for a visit last week. I love her. LOVE HER! She got me an early birthday present. A MASSAGE! What perfect timing. We usually go for a mutual massage day for our birthdays sometime during the summer. This year though I got together with a bunch of my other friends and bought her some of those Bose noise cancelling headphones for her trip to Africa. Well, she decided that since she had traveled half way around the world, and I moved my entire house myself (well, at least half of it), we should go get our massages anyway. And she treated. I love her, did I mention that already? Well, I usually come away from a massage feeling relaxed, but not feeling like my knots and kinks were worked out. Well, let me tell you, this time the masseuse pummeled me. And it was gooooood. But being me, my massage was only three days ago, and again I'm all crunchy and tensed up again. Poo!!

I almost forgot to post this too. In addition to the headphones, I made The Librarian a quilt. I only have photos of it before I backed it, and quilted it, because I was going to take a picture of her and Piko de G sitting on it or something. And of course I forgot. Here it is hanging at our old place.

I love the way that it looks with the sun shining through it, like a stained glass window.

It's called "The Librarian is Charming", because it's made with Heather Bailey Freshcut "Charms". I have to get a picture of it finshed. I want one for myself. I think I should make another one.

Ooookay, the NyQuil is kicking in.

M. Sarge almost made an Air Force Widow out of me today.

We finally moved the washer and dryer to the new(ish) house, and as I was fiddling around with the stuff that was around the laundry M. Sarge was removing the 4 prong electrics that were attached to the dryer. The new(ish) house has a 3 prong outlet, and luckily we have a 3 prong cord.

I'm sure you can see where this is all going.

I'm around the corner from the laundry area and I see a bright flash and hear a loud bang. HOLY CRAP!!! WHAT WAS THAT?!?!?

Apparently M. Sarge wanted to make sure that the 3 prong plug actually fit into the outlet, so he plugged it in.

PLUGGED IT IN WITHOUT GROUNDING IT.

He's fine. I'm sure he has lost some of the hair on his hand, but other than a new healthy respect for Mr. Electricity, business as usual.

On a high note, we now know where the fuse box is.

Loving Day

So I'm a day late, but every day is Loving Day at our house. Piko is the beautiful product of an interracial marriage. It is quite strange to think that only 40 years ago, M. Sarge and I would not have been able to legally marry.

Here are a couple of unusually similar photos of my family and M.Sarge's. Strangely they were both taken at our respective Grandmother's houses, probably around the same year, 1976 or 1977.



I think that my brother is holding a bag full of mangoes from my Grandma's tree, my dad took a cutting from that tree before the house was sold, and has another tree grown at his house. There is nothing like a warm mango picked right off the tree on a summer afternoon.


Check it! M. Sarge's dad is wearing PLAID PANTS!!!

The Cat Has Arrived!

She does not look happy.
So I guess we are officially moved.
Now to put everything away.

More Moving 411

We are a go for transferring cable to our new(ish) place tomorrow.

Mrs. S, I know you're crossing your fingers for me in hopes I get "Butt-Crack Comcast Tech!".

We had to inform Piko de G that there would probably be no TV for a couple of days. "No TV for Piko de G?" she says. She has started referring to herself in the third person, and I'm not sure if it's cute and funny, or irritating and babyish yet.
So yes, I had to inform her that we will be missing out on our 11 am, pre-lunch Mythbusters fix for the next couple of days.

And yeah, still hating the moving.

My friend Jacy is lauding the benefits of exercise to banish personal demons.

And I agree, there is nothing like an hour at the gym sweating your pores out, and concentrating on yourself to make you feel good.

M. Sarge has great plans of eventually turning his new cave into a home gym, so he does not need leave home to do weights. He's such an awesome husband and dad that I thought that I would surprise him with these Blast Straps to get him started. Are those exercise redonks or what?

I personally prefer actually going to the gym, which is now located almost directly behind our house. I could probably jog there in less than 5 minutes. Some day I'll get up the gumption to post pictures of myself at my brother's wedding, and me now.

I

HATE

MOVING!

That is all.

Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho! Moving house we go!!

Well, Sarge is now Master Sarge. Well, he's really MSgt. Sarge. 'Cause he ain't no master of me. Anyhoo...

We decided to see if we could squeeze a bigger house out of the housing office on base, and they offered us one. It's quite older than our current townhouse, but it has 4 bedrooms, and A GARAGE!!!!

Piko was excited that the minivan would have a "room of it's own", but of course you know that garage is being made over into the Batcave. Sarge has already bought a mini-fridge. I am so glad that he is not a beer drinker, or I know we would have a Kegerator. Hmmm......I wonder if they make a Whiskyrator?

So we will be real busy. I have to transplant my garden, and yeah, there's all that pesky moving of stuff that we have to do. I guess I don't have to go to the gym this week.

Oh Wal-Mart, why you gotta do me like that?

So after a not-so-quick stop at the post office this morning (1 clerk, one customer at the desk, I was 1st in line, 20 minute wait) I head on over to Wal-Mart for this item. Sarge has found that his addiction to Vicks inhalers has caused a resistance to it's effects, and I'm suffering from seasonal allergies for the first time in my life. So hey, why not shoot some saline up your nose?

But of course they don't have it.

So I wander around and eventually see these!

Those buttons!!! SO CUTE!! Cannot resist! Could I make some cuffs?
Fabric, $1.00 a yard!! AAAA!!! Maybe I'll make some of these cute tanktops. How about matchy-matchy, mother-daughter tanks for our trip to Hawaii? They would also be great as quilt bindings.

And there's already this stack of projects just waiting to be started.


Oh Wal-Mart, how I love you.

And this is why I don't have friends

Well, not friends IRL, here in my immediate area. I do of course have old college friends like The Librarian, and blog-o-sphere e-friends.

Anyhoo, there is a mother of one of the girls that goes to pre-school with Piko. I guess you could say that we are friends. Our girls like to hang out together, and have fun. The Mom and I enjoy each others company and for the past 3 or 4 months have made plans after school and on the occasional weekend. She would call me when she was bored at work, and I would attempt to give her gym advice, and listen to her marital problems.

This mom is almost 10 years younger than I am, not that it matters, but I guess it's worth mentioning. So, her husband and Sarge work in the same field, but not in the same office, or on the same shift. Sarge also outranks him, so I'm sure that it makes him a little uncomfortable to socialize with us. Well, Sarge would rather not socialize with anyone, so it really is a non-issue.

I guess being young, the Mom is a little unhappy with where her life is going, or not going I guess. She is not quite 25, has 2 young children, stays home most of the day, and works at a retail job in the evenings several times a week. (I'm not knocking retail at all, I made my bones at a large multi-national book selling chain.) She mentioned to me that sometimes she lies in bed at night and thinks "So is this it? This is the rest of my life?" I'm guessing that she does not have any hobbies that she alone does that do not involve her husband or children. Which I believe is the key to my sanity and general happiness.

So what does this have to do with friends?

Well, recently there was an incident at Sarge's work. It's kind of a sensitive subject, and not something that should be getting around the base. Sarge told me about it, and he knows that I know better than to discuss his job and the doings on there with anyone else. I'm just the one person that he can talk with about things that are bothering him or stressing him out at work. It's basically my job, and it's one that I'm happy to do. And I'm careful to protect his confidence, or he may decide he has to keep all of his stress inside, and that's not healthy for anyone.

Well, the Mom mentions the incident to me one afternoon, and says that she heard about it from a friend of a friend who works at Sarge's office, and they were trying to find out if it was true, and who exactly was involved. Well naturally she had already asked her husband about it, and he got pretty upset that they were discussing the incident outside the office, and actively attempting to verify it. To me, other than being a sounding board for my husband, it really was none of my business. I claimed ignorance about the whole thing.

Ok, so now I have to go home and tell Sarge the scuttlebutt that is going around the base. He's not mad, but a little concerned that people should be discussing sensitive issues with us civilians in such an inappropriate manner, and he wants the Mom's husband to call him. Just to verify the people involved in this little chain of gossip. Lucky me, I get to tell the Mom that Sarge wants to talk to her husband about it.

This was about a week ago. We usually go to gymnastics or ice skating once a week together, and the kids usually have an afternoon play date, and this week. Nothing. I called her a couple of times to see if they wanted to come to the pool with us, or just to see what she was doing. Nope, too busy, too lazy, just gave the kids a bath. Excuses, excuses. I feel like I'm back in school, and I just don't have time for that kind of juvenile BS. The only one who is really going to lose out in this is Piko, because she wont get to see her friend anymore.

I suspect that her husband was quite ticked off at her for even asking him about it the first time, and then got even more upset at her for talking about it to me. And then to top it all off, my husband is one of the people directly involved in the incident (not that she knew that). And now she's mad at me. I guess I can kind of understand why, but really? I apologized to her just in case she was mad that I mentioned it to Sarge, and I made sure to mention to her husband that Sarge did not think that he was involved in the gossip.


Sarge feels bad, because as he puts it:
"I would hate for you to lose your *ONE* friend" And he really did emphasize the "one". Yeah thanks for your concern Sarge, but I just don't need that kind of shit.

So was I wrong to tell Sarge about it? Am I in the wrong at all?

Le Sigh, only one more week of pre-school, and then I guess it won't even be an issue anymore since they won't be going to the same kindergarten.

PAY ATTENTION!!!

Just a minor annoyance from the E-Bay world.

I've been listing a hoop of needlepoint canvases that I am brokering for a friend of a friend. Why is it that people do not read auction details?!?! I think I get about 8 or so emails asking if I combine shipping. DUH!! It says so right there!! What is the canvas count?? UM, 13, LIKE IT SAYS IN THE AUCTION!!!

AAAAAGH!! FRACKING PAY ATTENTION!!!!

But thanks for looking!! :)

Go Pies!

Now I know that this is an old game I'm talking about. We get them quite delayed here in the US.

My Pies came out ahead tonight after a nail biter of a first half against the Carlton Blues, 17.17 (119) to 14.11 (95)

The big news of the night though is that my favorite (hot) player Shane Wakelin kicked his first goal for the Pies in 121 games! Woooo!!! He's mainly a defensive player, usually on team goal, so he does not see that much of that end of the pitch.
Go Shane!

Edited to add this picture to prove to SheSaid that he is not a bear!


And another observation I made.
This is Travis Cloke

He's got a bit of "Greg Sanders" going on. Don't you think?

Maybe just me, but that's all I can think of whenever I watch him play. Ok, that's not *all* I think about.

de Gallo Dielemma

Darn kindergarten all to heck!! It's really messing up our travel plans! We really have to plan ahead now, and can't just take off whenever we want for however long we want to.

Just kidding!! I love that Piko is starting school. LOVE IT!!

Anyhoo, that is not the dilemma we(I)are having.

Booster seats.

We are traveling to Hawaii late in the summer to visit my family, and of course we don't pack up our booster seat for the trip. We have to make sure that there is room in the baggage allotment for GOLF CLUBS!! Anyway, I'm having my mom buy us a booster seat for our use while we're there, and then they can keep it at their house for whenever we come and visit. We used to have our old car seat there, but I'm sure that Piko 1) will not fit in it anymore, and 2) it will be more than 5 years old when we get there.

So, I'm wondering, all you parents out there in Bloggerland. Should I go with a full back booster? Like this

Or do the no back booster like this?


I looked around on the net, and did not really find any info that would lead me to believe that one is any safer than the other. Piko by the way is 38lbs, and 41" tall.

My gut instinct is to go with the full back model, it just seems safer to me. But the no back one is about 1/2 the price. Not that price is an issue when it comes to safety for my Pwessous Wittle Purl. Just that if both are equal in safety, then why not save a couple of bucks, and then Sarge and I can get popcorn while we watch TRANSFORMERS!! IN THE THEATRE!! Gads, I love family babysitters.

NICE!

Once again, via Strollerderby.

Piko de Gallo was quite the Laurie Berkner enthusiast in her earlier days, so it cracks me up to no ends to see this.

Mother's packing secrets.

For She Said.

Just the day after you had posted your part 2 sort of rant regarding packaging, my mom sends me a package.
Here she demonstrates her "green" packing method.

Yay! A package from Grams!! It's books!


And food!



Cookies!!

Not just any cookies either, CHOCOLATE DIPPED SHORTBREAD!!!!


Bloody fracking hell! I go to the gym for a reason WOMAN!
I love you mom.

So, OW! Right?

That's the tip of my index finger on my right hand, and my thumb. It's really all my fault. I refuse to wear a thimble when I sew, and I just finished this.

A pretty green quilt for my pretty green girl. This is only my second fully finished quilt ever. I have made others before, but I was very lazy about them. This time I was very careful with my cuts, tried to mind my seam allowances, and almost all of my patches lined up. I guess it does not really matter that much with this pattern, but I am getting alot better. And I also freehand, hand quilted it, which led to the lovely fingertip. I played around with the width of the binding, and went with 5 inches, but I think that I prefer a thinner edge, it is easier to finish, and I think I like a tighter rolled sort of look. I know that pink and red binding does not really go, but that's the fabric she picked out for it. As she said:
"Green is my favorite color, but I like pink and red too."

It made the perfect stage curtain today for an impromptu concert.

And then later for a nap.

Gone Fishin'

Well, not exactly, but it's SUMMER!
So we've been outside alot lately.




Be back soon with my Mother's day story.