6/30 - Inertia Curse-Ya

I'm on vacation until Tuesday!!  Yay for a 5-day weekend!

I'm usually rushing around, going from here to there and back, tidying madly around the house, or doing a zillion things on the computer.  For some reason, some inertia curse-ya thing, whenever I slow down, germs catch me.  I'm rarely sick when I'm working, but I'm often sick on vacations.  So, of course I woke up today with a sore throat and all the related goodies.  What is up with that??

This morning, Mama and I went to get a safety deposit box.  I am a sucker for gears.  And apparently not a vampire yet -- caught my reflection again!

My pirate duct tape arrived!  Now I get to tape up my skates and pads, so they won't get chewed up as quickly.

Best news of the day:  Lil' Gal won a book at summer kindergarden!

6/29 - The Bug Ladies get down to business

Butterfly would like you to meet her new friend Tarantula, who just moved into the zoo.  He says, "Come visit!"

I also took a picture of the blue sky and poofy clouds I saw at the train station.

Not sure exactly what business the Bug Ladies are in, but I'm not going to mess with them!

Happy birthday to That Silly Doug.  We sure do miss you.

6/28 - It's a drippy drippy dog dog day

Rain??!  It's good for the plants, but bad for derby practice. We are all howling in protest:  Aoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!  (I cannot remember the name of the grey doggie!)

Our poor little paws are all wet.

Coming home, I found a self-appointed sentry at the front door (ick!).

6/27 - Crane helps keep me organized

His charm and magnetism makes him the perfect helper for paper clip wrangling.  (Later, he became an elephant.  Magic, I tell you!)

Today was a full-blown Monday, after a hectic weekend of helping Linda move and a big derby practice.  I am little better than a zombie today, so my apologies.

In other news, the twins started their "summer kindergarten," which is a camp provided by our town to help kids prepare for the real deal in the fall.  We were so pleased that Lil' Guy did not cling or cry!  What a big boy!

6/24 - Elephant II finds words of wisdom in a stairwell

Elephant II found Frank Chu. This guy is always walking around with a sign that says silly things.  There's a green squid on the back of his sign today.

I think all stairwells should have reminders like this, don't you?

6/23 - Stickie and Stickoo say "Oh, phoo!"

They are adding some floors to a building near my work. The Tinkertoy twins, Stickie ("Hi! I can talk!") and Stickoo, want to grow up to do something big and important too.

I took a really cute photo of S&S with some new friends, but I guess I will have to show it to you later. My phone is not cooperating.  Again.  :(

Here it is!

6/22 - Elephant the Tiny reminds us to hydrate

On hot days like these, it's important to take as many trunkfuls of water as you can.

Elephant the Tiny has big dreams.  Don't we all?

6/22 - Guest Post @ Feed Our Families!

Please take a look at today's Feed Our Families blog for my guest post! http://www.feedourfamiliesblog.com/2011/06/how-andy-feeds-her-family.html

6/21 - Darby sings a song of technical difficulties

Darby says "How do you do?" to Linda.  Poor Linda has had the sniffles for a very long time. The doctor gave her some medicine and we hope she'll be feeling better soon.

My phone is not sending or receiving emails or doing any of the "smart" things it's supposed to do.  It refuses to connect to the network. Or maybe the network is not available...  AT&T doesn't seem to publish any kind of system status.  So Darby and I are twirling in circles, singing a little sad song because we can't get our picture to you.  La la la la boo hoo hoo.

Ashley:  Do you have WiFi enabled? If so, the [work] network is probably blocking your connection.

Me:  No. I ritually turn it off every morning when I get here and turn it back on every evening when I get home.  It's all very Mr. Rogers.  Except today, someone has stolen my sneakers.

Ashley:  Gasp! Sorry to hear about the sneakernet issues.

Me:  Ha -- It really WILL be sneakernet.  I will have to show the kids Darby's photo on my actual phone when I get home.  (Which I did!)

  

Here is Darby, perched on my Gatorade, as we wonder how hot it will be at roller derby practice.

6/20 - Space Guy balances on a coffee delivery vehicle

He doesn't seem to realize that the CDV is being held by a giant Michael....

It was a gorgeous day outside today, but I didn't get to see much of it.  Linda and I grabbed food to bring back to our desks, and the rest was meetings and questions and more meetings.  Poor Space Guy didn't even get a second photo!

The antidote for a crazy work day is watering the garden with the kids.  We found 2 tiny zucchinis, a tiny green bean, some little green tomatoes, and a strawberry.  The sunflowers in the garden are being stubborn, but they're happily growing like weeds under the bird feeder.  Ah, nature.

AND!  Two guest posts coming up this week!  Watch this space!

6/19 - Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!  At our house, we celebrate today as Mommy's Day. (Mama gets Mother's Day.)  It was a great weekend.

Yesterday, David and I had a blast at the NorCal Pirate Festival with the kids.

Then, we jettisoned the small fry and went back to pARRRRty with the grown-up pirates.  Much fun.

 

(This is not David, but a fellow pirate who also had a shoulder bird.)

Today, I got to sleep in, and woke up to flowers, homemade cards, and a latte.  After I pulled myself together, we went to a local diner for a nice brunch.  And then I did not fall down (!) at roller derby practice.

I really wish Lil' Guy would stop putting toys in the potty.  Poor Beaker!

6/17 - Duckie practices fire safety

Duckie found a train car and jumped for joy!  Quack!  "Choo choo!"

Today, we went to a special class taught by fire fighters, to help us be safe in emergency situations.  We even got to see them put out a little fire.

Tomorrow's the start of the NorCal Pirate Festival!!!  Yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

6/16 - Little People, Big World, and Lots of Toys

The kids of my twitter friend @purplecrazies sent her to work with some toys today.  I think they like what we do!  Here is my toy (shall we call her Annie?), next to her toys. This was a multi-media event!  Thanks to Linda for using her phone to take a picture of the picture on my phone!

I thought these flowers looked like butterflies.  (Of course, I am blinded in the bright sun without my sunglasses these days.)

Lil' Guy sent Sally with me to roller derby practice, but it's all business there.  So here's a picture of Sally, stripey socks, and scuffed skates.

6/15 - No, Froggie! Don't push that button!

Froggie's pretending my Thinking Putty "muddy" is a lily pad! Except if he stays on it too long, he starts to sink in and get stuck. Whoopsie.

Froggie wanted to help us with some video editing at work, but he kept hopping from one button to another....  Stop, Froggie!  Stop!

6/14 - Forever Bear haz a luv fest

Robots need love, too! Forever Bear and Green Robot both see the world through a windshield. (I prefer rose-colored glasses.)

It's all hearts and smileys for you, my darlings.

6/13 - Firefighter Dalmatian Dog and the big caterpillars

OK, so they're actually caterpillar WHEELS.  But look at the size of those things!  Yowza.

At lunch, we saw a Very Big Crane!  We couldn't fit it all into the photo.

Firefighter Dalmatian Dog found a call box on the corner.  (We did not use it.)

I took a side trip on the way home and um... got some roller skates...  I'm joining the roller derby!

6/12 - Kids in the Kitchen

This weekend, I made-up a pasta dish for our family dinner with egg noodles, fresh spinach, corn, and feta.  Lil' Gal chopped the spinach for me, and Lil' Guy was "Spice Guy."  He was so enthusiastic about learning the spices that he had a small sneezing fit!

They were so cute in their aprons, and we loved making a meal together.

On Sundays, I hang out with the kids while Mama has a sleep-in.  Usually, we'll make pancakes, but this week we made something else...

6/10 - Flapasaurus Friday

Flapasaurus makes a nice sunglasses holder.  What a good helper he is!  If only I could give him some of my real work...

Flapasaurus heard about Air Mail and wanted to do some flying deliveries, but all the paperwork put him off it.

Then, he almost got eaten by a fossil!  (I saved him.)

Now we're back at work, pretending we don't miss the lovely sunshine.  La la la la la.
Anyone have good plans for the weekend?

6/09 - My babies are growing up!

Today, we celebrated a big milestone.  Our little twins graduated from Pre-K!  So many thanks to the very-patient Miss Karen, who has been teaching pre-school in our town for 30 years -- and still loves it.  As my mom would say, bless her heart.

Here is smiley Lil' Guy, who will always do the party trick:

Here is petulant Lil' Gal, who will never do the party trick.

And here are new toys from Mommy and Mama, who are so very proud of our big kids.

(Smiley now, isn't she?  Interesting.)

6/08 - Blue Dino is all tangled up

At least he's not stuck in a panic loop, like one of the servers at work!  Maybe this explains it?

Yesterday, I coveted David's lentils. Today, I simply got my own.  NOM.  Blue Dino says "MujadARRRRRRRRRRah!"

You know you have too many meetings when the padding on your headset's earpiece starts falling into shreds. What's even sadder, this is the second earpiece cushion I've installed in the past year!

6/07 - Princess P. and the Fancypants Club

It's Employee Appreciation Week here at work, which apparently means giving us various foods each day.  As they say, the quickest way to a worker's heart is through the stomach.  Princess P. and I breakfasted on a raisin bagel with cream cheese for our 9am meeting.

And then I spent about 3 hours trying to get the photo to send from my darn phone....!  Technology was NOT my friend today. (I also did actual work during this time, lest work folks think the food did not motivate me.)

Jim's in town and looks dashing as always.  Aren't he and Princess P. so very fashion-forward?

Reader Poll:  Would you call his shirt coral, pink, or salmon?  Please vote in the comments.