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KaliMom
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Name: Kate
Birthday: 10/29/1969
Gender: Female
Interests: Reading: current and ancient histories, biographies of interesting people, language books, social and political commentary (of the conservative variety), current events, art books (about art and artists), magazines on decorating, cooking and creating art, cook books, and pretty much anything interesting that friends put my way; Making art: drawing, painting, beading, jewelry making, paper collage, scrapbooking, card making, cross-stitch, needlepoint, knitting, crocheting and anything else that catches my fancy; Cooking: simple, well-seasoned and delightful things, with an emphasis on using herbs and seasonings to enhance the natural flavour of my ingredients; Going Places; Shopping; Finding strange and unusual things; Finding the beauty in the everyday and everyone.
Expertise: As I said, a jack of all trades, mistress of none. Right now, I'd have to say that I'm showing an amazing expertise in appreciating good food and in being an idle scrounger, but I hope to develop some other, more interesting skills as time goes on.
Occupation: Artist
Industry: Other
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
8/28/2005
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| And the mouse in her house, hides out, from the rain and the beasties without.
And from those within, for that matter. My endeavors to join the
ranks of the politico bloggers proceed apace, although my html skills
leave much to be desired. Unfortunately, my self-teaching skills
have never been that good, so I struggle on. Anyone who is
interested can email me for the URL and I'll be happy to send it
on. I've gotten some very good feedback from it so far, but it's
going to take a while to build up anything like a readership base.
The rains combined with the gaspingly, life-drainingly hot temps have
kept us largely confined indoors, with predictable results. The
kids are going berserk, and I'm not far behind. There are far
more desirable vacation destinations, but at least this has the benefit
of being cheap. Liam has, predictably, been quite sick, although
he says that he'll make an appointment to see the dr. tomorrow.
All of the kids' friends are gone right now and we are the only people
left in the neighborhood. It's kind of like one of those
mid-to-late '60's movies where everyone else dies and you're the only
ones left on the planet. Except that those people get to wander
around. I used to like this house, but the walls are definitely
closing in. I think the kids would definitely agree with me.
Otherwise, not much. I cleaned the pig cages today and cut their
nails. And I subjected Owen to the signal indignity of having his
stinky little "scent gland" wiped down (and boy, did he need
it!). But otherwise, we are all well enough, if a little
stir-crazy, and I shall soon be turning my amazing brain to thoughts of
escape. Wish me luck.
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| And so, here we are again. In my endless drama with the world of
modern medicine, I have scaled back to 3 tablets of the new Miracle
Med, figuring it likely that my sleep issues occurred with the increase
to 4. We'll see. As it was, I slept until 0930 this morning, but
that was by sheer act of will and a desire to see what the next dream
would bring me (nothing too exciting, as it turned out).
Life here continues apace. My latest endeavor has been to create
a blog, an actual website dedicated to the same type of political
debate that I enjoy reading on my fave sites around the web. My
goal is to join in. Liam calls it my rant site, but insists that
I am also going to use it to post my art (which is a good idea, and one
that I will use). My URL will be posted when the site is a little
more on-line (no pun intended, honestly). Any and all are invited
to join the discussions and debates.
The weather has just about everyone else in the family going a little
stir-crazy. The humidity and low-pressure have Liam in constant
pain (much like in England). But he does the best he can, and
he's been working so hard in spite of it. The kids are pinging
off the walls, and are almost at the point of killing each other.
At this point, I am about to just dress them in warmer clothes (ie.
longer sleeves and pants - albeit light ones) and sending them out to
Sing In The Rain until they are well and truly tired out
and only then let them back in. Maybe that would help a
bit. It sure doesn't seem quite right for summer, does it? (Well,
not that I mind - I'd be just as happy to stay in and blog and draw and
craft and clean and cook, but we all know I'm "tetched" don't we?)'
Now for the love part: I got a chance to talk to my folks last
night. What a thrill. I got to wish my Dad a belated happy
dad's day, and my Mom gets to go on the convention/cruise that she had
so wanted to go on, and I'm so happy for the both of them. I miss
them (and the rest of my family) so much - I'd absolutely LOVE to be
with them right now, visiting and complaining about the heat (and never
realizing how lucky I was because of the vile weather back in
MD!!) But I dream of them always, and they are never far from my
thoughts, and I look forward to seeing them soon (at least as many of
them as I can).
And now it's official: GI_Chica and her Man are affianced, and I
get to help with the arrangements. I'm so excited for them, and
for me, as I get to let my imagination wander to good purpose.
Should be fun.
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| Greetings all (or most likely one) reading this. It's been a few
days I know, but they've been weird ones. I'm still getting used
to this new med, although the side effects are largely good for
me. One thing though that I'm discovering is that I'm not getting
the deep quality sleep that I've been accustomed to. Instead of
being insensate for about 9 or so hours after taking my meds, I am now
a restless sleeper who wakes at about 04-something in the
morning. I need to start becoming productive at that time and
I'll really be able to start getting things done (so far the best I can
do is nurse a cup of tea and drool while staring at the on-line news
feeds). Mind you, it's not too bad - at least I'm a bit more
well-informed than usual. And I spent all of yesterday pondering
Deep Sociological Theories and Situations (had some really great ideas
and conclusions I can't yet remember, darnit!). Some interesting
times with the kids: Fiona's best friend has been grounded for
the past several days and she's been desperate to play with him again -
I don't know what she's going to do when he goes away with his family
to Bible Camp for the better part of July. Or for that matter
Mot, who is good friends with his little brother. Speaking of
Mot: he and Johanna have a game of long tradition called "Rabbit
and Pinky", wherein 'Hanna is Rabbit and Mot is Pinky (Pinky is a girl,
which causes him no problem). Well, Rabbit and Pinky decided to
play dress-up the other day. Imagine my surprise to see this
absolutely darling,
cute little girl come downstairs in a pair of black maryjanes, a red
gingham British schooldress, and a fuschia satin hennin. She had
light freckles and giant, sparkly blue eyes and it took me a couple of
seconds to realize it was Mot! He even went outside to show our
neighbors his costume. Ah, that boy. Johanna has finally
discovered you can read for fun, and when her little friend leaves for
the summer, I'm hoping she'll do a lot more reading, since there aren't
really any little "girly girls" around here. To that end, I'm
dragging out all my old faves for her. Liam experienced a rare,
nearly pain-free weekend as the barometer shot through the roof.
Even though it was (very) hot, the humidity was very low, and it was
otherwise gorgeous. It was so very good to see him out of pain
for once; I guess I didn't realize how much or how often his legs
bother him. Hopefully they'll be able to get him in soon and fix
him up... That is about it on the Hennessy front, or at least all
that I can remember (I know there's more, but yesterday I woke up at
0300, and today at 0400, and 2 days ago at 0400 and so on - ugh!), so
my brain is only starting to come on-line.
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| Honestly, I don't know quite what's up with my xanga thing
lately: it will post the title, but not the content of a
posting. Oh well. The title to the last posting referred to
a "second-hand makeover" for my friend's stepdaughter. One of my best
friends, Karen, has a daughter Katie who is one of nature's great
clothes horses. Now that she's graduated from highschool and will
be moving on to college, she was due for a good clear-out, and knowing
her, I knew that the clothes would be really cute and stylish, many
with the tags still on. I arranged for Sammi (the stepdaughter)
to go through these clothes, since her father is proving to be
something of a skinflint in buying her even a pair of jeans or a
t-shirt while she's out here. She's been quite down, looking over
her young life and realizing that she's generally been stuck in the
middle of her parents' arguments and remarriages (and the births of
subsequent younger sibs). I felt that a little time just for her
might be kind of nice. So she went through the clothes, and Karen
got her an appointment with Katie's hairdresser for a new hair-do, so
it was kind of like the much more pleasant second half of a What Not To
Wear show. It was so great to see Sammi light up as she went from
outfit to outfit, and saw all the great new clothes. I think she
now has an almost complete new wardrobe to start highschool with this
year, including several new outfits that would do well for job
interviews, and some fancy dresses for dances and homecomings.
I've also introduced her to a couple of teenaged girls in my court so
she can have someone else her own age to talk to and hang out with.
So school's out, and Les Girls are delighted. Fiona is just happy
to be able to run out and play with all her peeps. Her best
friend is a boy named Colin. He's a very nice boy (age 10) who is
also very good at handling Mot (he also has a 5 year old younger
brother). Johanna is still playing with Sierra, who will soon be
leaving to spend the summer with her father. I feel so sad for
her, because her stepfather loathes her and spends all his time with
her belittling her, pushing her away, or yelling at her. And her
mother, her own mother, will not bother to stand up for her. I
can't even imagine what it would be like to wake up every morning
feeling as if I'm a burden to everyone around me for the very air I
breathe. Mot has a couple of little friends. One of whom
has an overbearing and overprotective father, and the other one is
Colin's little brother. Mot's only problem is that he's still in
the "wets his pants because he's too busy playing to notice"
stage. Well, that and the occasional waggling of his little boy
bits in insult to annoying older kids. Ah, youth...
And I'm finally getting things a little more cleared out. Seems
like I'm always saying that, but really it's true - we do have that
much junk. I guess we just need to get that giant blue tarp like
they have on Clean Sweep and do it that way: take everything out
of a room and only put back in what's staying there. (Hmmmm....)
On the creative side, I've been experimenting with new ways of
doctoring cake recipes and I've been fairly successful so far.
Unfortunately for the waistlines of those around me, it's encouraging
me to continue, and I have some good ones in the works. So far
it's been Golden Rum Cake (a cake so light and fine and tender as to
defy reality), and Chocolate **aaahhhh** which is a rich, velvety,
fudgy, deeply chocolate cake. I think something fun with fruit
next. A peach something. We'll see.
But for now, it's off to clean house, so to all: Have a great day, and may all your llamas turn to vicunas overnight.
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| And so, chastened, your humble writer crawls, bleeding,
back to the keyboard for an entry. Honestly, it's not as if I
mean to leave everyone out of my life (such as it is), but rather that
whenever I have time to enter, I am generally so wiped out that I opt
for bed instead. When added to the criminal fact that I've not
posted photos of Les Betes Hennessy, well, you can see why I cringe.
On a lighter note (much lighter), Mot is in the throes of
his first real crush. Her name is Sammi and she is 14. She
is the visiting step-daughter of my friend and from the moment he saw
her, Mot was hooked. He sits with her, brings her gifts, talks to
her, makes plans for them together, and whispers sweet nothings in her
ear ("Sammi, you're really pretty"). He's already asked Liam if
it was okay if she slept over, saying that she could sleep with him and
Puppy, and when I give him a dream at night (part of our tucking in
ritual), it has to have a scenario of him and Sammi doing something fun
together. So far these activities have included amusement park
rides, going out for chocolate ice cream, going out to play, playing
dinosaurs, going to the zoo, and going fishing. He has even said
that he will marry her when he gets big enough. He is really
quite smitten. Luckily, he still has the same good taste he's
always had. She's a very cute, half-Puerto-Riquena with a somewhat
husky voice who bears a good resemblance to Rachel Ray (one of Mot's tv
honey's: "Mom," picking up telephone "can you call Rachel Ray and ask
if we can come over to her house tomorrow so I can meet her and eat her
food?" He was very suspicious of my denial that I didn't know her
number and that there probably wasn't a good likelihood of that
happening anytime soon...) At any rate, he thinks she's the bee's
knees, and if his behaviour now is any indication, some little girl is
going to be very lucky when he is old enough to have a real
girlfriend. All of us (Liam and I, and all our friends and
neighbors around here) think it's just charming!
Fiona, the local cartoon character, has finally adjusted
to my
treachery in buying her a bikini (a really cute hawaiian print), and
since she's basically a tomboy
anyway, has forgotten she's even wearing one when she does. She's
a great favourite in the neighborhood, with boys and girls, and kids
are always coming to the door asking to play with her. She has a
little boyfriend of a sort - he's about 2 years older and he's teaching
her to skateboard. He's even given her a book on the
subject. Ah, the power of womanhood...
Johanna is also enjoying Sammi's visit, as she gets to be
a proxy teenager. Sammi thinks she's very cute and encourages
her, and
'Hanna just lives it up. As if she wasn't already almost a teen
anyway! She doesn't have many girls to play with around here, as
the few who do live in the area are either Black (with a capital "B",
as in "don't even bother trying to play with us little white girl") or
are tomboys like Fiona, and don't do the "girly girl" thing. So
having Sammi to talk with and tell her about what teens do, wear,
listen to and say makes her feel like 'part of the club'. Just to
see her flounce out the door in her "Tankini,
Mom, tankini!" is to skip ahead 8 or 9 years.
Liam is probably looking forward to another surgery to remove the
screw that's been holding his ankle together since the surgery last
year. It has been giving him horrendous pain lately (far beyond
the abilities of any painkillers to help), and that trebled with a turned
ankle and an injured knee (PT accidents) cause him agony at the mere
contemplation of movement. Poor thing. I just let him sleep
and do what I can for him, although he will insist on getting up
anyway. Sigh....
I'm still running in my new med. The current
side-effects are spoonerisms and aphasia (nothing more exciting yet,
thank goodness), but I have great hopes that things will soon settle in
for me. At any rate, I am falling asleep at the keyboard, so
please excuse me before I drool and short out the "be-puter", and have a good...
whatever (day, night, afternoon, twilight....)
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