Lepidopterotica

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1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Had a second baby.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Honestly, I forget.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes. Me.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
England and Canada (and Alaska, USA).

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
The body I had in 2010, a healthy diet and a good exercise routine.

7. What date(s) from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
December 15 - my son, Hunter was born.
Seeing the Royal Wedding from the Great Hall at Hampton Court with Archer and Dad (I forget the date but I will always remember the day).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Giving birth to a healthy baby.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not walking as much as I should have while I was pregnant because I was tired and in pain.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
See #9.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My "I passed that fucking Microsoft test" reward purse. It's a Fossil!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My whole amazing family: parents, aunt and uncle, in-laws (parents, sister, brother), my husband, my sons.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Congress

14. Where did most of your money go?
Medical bills, rent, debt.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The crazy Jeep ride in Alaska. Houser's back problems getting better and his attitude getting better with them. Seeing Michael Crawford live in The Wizard of Oz in the West End. Riding on the Eye with Archer. Going to Sarastro with Archer and Dad. Giving birth to Hunter and holding him. Seeing Houser get all cute and cuddly with our newborn son. Archer's poem getting published in 'Acclaimed' (anthology). Archer's good school report after his rough year last year. Getting my ankles back at long last!!!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Two songs: Russian Unicorn and Morning Dew by BLR.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?-Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? -Fatter (since I gave birth just over 2 weeks ago)
iii. richer or poorer? -hard to say. I think our net worth has gone down a little, but Houser has better job prospects than he did last year so maybe it will all work out.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Socializing and exercising.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Ass on couch time, silly arguments with husband.

20. How did you spend Christmas and New Year's Eve?
Christmas we were at the Housers' with both of our kids. New Year's Eve we are going to the Gornsteins' with Hunter and Archer is with his Dad.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Either my mother or my mother-in-law. I am not much of a phone person, though I need to get better at that since it's a more personal form of contact than email or text. I'd rather see people face to face, but we can't always manage that.

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
I am still in love with the Big One and the Medium-sized One and now I have fallen in love with the Baby.

23. How many one-night stands?
At least seven. Which would make it a gaggle of one night stands if this statement were true.

24. What's your favorite TV program?
Right now it's a toss-up between Bones and Criminal Minds, but Arrested Development on Netflix is my tv guilty pleasure. Also I like Prime Suspect and Rizzoli and Isles. I hate Angie Harmon's politics, but I love watching her on TV.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No, I'm pretty consistent with my hatred.

26. What was the best book you read in 2011?
As if I remember all the books I read in 2011. I am re-reading the Chronicles of Prydain (reading them to Archer), and they are all still fabulous books. Best non-fiction book, also a re-read, The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine. It is an informative, non-scary, comforting pregnancy book (comforting in that you are not the only person to have this happen to you, but informative because it doesn't pull any punches about the train wreck pregnancy is for a woman's body). If you plan on getting pregnant any time soon, get a copy.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Pentatonix

28. What did you want and get?
Two healthy children.

29. What did you want and not get?
A permanent job for my husband. A Dad who will take Archer to his activities (well, we have one of those, but the one who has custody every other weekend is not that Dad).

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Help

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
39 (and Houser was 37). We had a Mexican Fiesta DJ'd by Dan DiFlavis and we ate and drank and danced until we dropped.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Steady income.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Maternity.

34. What kept you sane?
My girlfriends and my Mom.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Jesse Spencer (Chase on House, MD)

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The rate of unemployment. It is staggering, disgraceful, and alas, personal.

37. Who did you miss?
Rabbit. Todd. My cousins. Most of my friends, actually, because H and I did not get out much this year. Now I miss Ella a lot because she up and migrated west.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Lisa's family and family in law.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
It's okay to be worried or annoyed if your life is a mess, but don't get upset about it because that makes it worse.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"You balance the world on the tip of your nose like a sealion with a ball at the carnival." -Jethro Tull

I really enjoyed telling Archer today, "Please autograph this copy of your poetry book before your Grandmother takes you to the theatre."

see this userpic? look at that cute little kid ... he's so much older now. tonight Fang was practicing his drum and bells and when he got tired of practicing the way he was supposed to, he interspersed the drum piece with phrases of the Saints Come Marching In and Ode to Joy on the bells and it was cool to hear him getting into the music for its own sake and hilarious to watch Houser's face while he tried to be music-practice tolerant. One of his eyes almost disappeared.

Now it's 11:04 pm and I am finished filling out batch #1 of Relay for Life raffle tickets. Archer is very motivated to raise money for the American Cancer Society. He was motivated before in a very general way, but when one of his friends was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, it became a lot more personal. His friend is doing well so far. Seeing anyone with cancer is upsetting - seeing a 9 year old who is 2 days younger than your own 9 year old (or is it older - they're 2 days apart) ... just, holy crap, I hope he makes it. He'll make it. Jared's a great kid and his treatments are going well. Relay for Life really brings out Archer's compassionate side and I love seeing that part of him.

I spent a lot of time tonight sending email arranging play dates. Being Archer's social secretary can be time-consuming. Oh no, my kid has too many friends ... first world problem! Mom sent Archer the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book; he got it today and immediately disappeared into it, not emerging until he had finished the book. Well, not immediately because he called Mom to say thank you first. I'd say he's like me except that he called to say thank you without whining about it, which means he's a lot like me but less of an asshole than I was when I was his age.

Mom: What do you want for Hanukkah, Michelle?
Me: My ankles.

Less than 4 weeks to go! Come on, baby, get OUT!

Houser and Fang are playing Blokus Trigon. I come in from the World Outside, sit down at the table for a minute.

Me: Men! (they both look up) I just got my hair done.
Archer: Your hair looks nice.
Houser: Um ... what he said.
Me: You may continue.

My friend Cat wrote a book named Deathless and it is a modern take on a classic Russian Folk tale. The Amazon review says:

All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

The icon in my post is from the Deathless promotional comic that was illustrated by my sister, glamour_junkie. The comic is beautiful and I am so proud of her.

I must confess that I have only read the first three chapters, which you too can read ... Here There Be Chapters ... that said, I am dying for a copy of the book so I can read the whole thing!

You too? You can get one from Amazon, or you can do what I am doing, which is going to Cat's reading at Between Books on Thursday, April 9 at 7pm. I'm going to buy a copy there and get it signed and hear Cat read it aloud in her beautiful, deep, dark voice.

Where's Between Books?

2703 Philadelphia Pike, Claymont DE (Philadelphia Pike and Harvey Road)

Ok, posting this now ... I keep staring at the beautiful icon of Marya Morevna and distracting myself.

Very geeked out about a Droid app called My Fitness Pal - they might also have it for IPhone. This app is a calorie counter that allows you to enter your exercise - similar to the Weight Watchers online app except calories, not points. The cool future is nowtastic part is that it includes a bar code scanner! That's right - instead of entering calories, fiber, fat etc. for every freaking thing you eat, just scan and beep! all the info magically appears! I hate counting calories (who doesn't?), but this scanning business makes it less painful and a little bit fun. Whoever came up with the bar code idea was a very brainy smurf.

Posted via LjBeetle

This Saturday I ran in the last of the three Winter Pickle runs. The course was 3.1 miles paved trail in Ridley Creek State Park which is Beautiful. I ran the 5k in 30:23, which is a minute faster than my first 5k time. Since that first 5k, which was in November, I have gained 10 lbs. Why? Because I eat when I am stressed out, do the math. So I am now fatter and faster than I was 4 months ago. I'm proud of myself that I have maintained the discipline to keep training - especially since this is the first time in my life that I have done anything athletic for any extended period of time. Now I need to extend that discipline to eating - which means that I need to find some better way to deal with stress. Ugh. Food, why can't I quit you? Our relationship is very unhealthy.

Posted via LjBeetle

Yesterday Fang and I went to the Franklin Institute to see the Da Vinci exhibit and to participate in a telescope building project. The Da Vinci exhibit was disappointing - not enough true hands on activities (they had some computer stuff but only one table where you could try to build a bridge and you couldn't touch the machines). We had fun in the Heart exhibit and on the exercise exhibit where the cartoons sing when you pedal a bike or rotate your arms and then they stop singing if you stop moving. We also had fun watching the liquid air show - Archer was called up on stage and tried to bounce a rubber ball that had been cooled in liquid nitrogen. It shattered, and Al, the guy who was running the show and who looked like a young Al Pacino said, "Archer, you broke it!" Archer hung his head in mock shame.

He and his friend built telescopes under the instruction of Derrick Pitts, the FI's head Astronomer. He told us many interesting things, including the fact that the standardization of nut and bolt sizes was created at the Franklin Institute - I think some time in the 1800s. Every tripod has the same size bolt - camera tripods, telescope tripods, etc.

When we got home, Archer was bummed that his play date was over, so I took him outside in the yard with the telescope and we saw Jupiter and Mercury. I was surprised how red they both looked - at first I thought I was looking at plane lights, but the red dots were stationary and only visible through the telescope. So we saw planets!

Friday and Saturday were also full of great people and fun, but the trolley ride is almost over so that is the end of this post.

Posted via LjBeetle

Posting from my phone while I am riding the el. It is the future now, I can journal by typing with one finger. Then again, I could akso journal on the el by writing in a real blank book with a real ink pen. None of you would be able to read it until after the apocalypse/alien invasion/massive emp when the paper survives, all the computers die and we're all huddled in a shelter face to face. I hope my people are there. I hope we are all warped to the same shelter no matter how far away we are. And if you're an evil, selfish son of a bitch, I hope you burn.

I just taught my phone the word "bitch". Now it is a Very Smart Phone.

Posted via LjBeetle