Technical Difficulties

I had a post all set to go for today, with pics of Xander's first day of school, but Blogger seems to be having technical difficulties and won't post any of my pics. I'll try again tomorrow!

Gearing Up for School

Well, it's almost time for Xander to get on the school bus and spend another year hating school. LOL! I keep trying to remind him of the fun things about school, and how this year they're supposed to be hatching chicken eggs in second grade. But the only thing he can get excited about are his supplies. He has a new, totally cool and pocket-rific backpack. Yesterday, Joe picked up his school supplies from the school. (It's a new program they started, where a company fills the boxes with supplies specific to each grade level. We paid in June, they arrived this week.)

Xander was very excited to see what was in his box, which actually wasn't very much. Lots of two pocket folders, pre-sharpened pencils, a composition notebook, some erasers and glue sticks, and a pack of colored pencils.

There was also a sheet of labels with Xander's name and the school address on them. Joe labeled everything except the individual pencils and the erasers. Xander was wondering why there weren't any crayons. I told him maybe they don't use crayons in second grade.

So now everything is in the box, waiting for the first day of school. And Xander keeps finding new things he "hates" about school. This is going to be a long weekend, LOL!

One More Tooth

Well, Xander lost another tooth over the weekend (top canine). This kid kills me - now when his tooth gets loose enough, he spends all day trying to pluck it out. This one took him several hours, but he finally worked it free and stuffed it under his pillow almost immediately. Of course, the Tooth Fairy paid him a visit and left him $1, which he was totally thrilled about.

I pity the next loose tooth. Xander won't let it come out by itself, you can be sure of that!

Just Another Day

It was just an average day for the Brunos. I took the day off work and so did Joe. We took Xander to pick out new eyeglass frames for school - SpongeBob, of course! - and then to see the doctor for his annual physical. I can report that he weighs 72 pounds and is 51 inches tall. Yikes!

We stopped for lunch at McDonald's, because Xander likes their nuggets the best. We both got Happy Meals so he could get two Batman toys, and Joe had something large and beefy. LOL!

Back in the car, this time to Walmart for groceries. Xander was excited because he got to get a new backpack for school, one that's loaded with pockets. Hopefully this one will be a lot sturdier than the two he had last year. It sure cost a whole lot more!

Back in the car to head home and have a little down time. Xander tried out his new chocolate milk cup, and I took a little nap. Then we went to Sundaes for some ice cream - before we had dinner! We haven't hit the ice cream places much this summer, so we were overdue.

Joe and I finished up the day with a movie, some Au Jus sauce and a loaf of peasant bread. I scrapped the day for a Xander scrapbook page, and then we all went to bed. Just another day with the Brunos.

Bridal Shower

My old high school chum and scrapbook buddy, Amy (aka Chippie) is getting married next month to her very cute fiance, Titus. On Saturday I attended a surprise bridal shower in her honor, and boy was it a blast!

Amy was so surprised she cried when she came in. There were about thirty of us there, with gifts and lots of food to wish her well. Titus stayed a bit for the food and some photo ops, and then he headed out to his very hush-hush bachelor party.

I sat at a table in the back with fellow classmates Kris, Donna and Janine, and we had waaaay too much fun back there. We caught up on gossip, wrote marriage advice on the plastic table cloth, and Donna tried to come to terms with my blue hair and tattoo, LOL! We were given the task of crafting the ribbon hat for Amy to wear at the end of the gift opening, and we approached it with much gusto and duct tape. Overachievers that we are, we also crafted a bra from paper cups and a skirt from wrapping paper. It was hilarious!


Before I left we had a group picture that also included fellow classmate, maid of honor, and hostess of the bridal shower - Aimee. Now I can't wait to see everyone again at the wedding next month, and Lord help us if there's alcohol at that shindig!

Inked!

Guess who got her first tattoo yesterday? Me!

I've been wanting one for several years now, but not badly enough to face the needles. But I guess part of the new me is to not be afraid of stuff like that anymore. So I made an appointment with one of Joe's tattoo guys - Rob, at Grateful Ink in Stamford - and last night after work Joe and I both went over for tattoos (of course Joe had to get one too!).

Did it hurt? Heck yeah! But I was so proud of myself. No crying, no flinching. I didn't embarrass myself. And the tattoo only took about an hour to do...maybe less. And I love it! It's sore today, but nothing too bad.

Today - getting some blue put in the hair! Stay tuned!

Budding Songwriter

Xander's Netflix movie this week is the SpongeBob SquarePants movie (feel my joy). At the end of the movie there's a big musical number, all rock and roll. Xander loves this part. He'll dance around, or sometimes get out his own guitar to jam along with SpongeBob.




After viewing this once, he decided he was going to write his own song. So he sat down with his little notebook and a pencil, and wrote this:

I am an idiot

You're an idiot

Everyone is an idiot ooooo

Please help me I am trapped

In idiot land

I am a real stupid idiot ooo

Help I am a wizard of stupid land

Okay, so this clearly isn't Top 40 material. But I think it's hilarious! Now he just needs to set it to music. My little songwriter!

Cleaning Day?

Xander's room is a Stage 5 disaster area. You have to kick things aside to walk in there. Papers, clothes, toys...it's everywhere. It drives me crazy. So I told Xander he had to spend the weekend cleaning it. He didn't actually get started until Sunday afternoon.

While he was cleaning, I was busy doing other things. Writing, washing dishes, fixing dinner, coloring my hair. Xander didn't end up getting very much done in there, surprise surprise. But he DID do this:


Now my mom will remind me that I had similar difficulties cleaning my own room. But I don't think I had quite the horrendous mess in mine that Xander constantly has in his. (That's my story, anyway!) We'll see how he does after daycare today. Not getting my hopes up too high!

Birth of a Scrapbook Page

After a bit of a break, I'm trying to scrapbook a bit more. I did a layout yesterday, and thought you might like to see what my process is sometimes like. Ready? Okay!

My layout started with a YouTube video, which featured a song I'd never heard before. It's called Everybody Loves Me, by OneRepublic, and you can see the video here if you're curious.

I really liked the song, so I downloaded it from Walmart.com and put it on my MP3 player. I decided to make it my theme song, that's how much I like it. And I'm not being braggy - I don't really think everybody loves me. Well, maybe sometimes! LOL!

So I decided I wanted to scrap this song and how it makes me feel. Which led to a photo shoot when I got home from work yesterday. Outside. In the rain.

I also took some headshots when I got back inside and changed. I went for a smiley one becuase it fit the layout and also because some of my critics (you know who you are, Mom!) don't like my serious face pictures.

Once I got on my computer last night, I uploaded the photos and created my layout. And here's the end result (if you want to see it bigger to check out the journaling, you can find it here):

Not all scrapbook pages are born this way, but for me a lot of them are. A bunch of pieces come together to create one totally cool page. And even if you don't love me, you gotta love the layout!

Chained To My Laptop

So, you want to know how I spent my weekend? What fun and exciting things I did? This about sums it up:

Yup, I was in front of my computer all weekend, except for one run into Oneonta for groceries. And what was I doing, you might ask. Playing games? Scrapbooking? Nope.

My new thing is writing fan fiction. Yes, fan fiction. And don't look at me like that! It's gotten me back into writing, which is definitely a good thing - Mom can attest to how many unfinished stories I have out there. I'll never win any awards for the fan fic, but I have lots of fans who like what I write and that sure makes my day.

I completed eight - I think - chapters for three different stories this weekend. I stayed up till 1am. My back is sore. My brain is fuzzy. But I don't care, because I really missed how much fun it is for me to write. So there, naysayers!

And if you're a little bit curious, and would like to check out what I'm doing, you can check it out here.

Itty Bitty Kitty Committee

We were supposed to go to the Cobleskill Fair yesterday, but rainy weather and general lack of interest had us instead spending the day with Joe's cousin and his family. We hung out, watched Doctor Who, ate pizza, and the boys played together really well all day. The best part, though? Checking out the litter of kittens their new cat just had.

The mommy cat is a Russian Blue and the dad is unknown (the mom was a stray). All five kittens look identical, and we have no idea what they'll eventually look like as they get bigger.

Andy and Angie are keeping two of the five, which will put their household cat population up to four. Joe is seriously considering taking one of the kittens, though I told him that if he brings an extra cat into our house than he does half the work taking care of it, including changing the cat box. I'm not sure how Stuart would feel about another cat being in the house, now that he's the lord and master. He'd probably try to eat it.

So, Joe and I are still in negotiations and discussing the ramifications of having two cats again. Right now it would be so easy to say yes, though...they're so darn cute!!

Meeting My Sister

I met my new half-sister on Sunday morning, a month after she'd been born. I'd been waiting for Dad to ask me over, but he didn't so I finally gave in and called them. It was a little weird, I have to say. Not just that she's 37 years my junior, but because at no time did I really get a feeling like she was my sister. But I visited and held her. She was asleep the whole time.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now. Do I try and see her more, see if we bond or something? Or do I wait for Dad to invite me back?

Sometimes this family stuff really sucks.

Ah...The Humble Pork Pie Hat!

As you might remember from an earlier post, I am once again becoming a hat person. I picked up a little fedora a couple of weeks ago, but now have set my sights higher. I found the most adorable Pork Pie hat online and I want it so bad! It's pricey - more than I would ever normally spend on any article of clothing, much less a hat - but it's a Kangol and Joe says that's a really good brand. My only trouble now, besides putting aside some moolah, is picking the color. I'm torn between natural:

And brown:

Plus now Joe wants one too. He's such a copy cat! So...which one do you think will look better on me?

My Own Little Hatter

So, if you've been following this blog at all you know I have a certain...obsession...with the Hatter character from Syfy Channel's Alice movie. I need a twelve-stop program or something, I think! Anyway, Xander is well aware of my infatuation with Hatter, and he also likes to watch the movie. This week he started quoting me Hatter lines, with his version of a British accent to boot! Hilarious!

Now when he wants something from me, Xander promises me Hatter lines. Sometimes that works. Sometimes not. Still funny though! For your entertainment, I have a new video down at the bottom of the page with two of my favorites. Check out my funny kid!

We'll Miss You, Aunt Christine

Joe's Aunt Christine passed away last week, after a long battle with cancer. Joe went to the funeral on Saturday, and then we all went to his cousin Destiny's house afterwards. That part was nice, because Xander got to play with the other kids and Joe got a chance to reconnect with his extended family.

I'd only met Aunt Christine twice, but I know Joe has a lot of fond childhood memories of her. Here's a picture of them from Joe's cousin Jay's wedding in 2008:

Moving Day

It's been a busy work week for me. On Wednesday I started packing up my office, on Thursday I finished packing and cleaned all my furniture, and today I have unpacked and arranged my new office. The Administration, in their "wisdom" decided to move my department and our sister department to a whole other building. It's a little closer to home for me, but it's also an Occupational Center - this means there will be kids here all the time, and some of those kids are the extremely troubled variety.

But I did the packing and the sorting and watched the moving company (cute boys! woo!) carry all of my things away.

And I did the shoving around of furniture and unpacking and restoration to put a new office together. I took the spot my boss wanted, but I figure she's retiring in a couple of weeks so I'm not worried about it.

My new office-mate Joan likewise spent the day getting her area in order. Now our bosses need to come in and set up their office space - we're all sharing one big room.

It's a lot to get used to, but as long as I have my things in their usual spaces I guess I won't freak out...too much! Now I just need a phone line!

Me and Hats

So, after a long hatless spell, I've decided to try wearing them again. In the past I was a big fan of hats - baseball caps, painter hats, Army hats...whatever I could beg, borrow or steal. (Some of my best hats were stolen from random male acquaintences of mine!) When Xander and I went shopping this weekend, I popped into Claire's in the mall to see what kind of girl hats they had. And ended up buying one.

Yes, it's a fedora. And yes, I feel totally 80s when I wear it. But I really like it, too. It makes me feel...I don't know...just a bit edgy or something. Probably it's my mid-life crisis come early (I had to stop myself from buying the fingerless gloves).

Joe thinks I look good in hats. I've never been 100% positive of that myself, but I do like wearing this one. So for now I'll wear my new hat, and hope people are saying, "Wow, she looks cool!" and not "Geez, is she for real?" That's the power of positive thinking, my friends!

Obsessed Much??

It seems that this is my year for obsessions. First it was Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (Hatter!). Then the Syfy Channel's movie Alice (Hatter again!). The Syfy Hatter was played by a British actor named Andrew-Lee Potts and I like him so much I just went ahead and bought the first three seasons of his BBC show Primeval.

Now I'm loving Primeval! Lots of dinos and narrow escapes, and the Brits have no problem killing off major characters so you just never know who's going to be next. I love the Abby-Connor relationship (when will she finally just admit she loves him?) and the special effects aren't all that bad, considering. And I love that Connor wears hats too!

So now I'm combing the internet looking for info on Season 4, which is airing in January (pretty sure). I'm reading Primeval and Alice fanfic. And I just might start stalking Andrew-Lee Potts, haven't decided on that yet. LOL!

I think I maybe need a twelve step program or something.

Going Home

Like all good things, it was finally time for our Florida vacation to come to an end. Mom drove us to the Orlando Amtrak station, where we were able to check three of our bags (good for us, since we came home with three extra than we left with!). Xander cried when it was time to get on the train - he didn't want to leave. Awww!

Going back to NY, we had two of the smaller rooms instead of the one big room. This worked better, actually. Joe was able to have some quiet space for himself, and Xander and I fit quite well in the little room.

He watched movies, I read. And then I watched a movie while he played with his new toys. It was all good. The sleeping probably would have been better but I was worried I'd sleep too late in the morning and we were due to Penn Station by 10:30am.

I needn't have concerned myself. We were two hours late getting into Penn, and then had to wait an additional half hour to get our checked-in bags. Luckily, we still made our connecting train on time and had a peaceful ride back to Rhinecliff.

Would we travel by train again? Most certainly. But definitely with the two rooms next time!

Orlando Day 2: Universal Islands of Adventure

Our second and last day in Orlando was overcast and a little drizzly, which suited me just fine. Man, did we walk our feet off! Universal Islands of Adventure is big, and started off not so great. First of all, some very annoying lady cut us in line at the ticket booth, then cut some other line because ours wasn't going fast enough. And then they told Mom they weren't honoring Florida discounts for the month of July, so it cost us a lot extra than we'd planned. Grr.

But things went okay in side the park, if you don't count the crazy Harry Potter crowds and the interminable waiting in line. Our first stop was Seuss Landing, where Xander and Joe rode the carousel and Xander went on the One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish ride (say that ten times fast!).

And of course, Joe found someone he could relate to. :)

We made our way around to the Lost Continent, which was a combo of Atlantis/Sinbad. Lots of very dramatic landscaping. And while Joe waiting in the Olivander's line, Mom and Xander and I doubled back to watch the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad stunt show. Xander loved it!

Of course, the big stop was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where we were literally shoulder to shoulder with other Potter fans. More fun photo ops, and I have to say that Hogsmeade was nicely put together. Most of the store fronts were fakes, but there was things moving around in almost every window. Very cool.

And naturally we had to try Butterbeer. I wasn't a big fan at first, but it grew on me. Kind of butterscotchy, but good. And we had a late lunch/early dinner at the Three Broomsticks - fish and chips for me! Joe also tried the Pumpkin Juice, but I didn't like it so much.

The one big snafu came at Hogwarts castle. They had a tester seat to see if you could go on the big ride at the top of the castle. They couldn't close the bars over Joe's shoulders. So no fun ride for him. And since the rest of us didn't care to go on it either, we waited in the 90+ minute line for a tour of the castle.

Lots of coolness here, especially for the fans. There were talking portraits and everything! And mostly the line moved pretty quickly. Until we got to Dumbledore's office, and then everything just kind of stopped. We must've been in there about an hour, listening to Dumbledore give his spiel about a million times. Turns out there was a problem with the ride. Since we weren't going on it, we hopped out of line and finished up the tour.

Joe and Xander both got wands at Olivander's. I was looking around the gift shop, but the souvenirs there cost a fortune, and I was fresh out of galleons. :)

So we moved on to Jurassic Park, where there were plenty of dinos and a really cool discovery center where you could look inside dino eggs and stuff. Xander had fun with that. But the most fun he had there was hanging out in the splash zone at the end of the Jurassic Park water ride. Huge amounts of water to be had there!

We finished up in the Comics/Super Hero area, where Joe drooled over lots of comic book stuff and Xander got his dad to take him on the X-Men ride. (Too much spinning for Mommy.).

We didn't get back to our hotel until probably 7pm or so, at which time Xander dragged Mom and I to the pool for some in the dark swimming. I might also mention that it was raining and it wasn't all that warm anymore. Mom stayed in for about five mintues, but I hung out in there with Xander for about a half hour. Then we crashed in the hotel room, packing what we could and watching Family Guy (yes, I know this is completely inappropriate for Xander to watch - we were on vacation, darn it!) and King of the Hill. A full day of fun!