[03/08/2008 - 13:29:50 PM] IntriguingSalmon: This is the third time I've gotten a message from someone with "salmon" in their username
[03/08/2008 - 13:30:13 PM] SM00CHIES: interesting... i don't have salmon in my name... but you do

intriguingsalmon (1:28): Hi.
Nauta (1:28): Stop * messaging me
intriguingsalmon(1:29): you must have typed the name wrong... i haven't messaged you
intriguingsalmon(1:29): i don't even know who you are

[03/08/2008 - 14:58:46 PM] IntriguingSalmon: Hi.
[03/08/2008 - 14:59:15 PM] SM00CHIES: hello...
[03/08/2008 - 14:59:23 PM] IntriguingSalmon: hello
[03/08/2008 - 14:59:28 PM] IntriguingSalmon: ... person

fleathemagician

themissinghat

fleathemagician

• I am still trying to get the laptop configured to my liking. I've been having issues with Semagic not wanting to work correctly, but they are minor issues. I am still having minor issues with Trillian as well, but that issue is even smaller than the Semagic issue.
• Probably the most frustrating issue so far is the fact that whenever I try to install the drivers for my old Photosmart printer, the silly thing freezes. *sigh*
• .
• Sophie is really becoming rather unbearable with her teething lately. She has been constantly wanting to nurse and has been constantly cranky when I try to redirect her. Since I'm so tired of little miss crankypants, I just cave and let her nurse whenever she wants. Hopefully teething will be over soon.
• I need to do a little shopping soon. We are needing another car seat for Sophie as well as a potty seat (she has shown a little interest and I don't want to miss my window of opportunity here). I believe we'll also be picking up some jumbo crayons for her. Maybe I should make some chunks for her instead.
• Speaking of which, I think it's also time for a pudding paint session soon. I think she'll get a big kick out of that.
• We have another Dream Dinners session coming up this Saturday. Tonight, I made maple thyme pork chops (they were cooked a little too long, but that was all my fault), bountiful baked beans (FIVE different types of beans!), and asparagus. All in all, the dinner wasn't bad. It would have been perfect had I not cooked the meat too long, though.
• Our lunch today actually used the leftovers from last night's roasted pecan chicken. B and I split the chicken to add to our big salad. It was quite tasty.
• I knit a little tonight. I have three and a half boats left to finish on this blanket and then I can start working on the cables. I am so ready to be done with this thing.
• Sophie surprised me the other day with a new sign. She put her hand up near her head and started shaking it. I had *no* idea what she was trying to sign. Then she signed wind and leaf and it dawned on me she was trying to sign tree (which she did pretty well, but I'm slow on the uptake at times). When I exclaimed "TREE!" she got all excited and started nodding her head.
• Of course, her spoken vocabulary is growing all the time as well. She tends to try to say the longer words and sign shorter words. She says buhnabies (butterflies), cado (avocado), mahnamel (watermelon), bellybuh (belly button), nooduhloos (noodles) and more. The kid cracks me up with the whole butterfly thing, too. She will get stuck on the first part and say "buhnabuhnabuhnabies." Sometimes she never even gets the end out at all. There are some shorter words she likes to say, but not many. She says nuh (nurse), breh (bread), mih (milk), chee (cheese or Chui, depending), cheechee (French toast), pish (fish), pea (peach), appie (apple), and others I don't remember.
• We had a Rainsoft water filtration and softener system installed a few weekends ago and absolutely love it.
• B has been looking at sheds, so that will probably be next on the list.
• Hopefully, B will be able to get to installing the baskets underneath the bathroom sinks so we can finish getting organized in there. As it is right now, I have all of the stuff out of the cabinets and in a laundry basket. I have to keep the door closed to our bathroom so Sophie doesn't wander in there.

• B and I did Dream Dinners this past Saturday morning and loved it. We had a good time and came home with plenty of good food. I am still amazed that nearly 72 servings worth of food fit tightly packed on one of our small shelves in our freezer (we have a side-by-side). We averaged about $3 per serving, which isn't all that bad, unless the serving sizes are on the small side (many times there is too much food) and people take more than an actual serving.
• Sophie is walking more and more and doing a pretty good job of it. I suppose it's time to find a pair of sandals for her to wear when we're out and about now since I'd rather not put her down barefooted.
• .
• The sign repertoire is increasing exponentially. She knows at least 78 signs now. I still think please is my favorite, but wait is awfully darn cute as well.
• Along with signing, her spoken vocabulary is increasing dramatically as well. She loves to sit up after a nap and point out body parts (making sure they're all still there, perhaps?) and she loves to walk around the house saying "no, no, no" (hmm... wonder why) all the time. She tries to say cheese, avocado, snacks, nap, bottle (for my water bottle), and many others. I love listening to her talk, and I think my favorite word that she says is please, of course.
• Sophie also loves to sing. Her favorite song is The Itsy Bitsy Spider and she even does motions to it (including the sign for sun). She also loves Pat-a-Cake, but she does it with her feet. She's such a crazy critter.
• She has been surprising us lately with her little memory and her overall cuteness. Today, while sitting on B's lap in our recliner (the one he tipped), Sophie noticed a picture of herself on the ledge over the recliner, signed baby, and then tried to pose as she was in the picture (too cute!). After that, she pointed over to the DVD cabinet which has pictures on top of it, signed baby and cold (for the picture taken when she was in the hospital), and then she signed Daddy (for the picture of her sleeping on Daddy). She could not see either of these pictures at the time, but still knew they were there. I love watching her little mind in action.
• Today, Sophie was a very good helper. She emptied all of the diaper wipes out of the laundry basket and tried shaking them for me, and when I asked her to put them back in the basket, she did! She even tucked the wipes that were partially out of the basket back into the basket. She also took all of her toys out of one of her tubs but then proceeded to put them all back in once she was asked. Of course, she dumped the tub again after that but put all the toys back without being asked a second time. I understand a lot of this is a simple game to her, but that's quite alright with me.
• We made a family trip to the grocery store today, mainly for eggs, but picked up a few other items while there. There were quite a few items in our cart and managed to walk out of there under $70. We also happened to walk out without any eggs. B made a special trip to The Devil to buy eggs for me since I needed an egg (yes, that's right, ONE FREAKING EGG) for the corn bread I made for dinner. Of course, had I not used an extra egg in the potato salad (recipe to be posted later, so be sure to check the recipe blog), I would have been fine.
• I don't think I've done one thing on my To Do list other than start cleaning off my desk. I need to get the return completely cleared since I will have to put the box on the desk to install the new (to me) drive.
• Chui escaped again the other day and one of our neighbors was nice enough to knock on our door to let us know.
• Someday I will get pictures uploaded from the trip, just like someday I'll get my email cleared out from when I was up north as well.
• People without children and without childhood development degrees who try to tell me how to raise my child, please step off. People with experience raising children and whose opinions I respect, feel free to step in.
• Ew, two sentences that end with a preposition (too lazy to be bothered to fix them right now, mostly because they're idiomatic phrases that are widely accepted, and possibly even excepted). I am such a grammar freak that it pains me to read anything where grammar, spelling, or punctuation are abused in any way (an entire separate post for a later time). This article made me weep.
• My computer is still in dire need of being reinstalled. I'm going with a dual boot of Ubuntu and Windows XP and am pretty excited about the Ubuntu (XP is for backup). If anyone has a better idea and would care to share it with me in precise detail, please feel free.
• Obviously, we have not yet floated away from all the massive amount of rain Texas has received this year. The dog almost floated away, but the house still stands. Okay, the dog really was never close to floating away, although for all the muddy digging he's done I almost wish he had.
• I have four sailboats left to knit in the blanket for Maddy. I will take pictures once the sailboat panels are complete.
• My snapdragons have made a reappearance. I don't remember having snapdragons last year, but then again I think I still suffered severe hormone head.
• If you have a MySpace account and feel like adding friends, feel free to add me. The link is in my profile, but the username is obvious.
• I've got a rock, but not one nearly as oddly placed as the rock my neighbors have, which sits in the middle of the sidewalk in front of their house.

• I finally caved and joined the masses at MySpace. Amazingly enough it has put me in touch with people I never thought I would see again, even some people I had almost forgotten. I don't know if I'll bother to copy the blogs from here to there or if I'll just leave the blog there blank.
• Cordless mouse death makes me sad.
• .
• We are going to go to Abilene to see Signing Time! Live at KidzFest. I'm pretty excited. I hope Sophie enjoys it.
• Yesterday while at Target Sophie signed shoes when we passed the shoes and clothes while we were in the clothing section. She also signed bananas when I put some in the cart, but big surprise there.
• Apparently, some wanker is trying to phish for credit card information via phone. I received a phone call today from 561-204-5441 (probably not the correct phone number) with a pre-recorded message stating something about being eligible for a lower APR and to press one to speak to an agent. I pressed one and the man asked me for my last name. Before giving him anything I asked for the name of the company and promptly heard a distinct click.
• I have the headache from hell right now and just want to go to bed and sleep it off, but Sophie would much rather play. Silly kid, what is she thinking? ;)
• The critter is trying very hard to drink out of a big girl cup now. She doesn't want to have anything to do with those silly sippy cups when she's trying to drink water. It's very cute but can also be very messy if I'm not careful.
• In Texas, all students are required to take the TAKS test at some point (several times, if it's anything like the standardized tests we used to take when I was in school many moons ago). I have no opinion one way or the other about the TAKS test in particular since I don't know enough about it, and I'm not going to voice my opinions about standardized testing right now. I just hope and pray that the person in this picture isn't one of the students trying to graduate without passing the TAKS test.

• Sophie kept trying to sign shoes today. It looks more like more than anything else, but she was pointing at my shoes, so I'm guessing that's what she was intending. While watching the race, she kept signing hat because of all the men wearing caps. I tried talking to her when she was nursing at one point and she signed milk as if to say, "Duh, Mom, I'm busy nursing! I can't talk now!" She has been signing fish a little more often now as well, usually whenever she has wandered over to watch the fish tank in action. I am so glad I bought the new Signing Time! videos for her. She loves to watch Rachel and dances along whenever Rachel sings. I am still amazed at how many signs she remembers and uses on a regular basis.
• Thank you, PC Magazine, for pointing me in the direction of Opera Mini. It makes me like my phone a little more, which makes me much happier.
• .
• I now have a blank hard drive that will be used to install a Windows XP and Ubuntu dual boot. I'm hoping to avoid using Windows at all, but I think I want to have a little safety net in case something winds up not working. I can't decide if I should wait until after I come home from Michigan to do that or not.
• We will be making the trek to the Great White North the week before Father's Day and staying until the end of June. I'm not sure when B will be going, but I think I would prefer he meet us up there and then we all fly back home together.
• I hope it stops raining by the time we leave for Michigan. I hate flying in bad weather, and our storms here have been so unpredictable.
• I think B is in love with the idea of buying a Yaris Liftback. This won't be done any time soon, but I have to admit it's a rather cute car. It surprises me he likes it as much as he does, to be honest.
• Little Miss will be walking very soon. She is standing more and more on her own and has even added a few dance moves (cute butt wiggles) while standing. I have a feeling she'll be walking before our trip.
• I think I will be doing Dream Dinners soon. I think I'll be waiting until we return from Michigan, but I'm definitely ready to give it a go.
• I have one knitting project on my needles and I don't spend nearly enough time working on it. This project is supposed to be a gift for my niece and it's a little late. I'm sure she won't mind, but I still feel awful it isn't done. I won't start anything else until this is finished, which is great incentive. There are so many projects I want to knit and I don't even know where to start.
• Sophie fell asleep in her highchair at lunch today. I was fixing food for our final trip of the year to Scarborough and she was eating lunch, throwing food to the dog, drumming on her tray, and making her usual noise. I realized after a minute or two that she was completely silent and looked to find her asleep with some of her lunch still on her tray. I felt so bad for the poor critter. What sort of mother lets her child fall asleep in the highchair like that?