Owner: A Smeddling Kiss URL:http://asmeddlingkiss.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:55:27 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Velma is, alas, a psuedonym. I live with my family on Cape Cod, where I attempt to successfully blend in with the normal folk. You'd never guess the darkness that lurks in my heart. (Insert evil cackle and rubbing of hands together.)
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The View From My Front Porch (120/365) 2007-10-17 22:24:00 Yesterday was a lovely fall afternoon, and as I hung out with the kids, I took some pictures from my perch on the front steps. October 16th, Front
Stoop Suite: View Photo Slideshow Make a Free Flash Slideshow Read more:Porch
Busy Bees (120/365) 2007-10-15 19:04:00 I'm pretty glad the weekend is over, although it was nothing but fun. The school fair went well, and I sold enough stuff to make back the table fee and justify buying a few things from other crafters. It was a beautiful day, and I knew just where to put my table to stay in the sun. Unfortunately, I actually got a little sunburnt! Nothing like a breezy, cool day in New England to fry your face. I'm lookin' mighty purty, y'all.Dr. V. and I went out to dinner and then to a community fundraiser for a friend of a friend, where we (me) proceeded to free our (my) inner dancing fool. I tend not to dance very much at gatherings because I'm usually starved for adult interaction and am too busy talking to people. Plus, I'm fat. Although I am not particularly self-conscious about it on a daily basis, getting out on the floor and shaking my jiggly bits brings out the 7th grader in me. It takes a certain delicate balance to get me out on the dance floor - a combination of (1) just enough alcoh
Blogging Ovah Theah (119/365) 2007-10-15 08:10:00 I've got a new post up at the New England Mamas blog about Halloween. New England Mamas is a group blog started up by the fabulous Mrs. Chicky of Chicky Chicky Baby, and there are a whole bunch of us mamas over there posting. Women much more dedicated and focused than I, women who have been spending a lot of time designing and organizing the blog, and all of us are getting ready for a "go live" date on the new website sometime this month.Check us out: Read more:Blogging
The Ultimate Suburban Housewife Gift (123/365) 2007-10-22 08:23:00 Or "How I Woke Up One Morning And Discovered I Had Turned Into June Cleaver."It's my birthday today. I'm 42 now. I wrote a little bit about the whole getting older thing over here on the New England Mamas blog, but here on my own turf, I'll share my squirmy feelings about wanting and being given one of these for my birthday:On one hand, I am not someone who covets expensive things for the sheer luxury of owning the best and newest. I used to be that person, when I was young and dumb, but years of battling credit card debt and life with spartan Dr. V. have changed me for the better. These days, I am way more excited about re-purposing furniture through the creative application of slipcovers or chalkboard paint.Recently, however, I have begun having fantasies about owning a real mixer. The hand mixer I have dates back 17 years, which probably tells you a little about how little use it received in the early years of my ownership. Lately, however, it has been getting a workout. The kids Read more:Ultimate
, Suburban
, Housewife
We Have A Series! (122/365) 2007-10-19 06:34:00 Emotions are running high up here in New England for Red Sox fans today. I went to bed around 11 p.m. last night, and I noticed that although Dr. V. had set out his clothes for today as usual, he had draped 2 different ties across the clothing. It took a minute to register, and then I realized that he had picked out (1) his Red Sox tie in case they won and (2) a regular back-up tie in case they lost.He came in a little later and flopped down on the bed and sighed. I said, "It's not over already, is it?" He groaned and said, "No, they are doing well, but it's only the 6th inning. I hate 8 p.m. games when I have to be in at the hospital at 7 a.m. the next morning!" I replied in my usual supportive wifely manner, something like, "Wah wah wah, you big baby!" or "You suffer so, with your team in the playoffs!" and kicked him out so I could go to sleep.When I woke up this morning, in addition to the usual "To Do" list running through my head, I wondered who had won the game last night. I r
Catching Up (124/365) 2007-10-24 22:19:00 Despite our excitement at being invited down to attend the shuttle launch yesterday, we were unable to switch around various obligations to be in Florida to watch it in person after all. We were bummed not to take advantage of the opportunity, because - HELLO? We know someone who is currently IN SPACE?!? - but we are pretty happy it went off without a hitch. All that talk a week or so ago about the newly discovered possible safety issues and "acceptable risk" were giving us the heebie jeebies.We're sick, again. Peanut caught something and has been hacking away since Monday, so it has been a really long week. I've been Zicaming the hell out of my immune system, which seems to have left me in a weird state of being almost sick. I'm not quite exhausted, I have a little congestion and the tiniest tickle in my throat, and I've been getting chills every so often. My muscles are achey, and my joints are crackling and popping, and I keep needing to sit down. My hamstrings are parti
Guilty, Guilty, GUILTY! (125/365) 2007-10-30 07:02:00 OK, I'm 'fessing up. I'm guilty of an unusual crime, but I put the blame right on this woman. That's right - it's not my fault! I'm taking deep breaths and trying to remain calm, but I'm ashamed to admit that I've been... been... (hand on forehead, bite bottom lip)...hoarding posts.I'll wait for your collective gasps to setle down. It's almost NaBloPoMo time, and when I find myself sitting down to write a quick blog entry, something strange happens. I start drafting a post about my birthday or being sick all week or something funny that happened and then, instead of just finishing it up and hitting post and being done with it, I save it instead. I feel so dirty. (Do you like I how I cleverly used my not posting as a post topic? November may be a mightly long month around here....)
Weekend Wrap-Up (128/365) 2007-11-04 22:55:00 My parents managed to arrive just in time to participate in Operation We-Spent-One-Day-On-Cape-Cod-And-There-Was-Almost-A-Hurricane. They brought with them their little toy fox terrier, who ended up being perfect comic relief during the raging storm yesterday. We have always been a no-pet family, for both care responsibility and allergy reasons, but we had a blast with the dog this weekend. Status? Pet Decision Pending.Due to the huge hang-out factor of the weekend (and our thoughtful purchase of many, many bottles of wine), I ended up being the recipient of a few family confidences. Best one? Not really huge, in the sense of world changing, except in my narrow world view, which is based on my personal history of dutiful Catholic parents dragging their children through CCD and the Catholic milestones. I have horrid memories of being awoken by my gleeful father with a friggin' tin whistle, blowing a hornpipe and heralding a boring morning in church where my only hope of excitement was Read more:Weekend
Forgive Me, Eden Marriot Kennedy! (128/365) 2007-11-03 22:33:00 Goodbye, Noel. We Cape Codders are glad to see you go!This is why I couldn't post yesterday. Yes, we lost power... but is was a strangely relaxing day. A gas stove and gas fireplace were all we really needed. I raided the toy stash I keep in the basement and diverted the kids, and my parents were here with their little dog and we all just hung out and read and played and maybe perhaps drank a little lot of wine. So, full disclosure - I'm posting this Sunday morning but dating it for yesterday. And that's all I've got to say, because we are having people over to watch football later and I'm frantically cooking and cleaning and spazzing out all over the place. It's a little ugly here right now, but at least Dr. V. got the digital projector hooked up to the cable in the family room, so we're good to go with a wall-sized TV screen.Ta! Read more:Kennedy
This Doesn't Bode Well, Does It? (127/365) 2007-11-02 15:39:00 Hmmmmm. Day 2 of NaBloPoMo, and I'm struggling for a topic to post about. I don't want to resort to "laundry list" blog posts so early in the event - I'm trying to pace myself. I've been in a particularly good mood lately, which SUCKS for blogging purposes. Every day, same old thing - "Life is great! I've halved my dose of anti-depressants! I'm so lucky, my kids are awesome and my husband loves me dearly!" What kind of blog fodder is that?It's not that I want something terrible and dramatic to happen, quite the opposite. It's just that for blogging about... heeeeeeeeyy there! Wait a second! It looks like Mother Nature is going to bail me out! Severe weather is fast approaching, and thanks to Hurricane Noel, we are in for a good old fashioned Nor' Easter tomorrow. The weather warnings are predicting 3 - 5 inches of rain and gusts up to 85 miles an hour, which pretty much insures that we'll lose power. Woo hoo! We have a gas fireplace, so we don't worry too much about pow
Happy Halloween! (126/365) 2007-11-01 15:26:00 We had a very successful Halloween
around here. Nobody ended up in the emergency room, so hooray for me and my mad parenting skills! The whole peanut-allergy thing makes candy a very problematic issue in our house, so an entire holiday where the whole end result is sugar-based joy makes me squirrelly.Unlike previous Halloweens, Dr. V. and I did not dress up the whole family in theme costumes. It gets much harder to get the kids to go along with it as they get older, and we ended up going without Daddy anyway because he had a work emergency. I was very pleased with the manners the kids showed all evening, not least when I informed them that Daddy couldn't meet us after all and neither one said, "Stupid sick people, always ruining our holiday fun!" Not that anyone in this family would ever think that...ok, not that anyone in this family would ever admit that...not unless anyone had a fairly anonymous blog to bitch and moan on...er, right. Moving on!For the past few years, I have met up Read more:Happy
, Happy Halloween
Oh. My. GAWD! OK, WHATEVER! (134/365) 2007-11-09 13:22:00 Just great. Apparently, I'm 17 again. Poof! 25 years, gone, thanks to a simple message. My heart is racing, just like it did when I would walk down the hall in high school and see J.'s head above the crowd.A little back-tracking: I signed up on Facebook a couple weeks ago. A surprising number of my friends and acquaintances were on there, and it's been a handy little way of keeping in touch with people when I don't feel pulled together enough to sit down and write an e-mail. I logged on today to find a cheery little note from my high school/college boyfriend, the one who broke my heart and stomped it into tiny little pieces and shattered my self-esteem and ground those little pieces up as well. Uhm, yeah. No, no, not bitter... right?I haven't had a lot of serious relationships. Two, in fact - this man and my husband. There were other guys I dated in between, but it was pretty much 2 years with J., then a year or so, and then I met Dr. V., and even though he and I broke up a couple
It's A Cape Thing... (133/365) 2007-11-08 18:28:00 When we first moved to Cape Cod, I marvelled at how insular people here seemed. I'd hear someone talking about how someplace was "over the bridge," and I'd think, "Geez! The bridge is only 20 minutes away! It's not like you're trekking to Antartica, people!" A similar thing would happen when you would chat with people about events and places around Cape Cod. I'd say, "Do you know a good (insert ethnic food choice) restaurant?" and the answer would always include the words "way" and/or "over." "Chinese? There's a good place in Hyannis, if you want to go all theway into town.""There's live music, but you have to go way over to Dennis.""I hear that place in Harwich good, but with traffic it'll take youover 30 minutes to get there."Since we had always lived in cities, a 20 or 30 minute drive somewhere didn't seem especially daunting, and I used to wonder what all the fuss was about. Fast forward 6 years or so, and I've become one of them. We moved to our new house a few y Read more:Thing
Tuesday Is A No-News Day (131/365) 2007-11-06 21:54:00 I went looking for a meme to do so I'd have something to post about, but I got a little overwhelmed. I'm not feeling particularly interesting tonight, so it's hard to drum up enthusiasm for posting about my OCD tendencies (moderate and persistent - ask me about the key tapping thing I do all winter!) or my favorite Halloween memories (the night I met Dr. V. 22 years ago) or my feelings on daylight savings time (I am apparently the only one on the planet who likes it!) We are still cleaning up the house from Sunday night's Pats/Colts football party. I'm glad it ended up being such a good game, but there is a part of me that is ready to be DONE with sports. That part of me wished the Patriots would just lose already so my husband wouldn't have any more games to go to. We borrowed a digital LCD projector and used the blank white rear wall of the family as a screen, which was awesome. I don't even like watching football very much and I loved it.I was at a doctor's appointment this Read more:Tuesday
Busy Boy (130/365) 2007-11-05 22:18:00 Peanut is a mini-man of action these days. His imagination and personality seem a little ramped up to me, perhaps because of the recent developmental spurts he's been going through. The biggest change has been in his writing and drawing. He has gone from barely being able to draw a crooked and limp circle to writing his own lists and other communiques.My favorite are the rather bossy signs he tapes to everything. Case in point? The box that my birthday present came in, which he played with for a solid 3 days. Apparently, he was worried about the imaginary "theebes" who are always lurking around, waiting to steal precious objects:Like, you know - empty cardboard boxes.He's turning 5 the day after tomorrow, and has been busily making lists since September of items he'd like for his birthday (or from Santa.) Since he started reading and writing, it's been interesting to see what kinds of written communication he comes up with. His requests are usually a list of whatever toys he's see
I'm So Screwed... (139/365) 2007-11-14 16:51:00 I think I just over committed myself.I went to a school meeting about a program Pepper was asked to participate in, and there were all these other moms there who have full time jobs and are studying for their degrees and caring for their demented elderly relatives and I told myself not to be such a wussy about over committing and I volunteered to be the "Team Manager."This is a big step for me, since I have purposefully held back getting heavily involved in any of the kid-type activities up until now. I learned through hard experience that life with Peanut was too erratic to commit to such things. There was one skating episode that nearly did me in, chasing him under the bleachers and putting him in time-out for repeatedly trying to escape out the door into the busy parking lot and trying not to scream my lungs out and not spending a minute watching Pepper perform for me.I've been feeling like my life is more under control the last few months, which I'm sure is what led me to this de Read more:Screwed
Score! (138/365) 2007-11-13 09:19:00 Yesterday wasn't a great day. Today isn't so hot, either, but something goofy happened while I was out doing errands that made me smile. I was driving down the road, pondering and such, and although most of my thoughts were occupied with the Scandalous Events I mentioned, I had the usual other little trains of thought bouncing around in my brain. A back-up chorus, if you will, singing the "shoo-bops" of grocery lists and things to do behind the melody.(In my head, I just was about to write "melody of PAIN," but then I made a "da da DUM!" noise, rolled my eyes at myself, and started giggling. No wonder people give me a wide berth in the coffee shop.)ANYWAY - I was driving down the road, pondering. The timing of what happened was exquisite. As I was wondering what on earth I could possibly post about, what on earth I'd have the mental energy to say, this van drove past me and pulled into my lane:Why, yes! That does indeed say "erections," although it is hard to make out. Thanks for Read more:Score
A Lame Post About Something Lame (137/365) 2007-11-12 13:05:00 I'm having a really bad day, and I can't post about it. It's too personal, and while I blog anonymously to preserve some global level of privacy, anyone who really tried could find me. I've been okay with that, except every now and then I really, really need to vent about something deeply personal, and I just can't. It would be an invasion of other people's privacy, people I love, and so I'm stuck hashing it all out inside my head.So here I sit, with my juicy situation. Hearts have cracked, there are lascivious details, substance abuse is involved, and yet... nope, sorry - I got nothin' for y'all today.
A Lame Post About Something Cool (136/365) 2007-11-11 22:53:00 It is still blowing our mind that we know someone up in space RIGHT NOW. We've been space obsessed for the last 3 weeks around here. The kids and I have spent a ton of time on the NASA website this month, just letting the kids dictate where to click and just talking about astronauts and space and all sorts of space-related things. Like, you know, aliens and gravity and (Peanut's particular obsession) vampire aliens. (The timing of the mission coinciding with Halloween has resulted in a LOT of spooky alien talk, but hopefully we are moving past that particular obsession.)Much of the technical science is way too complicated for them, but the fact that we know the guy living on the frick frackin' space station is enough to keep the kids interested. I look at video and photos of the various highlights of the mission and can't really find the words to explain how weird it is to see a familiar face floating around without gravity. Weird, but so flippin' cool.Hey - lookie! My firs
Quiet Time (135/65) 2007-11-10 22:51:00 Last weekend, we had visitors. We had a tropical storm, power outage, and hurricane-force gusts of wind outside our house. And then we had a party. Is is any wonder that I didn't feel like doing anything today?I was thinking this would be the perfect afternoon to break out the birthday present and experiment with some holiday baking, but somehow it never happened. The laundry never got folded, the dishes are all in the sink, and we spent the day goofing off.May I present, for your mild amusement, the Two-Headed Monster? Read more:Quiet
Old Family Recipes (143/365) 2007-11-18 18:34:00 (Originally posted at New England Mamas)________________________Today was definitely a day to stay home in pjs and bake. My cold has morphed into an upper respiratory irritation, something that happens to me with regularity. The rest of the family is mending, but I'm using my inhaler and taking the heavy-duty codeine cough syrup and keeping everyone awake with my coughing at night. Bleah.I've been baking more now that I have the big ole' stand mixer, and today the kids and I decided to pull out the family cookbook and pick a recipe. A while back, my cousin put together a cookbook of family recipes, and I love the thing. It's more than a cookbook, it's a time capsule and family biography all in one. There are fussy culinary-school recipes from my cousin's ex-husband, who ended up running off with one of his cooking students and abandoning his wife and son. All his recipes call for some obscure ingredient or piece of equipment and sound kind of snotty. Last I heard, the girlfriend Read more:Family
Better (142/365) 2007-11-17 08:30:00 Things are getting better inside my head. This week has taught me a lot about keeping my shit together, even when I'm so riddled with anxiety that I'm practically vibrating. I have been able to get off the phone with a few tears leaking out of my eyes, just weighed down with sorrow, take a minute to catch my breath, and then walk into a room filled with people and act normally. This is pretty huge, since in the past, I've dealt with trauma by using my ABCs (alcohol, becoming a hermit, and crying a lot) but have never been able to carry off the "Everything is fine, really!" mask.I've always been the Drama Queen type rather than the Suffer In Silence Martyr type, but I really found myself taking time to think about the situation and give myself a little distance before responding emotionally. When I was younger, I would have been yakking nonstop to every friend and family member I had who was uninvolved in the drama, pouring my heart out and receiving the balm of sympathy in turn. I
Why Do I Always Forget This One? (140/365) 2007-11-15 08:35:00 I'm feeling miserable today, because on top of the emotional crap weighing me down, I woke up with Peanut's scratchy throat and gunk-filled head. Plus I spent last night watching too many old "CSI" episodes and drinking more than I should have. I'd really love to get some telemarketing calls right about now because - really - what's more fun than a depressed, emotionally fragile middle aged woman with a hangover AND a cold? Since I'm feeling so craptacular, of course it is a half-day for Pepper, which means no school at all for Peanut, which means no nap to improve my mood. I used to have a lot more bad days when the kids were younger - those mid-winter afternoons when the kids had been sick for days and I was sleep-deprived beyond reason - and I always forget one of the best tricks to getting through one of these days. I probably forget it because it is almost counter intuitive. After all, when you just want to curl up into a ball on the couch and sleep, the last thing you should
Time To Myself (149/365) 2007-11-24 12:56:00 I'm having a nice afternoon, alone at home. Maybe because I've been sick all week, I don't feel any pressure to get something done in this precious free time. Instead, I've just sat with my laptop and caught up on the lives of several of my favorite bloggers. I've still got a few more to go, people whose blogs I used to read religiously but now find myself checking out only sporadically. I blame Bloglines, which seemed like a great idea at first. Now, however, I find that my little bit of OCD has reared up and will not allow me to stop reading my blogs alphabetically. And I never have time to make it all the way down the list alphabetically. By the time I get to the "H" blogs, someone is demanding my attention, or the phone rings, or I've got to go somewhere. That's a ridiculous excuse, isn't it? For not staying caught up on blogs that I love, blogs written by interesting people?Anyway, for once, I managed to catch up on a chunk of blogs. It's been nice, even if I forgot to co
Etsy-riffic! (148/365) 2007-11-23 19:21:00 Finally! I finally had the time and energy to gather all my scarves, a sunny day last week to take photos, and time to re-charge the camera's battery which died half-way through the photo session. Then it took a little time to track down the data card which went missing from the camera while the battery was charging, because it turned out Dr. V. had filched it because he somehow managed to lose yet another one from his phone. Then I found a few minutes here to upload the pictures, a few minutes there to re-size and tweak the pictures, and a chunk o' time to upload the re-tooled pix to Etsy, measure the damn scarves, think of descriptions and calculate prices and tags and keywords and all the other random stuff I've been putting off for months.See over there in my sidebar? Where the pictures of the bracelets are? Where it says "check for my Etsy shop, coming really soon?" Obviously, I'm an amazingly talented procrastinator, but I finally loaded some things up into the shop. Scarves
History Repeats (147/365) 2007-11-22 19:21:00 Last year, we stayed home from the family Thanksgiving celebration because we were sick. This year, Dr. V. took the kids up to Boston, but I stayed home once again. He very kindly prescribed me some steroids before he left, so hopefully the whole weekend won't be a waste. In fact, if they work like previous doses, I'll probably have painted the house by the end of the weekend. You'd think I would be a little mopey, spending the day by myself, but in fact it was great. I had mistakenly told the kids we could have a "sleep-over" in the family room last night, and as a result, none of us slept particularly well. Peanut is one of the most restless sleepers I've had the misfortune to share a bed with, and even on the floor in his sleeping bag, he managed to keep me away much of the night. Who manages to fall out of their sleeping bag? I don't know how he did it, I just know that I heard a thud and woke up to find the kid 4 feet away from his makeshift bed, butt up in the air, muttering Read more:History
Etsy Gold: "Sexy Turkey Hat" (146/365) 2007-11-21 21:03:00 Y'all know I love me some twisted knitwear!I'd like to know what exactly makes it sexy? The hints of lace peeking out from the back? Or the rack on display above, cleverly distracting from the hat? Read more:Turkey
Still Sick, Still Thankful (145/365) 2007-11-20 14:19:00 I've been photo/recipe posting for the last few days because I've been very sick. I caught yet another pre-school cold from Peanut last week, but mine turned into a respiratory infection as well. Previous posts about my reactive airways abound - all you have to do is type in "cough" in the search box down there - but I can't imagine that would interest anyone but me. But hey! Go nuts, if that's what floats your boat. I can actually be kind of amusing when I'm loaded up on narcotic cough syrup.Anyway - back to me. Sick, cranky, and out of it. I've done my usual routine - inhaler, prescription cough syrup - but I think I may squeak by without the steroids this time. In a way, that is a bummer, because I always get so much done whenever I go on them. But I'm glad to be feeling the teeniest bit better after sleeping for 6 hours today. We are going to my in-laws' house for Thanksgiving, so the hardest part of the day will simply be driving up there through all the traffic. Dr. V. ha Read more:Thankful
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