Random tidbits

1) I bought The Host by Stephenie Meyer on Saturday. I started reading it on Sunday, and finished it Monday afternoon. Great book!! Not as easy to get obsessed about, but it was still something that really made me think. One of the reviews on the back cover of the book mentioned that The Host delves into the question of what it means to be human... I agree with that assessment for sure. It wasn't nearly as Sci-Fi as I thought it would be, despite the fact that it's basically dealing with an alien takeover of the human race. It's more about the characters, which I love. It also dealt with something that's always intrigued me: What goes on inside people's heads, how every individual consciousness must have a completely different personality, a different train of thought. I often catch myself wondering what someone is thinking about when they're being silent, and this book has a lot of internal conversations, so it was interesting to me. When you feel like you're part of that world, and can imagine being there, smelling the smells, feeling the hot sun, and feeling the emotions that the characters experience- that's something I love about a good story. It was a slower moving story than the Twilight books, but I can appreciate that. I also guessed the ending pretty early in the book (although I was thrown off by the last few chapters, thinking it wasn't going to work out that way after all - I was tricked!) I still had a hard time putting it down when I needed to.

2) I had an odd dream last night. I dreamed that I was visiting a generic friend in downtown Baltimore. The area had a very specific name, like most of the neighborhoods in Baltimore do, but I can't recall the whole name anymore. It started with an R, and ended with Hill. The R part had two syllables. It was just a few blocks wide, and in between two very busy streets, and near a college campus. For some reason, I left my kids, strapped in their car seats, inside the house of my friend, and went to the light rail station about a block away. When the train arrived, I hopped on and assumed I would be taken to where my car was parked, only a few blocks away. But instead, I was speedily taken (like, faster than present-day trains travel through cities) to a pretty run down and abandoned part of the city, very far away from my friend's house (and my kids). There was a post office there that I went into, only it felt more like a police station (and I've never been inside one of those, so don't ask me how I know that). I found out from one of the employees that there would not be another train coming to that station for at least 2 hours. I guess I took the brown train, but there are also yellow and red trains, and they all have different schedules and different destinations. I didn't know any of that before I got on the train. So I was sort of trapped, too far away to get to my car, and much too far away to get to my kids. I felt pretty desperate to get back to them, strapped into their car seats inside the friend's house. And then my dream skipped forward, and then I was in walking distance, walking through the college campus to get back to that house. All ended well. But it felt odd how my dream dealt specifically with an exact location, and so much of it was about the light rail system. No idea where that dream came from.

3) My computer part was outside of Pittsburgh, PA as of this morning. Hopefully I'll get it delivered to my door by tomorrow or the next day. Also, I have a really nice UPS guy. It's been the same guy since we first moved here, and he's always very friendly, and even jokes around sometimes. I feel like I should get him a little gift to give him before we move, to say thank you for all the many packages he's brought to us.

4) I somehow accidentally purchased Jalapeño sliced olives. They looked exactly like a normal can of sliced olives, except for a narrow green box going across the bottom of the label, stating they were Jalapeño sliced olives. I had never heard of them before, never knew an alternate form of sliced olives existed. I was dumping them into some macaroni salad for dinner (Melinda's favorite!), when I noticed some red chili-like chunks. That's when I examined the label and felt horrified by my mistake. I tasted the olives (after I had fed about three stray ones to Jacob), and it had a slight Jalapeño flavor to it, but wasn't spicy. Until I swallowed. Then my mouth started burning. Ugh!! It doesn't help that Melinda hates spicy things. (Why hadn't Jacob complained? All I know is that he'll eat Pace and chips with Daddy, despite saying it's spicy, so he must not mind!) So I dug out half of the olives, for my sake, and after Melinda was served her bowl, I dug out all of her olives (she refused to even try them once she heard me call them spicy). So beware!! Watch out for sneaky olives next time you purchase them!!

5) Alex is getting so big! Over the last week he's really gotten super-interactive. Suddenly he's reaching for his toys, and now even grabbing them successfully! He often rolls up onto his side, like he's about to turn over, and his kicks and reaches often cause him to turn around at least a quarter turn while he's laying down. When he's talking, it's not always little coo's and grins anymore, but playful squeals and near-giggles! He's always eager to talk when he's awake and alert, and we all just love it! But especially Melinda and Jacob love it. Maybe a little too much - I have to constantly remind them to get OUT of Alex's face, give him a few inches of space so he can actually see them.

6) Our apartment application process is severely annoying me. We turned in the application last Monday. Tuesday afternoon, Jesse turned in our 60 day notice to Century apartments. Thursday, Briarcliff called us to tell us that Century faxed back the requested Tenancy report, but noted that they had not received our 60 day written notice. Briarcliff said they cannot put our application through until Century has that notice (not sure why, but okay....). So they had me call Century to have them re-fax that they do in fact have our notice. But when I called on Thursday, the woman who deals with written notices was out, so they couldn't take care of it. I called back Friday (two times, actually, since I had left a message Friday morning but hadn't received a return call yet), and the woman was in, and comfirmed she had our written notice, but would not re-send a fax unless Briarcliff first sent a new request fax. So I called back Briarcliff to ask them to re-send a request, and the woman who has been dealing with our application was out for the day. Great. Just great. The woman who answered the phone said she might be able to do it that day, but it might not be till Monday, since she was busy. I asked her to PLEASE try and get it done today, since this has been hanging in the air since Monday. I neglected to call on Monday (too engrossed with reading my book!!), and didn't hear from them again until this morning, Tuesday. After I answered, the original Briarcliff woman said, "So I understand you've cancelled your application?" "NOOOoooOOOO!!!" I said, with a very surprised and annoyed tone to my voice. I re-explained the whole situation to her, emphasizing the fact that I was waiting for them to do their part, and I had done as much as I could on my end. "So we need to re-send a request fax to Century?" "YES, PLEASE!!" "Alright then, thank you!" Ugh ugh ugh. I don't know who I feel more frustrated with, Century who for some reason won't send a fax when I request in on Briarcliff's behalf, or Briarcliff, who won't just contact Century without making me play middle man, or employees on both sides who just happen to have the day off on the one day I need them (and separate days, at that), or a pretty basic message of needing a re-fax being turned into "they're cancelling they're application". HUH?? I'm *HOPING* that it will all be taken care of today. I should probably call tomorrow to confirm there haven't been any additional hiccups. All I want is to know for sure that we're secured a place to move into in a couple months, you know??

Substitute Computer

Today my computer was turned off almost all day long! I was definitely more productive around the house, doing two much-needed loads of dishes, 3 loads of laundry (and at least 3 more waiting to be done after that), and keeping things picked up throughout the day. But I did miss my blogging terribly. As it turns out, it wasn't my monitor causing problems, but my computer's power supply. The fan won't turn, so the computer overheats, among other problems. Jesse made it work the other night by fiddling with it, and this morning it started making a clunky noise like the fan wanted to turn, but wouldn't, so I decided to try and fiddle with it, too. Bad idea. I grazed my knuckle on a different working fan inside the computer tower, and it took off a full layer of skin. It hurts! :( And once that happened, I gave up and let it be. A full day of no computer wouldn't hurt too badly, right?

Jesse brought home one of the many unused power supply fans they have at work (since they buy a lot of computer parts, and don't need that particular part, and installed it and deemed it good to go, but shortly after turning it back on and trying to check my email, it very suddenly died on me, and made the familiar faint, long beeping sound of an overheated computer. So the power supply needs to be replaced. We just ordered one on Jesse's computer. Should be here by the 19th. In the meantime, I'll be borrowing Jesse's computer, which has a very different feel for me, and is missing all my bookmarks. So that will mean less total time spent at the computer. And really, that should be a good thing, but it doesn't mean I'm overjoyed about being forced into it!!

We didn't do potty training on Thursday since we were out a few times during the day, and Mommy was busy in the kitchen working on Daddy's birthday requests. Today we tried, but Jacob had a few accidents and was otherwise just having a pretty off day, and ended up requesting a diaper. He was grumpy today, not cooperative about anything, and prone to breakdowns. Not a good day for trying to potty train. Maybe we'll restart the process on Monday, and hope for a few good days in a row for him. :)

Jesse's birthday was on the 12th. I will blog about that when I have some time and Jesse isn't waiting for me to free up his computer. ;)

Potty training, Take 2?

For background or a general reminder about Jacob using the potty, read this post from February.

I'm thinking it might be time to try potty training with Jacob again. Yesterday, after a very small and incomplete-seeming poop in the diaper, I decided to leave Jacob's diaper off for the rest of the afternoon. He didn't have a single accident the entire time he was naked. Of course, Daddy put some underwear on him around dinner time, and *then* he had an accident. But he was doing great up till then, telling me that he needed to go to the potty, and then doing it! He even pooped in the potty, yay! He really seemed to notice when he needed to go, and got there in time. As long as he didn't have anything on his bottom. So I may just have to spend a few days at home and let him get used to that pattern, huh?

Of course, he did pick a fine moment to try and use the "big" potty in the master bathroom. Our toilet lid has come loose, and it's very prone to slipping halfway off the top of the toilet, if you aren't careful. And Jacob decided that he wanted to use THAT potty during the ONE TIME I was on the phone yesterday, and started climbing up all by himself. I had just realized what he was doing, and started going after him, when he started wailing. The seat did indeed slip, and poor little Jacob had a bit of a squishing incident. He wanted me to kiss it better, too. Um.... no. After much begging and pleading, I blew the owie a kiss, which was, thankfully, sufficient for him.

We had company over this morning (we hosted a group Ice Activity!), so we didn't repeat the experiment today, but I think I'll try again tomorrow.

Alex is in the middle of a marathon nap right now, which is pretty unusual for him. I should have taken the opportunity to make dinner while he's quiet and I'm hands-free, but you know... I'd much rather catch up on email and blogs and everything else instead. ;)