Aquatic Survival

Some of you know that we are using a chunk of our stimulus check toward ”swim” lessons. Actually we enrolled Pierson into Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) aquatic survival lessons. I’ve been calling them “swim” lessons but when you look at the footage featured on this mornings Today Show it looks nothing like the back stroke. You see kids floating, rolling over in the water, dog paddling underwater with wide eyes and yes some are crying. They cry for all the normal reasons, new people, new environments, lack of control, etc. In time students gain confidence in their abilities and the crying is replaced with “yook mama! I sim, I sim!”. Pierson is in his first week and loving (?) it. He whines, then gets pissed, then laughs, then gets pissed again. All in all it’s totally worth it! He is learning to save his own life if God forbid he falls into a pool. I’m in the process of editing video of his first lesson. More to come…

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments » May 2008

Interesting Amazon sale

Just had another book purge in our household. Which means I package and send out everything. It’s all pretty boring BUT occasionally I get one that makes me giggle. Would the boss man really appreciate this in the break room? Some one has balls having this mailed to his place of employment OR maybe this was purchased by the boss man. Is he looking to throw in the towel? We will never know, hmmmmmm

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments » May 2008

MY PET PEEVES

I know all of you have completed your pet peeve lists, I’ve been complying mine for a while. They are NOT in order of  “most vile” just random words filled with utter frustration!

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT responsible for any hurt feelings, these are my (meaning I own them) pet peeves therefore I am ultimately responsible for dealing with them (i.e. communicating them to you). This is NOT my way of delivering them to you; if something really annoyed me (for those that don’t know me) I would have called you out already. However, if you still find something in this list you feel incriminates you, it is just the memory I am telling here, NOT the opening of old wounds!   ENJOY!!

My pet peeves:

1.    People who park in drive ways knowing they’ll be the first to leave, making everyone who parks be hide them move their cars to let them out!

2.    People who call and say they will be late BUT are already 10-20 minutes LATE. Ummm you kinda knew you were gonna BE LATE when our appointment time had come AND GONE.

3.    People who regularly apologize for not getting back to you. The reality is, they didn’t want to do whatever you requested so they electively “spaced” so they didn’t have to say “NO”

4.    Oh right, people who can’t say “no” (see above)

5.    People who come LATE to potlucks. You are bringing food; therefore people will probably be eating it. So lets eat all the food at the same time. YES, be on time if you are bringing dessert. If I know the only dessert is fruitcake, I wouldn’t bother saving room.

6.    People who think my husband I share the same traits. I AM NOT GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION!! Yes I understand the whole “we are one” thing but we are still different people. Here are a few examples; my husband can be a recluse however I am for the most part out going. My husband may not mind being late (see 2 and 5) but I like being on time if not a little early.  I like sweets he does not. I like wearing black he prefers colors, I love my husband so I wear colors. Xoxo

7.    Drivers who speed up or slow down when you’ve turned on your blinker to merge, change lanes or GET AROUND THEM!! YOU SAW MY BLINKER B*TCH! (it’s an old rap song)

8.    People who use parenthesis to much, GUITY!! (hand raised)

9.    E-mails with one or BOTH of the following: “fwd, Fwd FWD” or three HUNDRED pages of To and From’s. GREAT now I know your boss is an ass and my aunt, pastor and pharmacist are bigots!

10.    HOAX E-MAILS, nuf said! EVEN WORSE; ones with #9

11.    Mothers who respond, “I’d rather not.” when my son reaches to play with one of their child’s toys. You’re in a room full of babies; it’s called a play date!! If you’re a germaphobe stay home! I would have preferred being told, “my child has a cold” rather than feel you think my kid’s not good/clean/white enough to play with your child. This pet peeve was the fuel I needed to post! Thanks (middle finger extended)

OK I think that’s good for now, I’m VERY sure there are more but I don’t want to look like a totally hateful b*tch. I’ll settle for just bitchy. xoxo

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 2 Comments » September 2007

WORTH EVERY PENNY

If you haven’t heard this story then pull up a square and take listen (read whatever)…

On Monday evening in between returning from the zoo and dropping off our Mazda at the mechanics (getting it ready to sell) I toiled at finishing an amazing yoga sequence for my FIRST yoga class Tuesday morning. Come Tuesday morning I was ready to go a whole 35 mins before go time. So I wandered about the house, washed some dishes and played with Pierson (now 8 months old). Finally it was time to head down to the park for a nice relaxing yoga session, right! WRONG!! I couldn’t find my keys to the Toyota (new car), ALL my yoga stuff was packed in there, along with Pierson’s stroller, toys, etc…CRAP, panic creeps near, I called Jason (husband) asked if he’d seen my keys. We retraced my steps NOTHING! Mind you I’ve NEVER lost my keys before!! Lost my keys!! So I called Sara, she was coming to the class so I’d hoped she could give me a ride, VOICEMAIL!! Dang! Pacing, pacing, Sara called back, she’s on her way. PHEW!! Yoga was great aside from the time I took to center and calm myself. Wow what a crazy morning, at least I remembered to grab my cell phone charger as we ran down to meet Sara…

OH WAIT I’M NOT DONE!! I’d planned to get together with some moms on the Lippert Farm for lunch, so being resourceful I had Sara drop me off at the mechanics to pick up the Mazda. YEAH I have a car for the day. I raced home showered, dashed to Von’s grabbed a few salads and cruised over to the Lippert Farm for a nice relaxing lunch. I had a great time aside from my cell phone dieing in the middle of an important phone call with my husband, phone charger was broken so I borrowed Tracy’s cell. GEEZ this day couldn’t get any worse, these were my last words to my husband from Tracy’s cell phone.

So I’m getting ready to leave Tracy’s some of the kids were helping Pierson and I into the car, I noticed the car keys in the basket of our spare stroller as I lifted it into the trunk. I left the trunk open as I went to help on of the girls with Pierson’s car seat. As I finished and closed his door someone closed the trunk. I FELT MY BLOOD LEAVE MY BODY AS I REALIZED MY BABY WAS LOCKED IN A HOT CAR!!

I had Tracy call AAA; her farm is in the middle of NO WHERE! After 10mins in the car smiling at the girls through the window Pierson was beginning to cry. AAA was having issues finding the farm, I had Tracy call the fire dept. hoping they could get there sooner. The Fire Dept couldn’t even find her street on their grid, CRAZY!! I asked Tracy’s son to find me a hammer to break my car window. He was back in a flash, it had been 20 mins, and Pierson was crying and covered with sweat. I hit the back window hoping the tint would keep the glass from flying, the window didn’t budge. I freaked I couldn’t even break a window…I tried again this time on the front driver side window…CRASH! THE GLASS WENT EVERYWHERE! I dove into the car; Pierson was purplish red and whining. Everyone ran into the house, wet towels, water and bits of apple for the little guy. The paramedics showed up it was quite a scene. Pierson was red faced for an hour but fine, I was exhausted and a wreck!!

Breaking the window cost me $165, worth every penny!!

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 5 Comments » September 2007

Craig’s List, SCAMS and just plain silliness

Attached is an email conversation regarding my Craig’s List listing. I listed some baby formula rebate checks hoping someone would want to trade them for a different brand. I found it funny and strange; more strange today than any other day because I received a non-related scam check for $3500.00 in the mail. It’s interesting the amount of scamming there is today. Are people beginning to have less of a moral compass or are they getting more desperate. OR better still maybe ALL of us are getting a bit naive and greedy. Now back to the emails. On top of EACH email sent or received through Craig’s List is a scam warning from Craig’s List. I will let you read it at the end of the conservation. I do this because apparently the person inquiring about my listing failed to read it THREE times…ENJOY and be careful out there!

Here is my listing:

TRADE similac CHECKS for Enfamil CHECKS

---

Reply to: sale-317225549@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-04-23, 10:48AM PDTI have 4 $5 Similac checks to TRADE for Enfamil checks. Please only checks allowing “any” Enfamil formula. We use regular Enfamil with Iron (Lipil gives baby gas, fert!) I will meet you in Ventura to trade, no mailing, no scamming!Expiration dates: 5/09/07, 5/18/07, 6/6/07, 7/31/07

NOW here’s the first of Ms. Astorino’s emails (is that pronounced ASS to Rino ?? ok now I’m just being mean)

> On 4/24/07, MAR… ASTORINO
> <m…916@yahoo.com > wrote:

I read your posting. I have traded with people all over the US, I have Never and Never been scammed. I mail them out that day and they do the same, and I have never had any problems.

— < linuxgrl> wrote:

> I’m sorry, did I miss something? Do you want to make a trade or are you telling me how to trade?
On 4/24/07, MAR… ASTORINO <m…916@yahoo.com> wrote:

You said you wouldn’t mail, I am in CT

— < linuxgrl> wrote:

> so you do have something to trade?
end of emails…maybe she FINALLY read the WARNING from Craig’s List at the top of all her emails. This is what every Craig’s List email starts with, I have not altered it in any way. Pay close attention to the BOLD statement in the FIRST line, duh!!

**CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
**Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
**Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
**More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Oh and about that $3500 check I’ll be mailing it to the FBI in the morning. No joke!

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 8 Comments » April 2007

Scary :0

Dang the wind was scary last night, then there was the noises out side the spooky old Dudley House. Some tall skinny guy was carrying a black bag the size on a BODY. It was about midnight…ever since I started this stay at home mom gig my imagination is in high gear. Anyone see that movie “The Burbs” yeah that’s how I’m feeling.

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 2 Comments » April 2007

tax time, yippy freakin doooo

Every year about this time I start sucking down alcohol, smoking cigarettes and taking St. Johns Wort capsules by the handful. I make a mad dash through piles of receipts, picking through to find every known write off. Every year Jason and I have had to pay. Our tax man (who we fired two years ago) would say “have a kid or buy a house. ” Well most of you know how we feel about housing here in California and we’d been trying for a baby for years. IT FINALLY HAPPENED thanks to little Pierson!!! We will get some cash back from “the man” this year. But it did take some tooth pulling, Quicken checking, Quicken changing, Quicken reloading, Quicken checking again, then finally some TurboTax inputting and some attempts (a dozen or so) at transferring last years return (Turbo as well) then about 2 days worth of answering STUPID questions like did your child live with you last year? HELLO the question right before that was his age and the one before that was our marital status, and the one before that adoption? GEEZ for $63 you’d think a product made from a Company who’s name is “Intuit” as in INTUITIVE would be able to I don’t know BE INTUITIVE or at least know that some standard information doesn’t change through the tax form process. SO once all that was done I had to do the same sh*t fOR state filing, then calculate, fix errors, etc. Etc. ETC…and to think we used to pay someone to do this for us.

Tax Man $150

TurboTax $97 (that’s each year) $63 for the software PLUS e-filing 16.95 for state and 16.95 for federal. For the savings of $53 and not knowing if I screwed anything up, I’m not sure it’s worth it.

Note: for those of you who get to file EZ, my tongue is extend out to you in jealousy.

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 3 Comments » April 2007

Object in mirror may weight more than it appears

So I went to cutely hop up onto a kitchen counter today and much MUCH to my surprise the counter top seamed higher or maybe gravity was a little off today . It felt like I was trying to jump in an elevator going up. My arms just could not lift me up and my feet could not pop my butt up onto the counter. WHAT THE?? I guess I’m starting to feel those thirty lbs. Not that I haven’t experienced the midnight leg cramps, wow those are not at all fun. I laughed at myself, thinking hahaha you forgot you’re pregnant and can’t do that. Funny!

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 4 Comments » October 2006

I love our church community

Last night was AMAZING!! We had church as we always do on a Tuesday night; nine of us sharing food, wine and conversation. Normally we talk about music, film or that day’s headlines. Occasionally we get deep about Jesus, church and Christianity. Last night was one of those conversations; we spoke about deconstructing our religiosity and really questioning our belief and where we are in it. We talked about how good it felt to not be so sure of ourselves in our belief. How our uncertainty really gave God room to move in our lives, really show us his grace, support and provision. It was amazing!!

I have to admit during most of the conversation I was installing drivers (it was my ministry for the evening and I very much enjoyed it !!

Just being there listening in on “the church” my brother and sisters in Christ digging deep was truly a gift and I love THIS idea of church. My husband and I for a long time have been over the idea of sitting in a room full of people we’d like to talk to but can’t because the focus was on the pulpit. We’ve always wanted to be apart of a community comfortable just working through this thing called Christianity. To many times we’ve found ourselves in an institutional setting where everyone had the answers.

Anne Lamott said it best “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty”

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 5 Comments » September 2006

Amazing Grace, who’s got more

I’m glad my husband has enough grace for the both of us. After reading my post this morning he emailed me about how navigating uncomfortable situations regarding how we hope to have and raise our children may continue to be questioned or seen as absurd. I’m glad he pulled me down from the roof. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself not having someone to sympathize with my angst. After it all I felt sorry for the woman who meant well, I probably scared her more than her advice scared me. Who ever you are lady with the apple sized hemorrhoid I apologize. Next time just try to remember how scared you were when you were pregnant AND how hormonal.

Looks like Jason and I are going to skip the whole birth center gig and go 100% hippie holistic and have Jason deliver our first born in the desert at the Burning Man festival.

Posted by linuxgrl Posted in: Uncategorized 5 Comments » September 2006

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