I believe in ...... hmmmm

I decided to go to chuch today. I don't think I've ever been able to say that before. Wow.

I'm never going to be Catholic again, that's a given. But I've always felt that children benefit from religious education and from being part of a charitable community. When we lived in D.C., I considered going to Quaker services, but didn't really want to go alone. Now that we're here, and getting settled in, I keep thinking that church would be a wonderful way to be involved in the communitity and for the kids to meet new people.

Dan's mother, who was raised Quaker, goes to the Unitarian-Universalist church in Canton. I had no idea what the U-U's are, but generally thought that if my liberal, secular in-law liked it, it might suit me too. A few weeks ago I took the Belief-o-matic quiz on belief.net and found that my beliefs coincide with the U-U beliefs 100%. (Roman Catholic was about 13%)

I had a very nice time today. The sermon seemed to be talking about me (take a risk and try something new), the people were friendly, Nathan had fun in the playroom, and it smelled nice. Yeah, I have a thing for incense and candle wax. I just need to work out the details of what to do with Claire. She didn't want to be left in the nursery. Janet stayed with her so I could hear the sermon, but I can't do that every week. I'll have to work out how to take turns with her, or see if Dan wants to come, so I don't miss all the services. Nathan should be more easygoing, although he was shy, and also thought the music was too loud.

Z is for Zamboni

Enjoyed a rare Friday night off with Dan by going to a St. Lawrence Hockey game. This is the first men's game we've gone to, we were hoping the crowds would be light during vacation. There were still a lot of people though. Nathan was having a lot of fun, but when the Saints scored late in the 2nd period, he was scared of all the noise. Cheering, sirens, blaring music, stomping feet, the usual. Luckily, it wasn't a high scoring game, or he would have wanted to leave sooner. Making it through two periods was all we had expected anyway.(1 1/2 hours)

I'd like to go back, but not by myself with two kids. I'll have to see if Janet wants to come to games and hold Claire, or leave Claire at the grandparents. And I absolutely will not brave the BIG game against Clarkson.(the college in Potsdam)

Here's a picture that Nathan took of the game. And a few more I took.

Home again

I went down to CT for Jon's funeral from Sunday to Tuesday. Just me, at least I remembered the cruise control this time. Fairly typical Irish wake, crying interspersed with laughter.

Now that I'm home, I don't think Claire has forgiven me for leaving for three days. Either that, or she just likes Grandma better than me. Very fussy little girl. Luckily, Dan's been off the last two days, so she's been spending a lot of time in his arms. She'll forgive me eventually.

A true gift of life

It's a terrible thing to be 25 and have a brain tumor. That's what happened to my cousin Jon. He was given 6 months to live by the doctors. Thankfully, happily, joyfully they were wrong. He had surgery, the tumor was removed, and then he went out and lived his life. He fell in love, he started a business, he sang and wrote music. And now he is truly gone. Fifteen years later.

I remember...
running all over the yard playing Star Wars, and Jon was always Darth Vader.

the 4th of July party where he kept taking pictures of people's tongues, and how odd the finished "tongue" album looked.

he and his sister Mary singing a song to me at my wedding reception.




This is a photo from our family reunion last year. Jon (next to Dan and Nathan) was getting sick again by this time, the news today was not surprising. I'd like to believe in heaven today, because I know my Mom did, and she'd love to see her favorite nephew again. They were the clowns in the family, it's not right that they've left us so soon.

My nerd gene has kicked in again

I was stressing out all week over my accounting assignment. It was due at midnight last night, and I still had half the questions unanswered and hadn't taken the quiz as of 6 p.m. A horrible feeling was coming over me, related to the fact that this was only the first chapter in my career defining major, and I was having problems.

Decided to take a slight break from things and read Chapter 2 while waiting for inspiration. What a breeze! It still had lots of new information, but it was practical knowledge that I could relate back to work experience, instead of the theories and grand themes of chapter one.

Not only did it make it easier to get back to first assignment, but I got all of this week's work done by 11:00 pm as well. Plus, I reviewed the syllabus and realized what a small fraction of my grade this work was. Not that I can skip it, but at least it was a reminder that I could fudge one question each week without failing the class. Not worth stressing over.

Add to that the fact that I just selected a research topic for my second class and have no work due for the third and I'm golden.

Must Listen To Doctor ! !! ! !!

So, I'm stupid.

I knew that taking 5 mg of folic acid daily would reduce the side effects of methotrexate (nausea, mouth sores), but once I stopped taking prednisone everyday, it was a little tough to remember to take the folic acid.

But then I started finding mouse size lumps of hair in the shower every day. Hmmmm, what does that prescription form say? Hair loss is another side effect. Maybe, just maybe, I should take my supplement everyday. That would be smart.

But I'm stupid. I still didn't take it everyday this week before taking my methotrexate yesterday. And then today I took some prednisone on a mostly empty stomach. Oooops.

So, nausea. Check. Just in time race to the bathroom. Check. Afternoon spent not eating anything and drinking only weak tea. Check.

Do you think I learned my lesson? My hair certainly hopes so.

Waaaaaa Waaaaaa

Don't ever let your kids see you put the blankie in the wash.

 

 

I think she understood that when the dryer stopped making noise that they were ready. She pulled on one of my fingers to get me up and dragged me into the kitchen. I pulled out her quilts one at a time and she just looked at me like I was deranged. Then I got the blankie and she immediately held her hands out for it. Now she is rolling around on the floor with it.

Mmmm, frothy

Okay, I gotta try this. Although I think I'll wait until Dan's next day off. Combine one bottle of Diet Coke and a pack of Mentos. Or, in the case of this video, two hundred bottles of Coke and over a thousand Mentos.



BTW, this is done by some Coca-Cola people, not just random lunatics.

Yay, almost everyone I voted for won!

I thought I lived in a Republican stronghold here. After all, we do have a branch of the Council of Conservative Citizens in the next town. (I'd link to the site, but you really don't want to go there). While Dan was voting yesterday, a man in front of him piped up with "So, you're all voting Republican, right." When he persisted in then telling the poll workers to "Tell everyone to vote Republican", he was reminded that saying that was a wee bit illegal.

Happily, it looks like we're actually a democratic area after all. The County council went from 10-5 Republican to 10-5 Democrat. Spitzer (governor) and Hillary got 67% of the local vote. Our Representative is still Republican but the Adirondack Republican Rep got his wife-hitting, frat-party drinking, Abramoff connected fat-ass kicked out. Pretty much good news all around.

Will it really make a difference in National politics? Hope so. A lot of the Republican leadership from the last few years is gone. Santorum, DeLay and Frist are all gone. Even among the Republicans there has been a sense that the President has walked all over them the last few years. Maybe, just maybe, they'll find some common ground with the Democrats just to get back at the President a bit.

Class of 2008, or 2009, maybe 2010

Aaak. What have I gotten myself into? Had to read twenty pages from "Financial & Managerial Accounting" today. Now I have to submit some practice questions i.e...

Question #3: A major focus of this course is the process of financial reporting.
a. What is meant by the term financial reporting?
b. What are the principal accounting reports involved in the financial reporting process? In general terms, what is the purpose of these reports?
c. Do all businesses entities engage in financial reporting? Explain.
d. How does society benefit from the financial reporting process?

I also have to make sure I take a quiz by the end of the week. Plus there is a discussion on Ethics that I have to respond to. And that's just Accounting.

My other two courses will be expecting my research topic by next week, and I have to plan all the classes I'm going to take and submit a degree plan.

At first, I didn't even know where to begin. Now I've taped up a reminder schedule of which days I want to do which class. Sunday will always be Accounting, since that is the tougher course, and Dan is home on Sunday so I can take time to myself. Now I wish I'd started work earlier in the day instead of seeing Flushed Away with Nathan. I want to submit the practice questions before I forget everything I read today.

Whole Hog

Guess what, Dan has a blog. Guess what it's about. Betcha can't guess. You'll never believe it! It's about food. Wow. What a shocker.

A vote for me is a vote for scandal and corruption

I've been considering voting for a Republican candidate. Here's the deal.

A few days ago I got a "push" poll. After asking a few general questions, they asked if I was voting for the Dem Incumbent or GOP challenger for state comptroller. I didn't even know this position was up for election, so I said the Dem. The poller then asked if I would still vote for him even though he'd recently had to return $80,000 in misused public funds. Huh. Didn't know about that, since I'd never heard the guy's name before. This is where the "push" poll gets you.

Being me, I had to get more information about this scandal. Looked up some things and my inner accountant got riled that the comptroller (of all people) would use public employees and cars to have his wife chauffeured around. The New York times had an editorial about the issue, and have halfheartedly endorsed the GOP challenger. But the Republican is very inexperienced. He's only worked for a small city with a staff of twelve. Taking over the finances for a whole state, plus the state pension fund, is a bit overwhelming.

Still, I've been thinking of voting for him. He wouldn't make laws, and wouldn't have a connection to the National party. But I'm really bugged about the "push" poll. On the one hand, I'm glad to have an excuse to read up on the candidates more. I love to vote, but hate when I get there and see unfamiliar names. On the other hand, I don't want this form of negative campaigning to actually work. And I think, for that reason alone, I'll stick with the Democrat. Hope the GOP strategist finds this posting some day.

They also tried to do a negative spin on Hillary, playing up the idea that she may only serve NY for two years. Aw, what happened to the allegations of murder and lesbianism. GOP's gone soft.

I want to believe

I hope you've had moments in your life when something unexpected and magical happens. At those times, my brain usually tells me that it's just a coincidence and means nothing. But other times my heart wants it to be proof that there is something in this world beyond the physical. Looking at this photo puts my heart and brain to the test.

These are my mom's brothers, her sister and their spouses. And there is Dad, with a gleam of light next to him. I know it's just the sunlight reflecting off the lens. I know that. But everytime I see it I want to believe that it's Mom.

Is this Holiday over yet?

More firetruck rides. More candy. More costumes. This time in our little hamlet of Hannawa Falls. There were even real live trick or treaters going to the houses in the village. (I should explain that the village consists of two general stores, a bar and the post office with about 40 houses. Just 3 square blocks. We're about 1/2 mile from that.)

But, for a small town, there were a lot of kids at the fire station after the ride. Cider, donuts and big heaping handfuls of candy. They also had a costume judging contest. Amazingly, Claire was not voted cutest girl. Perhaps the fact that she kept pulling off her crown and messing up her hair counted against her. One of the winners was a Dalmation, with the VFD's name of "Hannawa Hounds" written on his costume. He was a shoe-in for a prize. Also, the boy dressed as an outhouse and the girl dressed as a shower. Biker boy also won.



Here's Nathan, threatening the entire crowd with his sword. We had some more wrangling over his costume today. He told me yesterday that since he'd already been a jedi and a knight, he had to be a pirate today. Then this morning, he decided if he as a pirate, he'd have to fight the other kids dressed as pirates, and he didn't want to do that. So, back to the knight, and I think he was the only knight, but that didn't stop him from fighting. There was still the grim reaper, army guy, witches and, of course, some pirates to duel.

Back to School II

My online classes opened today. It's another week before classes start, but I went in and read the course schedule and updated my profile to share with other students. I'm signed up for

Intro to Accounting - pretty self-explanatory.
Planning and Finalizing the Degree - 2 cr - This is a requirement at Empire. Since all the classes are done online, this is a way to be sure that you have a good relationship with your mentor and are on track to eventually graduate.
Information Literacy - 2 cr - I had a few options for my second Educational planning course. I decided that since I first learned how to research in the 20th century, I needed to re-train myself on education in the internet age.

Since I signed up for the second two classes at the Advanced Level, I'm going to have to write two research papers this term. I think I was smart to pick a term that will be broken up by a long Christmas break, it will give me time to get ahead on the work a little. The idea having to come up with two topics was freaking me out this afternoon, but then I came up with two possibilies while talking to Dan tonight. One paper will be a completely open-ended topic, I'm thinking of exploring the increase of the AMT tax. The other paper is meant to be about my career plans, so I think looking at how the accounting scandals and Sarbannes-Oxley have impacted accounting programs and CPA licenses seems a no-brainer. Alright, do I sound smart just talking about AMT and SOX?

My Fairy Princess and (Jedi) Knight

Lot's of Halloween pictures. Thursday night was "Fright Night". Nathan was dressed as a knight that day, and the businesses in town had treats and games. Nathan mostly just liked seeing all the other kids in their costumes, but was a little scared of some of the decorations the businesses had put up.

Today was a short parade through town.





Nathan said he couldn't be a knight again, so we got out the Jedi costume from last year. I was looking out the window all morning wondering if the rain would let up long enough. Finally decided to chance it, and the rain stopped just long enough for the parade.

Then came the firetruck ride.


What is crazier, that the town allows this, or that I did. I kept Claire with me while Nathan rode with a friend and his Dad. But there were other mothers who went up there with babies. Unfortunately, they were about halfway through that ride when it did start to rain again, and Nathan didn't have his coat, so he got a bit wet.

Then we braved a walk through more rain and massive puddles to get to the Elk's club. They had some classic games for the kids. Bobbing for apples, eating donuts off a hanging string, pin the nose on the pumpkin. One cute thing I've never seen was the skeleton hands. They took plastic gloves, put candy corn in for the fingernails, then filled it with popcorn.

Now, I'm exhausted. When we first got back, I was actually shaking a bit from the cold, the wet, and the walking. Snuggling under a blanket with Nathan, eating popcorn and watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" has revived me a bit. And we get to do it all over again on Tuesday night when Hannawa Fall's VFD does firetruck rides too.

Couldn't I win some cash instead?

Alright, my favorite game is Monopoly, and the kid's favorite restaurant (and mine when I'm tired, which is always) is McDonald's. So you can guess that I really get into their Monopoly game promotion. Alas, no luck getting Boardwalk yet.

But I did score a prize from their online game. A Mobilegame download for my cellphone. Except, I don't have a cellphone. This is the kind of luck I have. Does anyone want this?

Game on! You just scored a MobileGame download for your cell phone from
feedmyphone.com by playing MONOPOLY(r) at PlayatMcD.com. MobileGames
from
feedmyphone.com will include a choice from great titles such as Block
Breaker
Deluxe, Midnight Pool, Platinum Sudoku and Platinum Solitaire.

Let me know and I'll forward the rest of the e-mail with the authorization code.

Agony

Every Red Sox fan remembers this night, twenty years ago. Here it is again, in all it's teeth-gnashing, nail biting, hair pulling glory. Except, in video game version.

Bottom of the Tenth, Sox up 5-3, Game Six of the World Series.

Spoooooky.

We're going to be pretty busy with Halloween the next few days. Tomorrow is "Fright Night" downtown. The shops are handing out candy and doing facepainting, tattoos, games etc. Then on Saturday we've got the Ragamuffin parade, followed by more candy at the Elks club. I don't know if Halloween itself will be celebrated, I can't imagine anyone on our dead-end road will be out. But at least we'll make cupcakes, since the cookies I'm making today will probably be eaten before then.

Dan just finished carving four pumpkins, I think his hand will be cramped for the rest of the day. I found this computer program for doing jack 'o lanterns. Great for those of us who are a bit artistically challenged. You enter in your pumpkins dimensions, pick out eyes, nose and mouths, and then print the pattern. You have to buy the program to get the printable templates, but you can play with the ideas and faces without paying for it first.

Here's Nathan with his pumpkin. In case you're wondering, the pumpkin is also named Nathan.

Frightful, but so delightful