I’ve started traveling at work again. O! The pain. So frackin’ busy and tired. But! Let’s pretend it’s not a worse idea to post some drivel than to not post anything at all!

I present to you: a little brainfartery. I’m feeling chatty, so pull up a chair, and bring your favorite cup of stupid with you. This week’s meme from Weekly WrapUp:

In the past week, have you gotten into any seasonal activities or sports?

If you consider flu season an “activity,” then yes. Griffon came down with the what’s-what Friday. I’m sure this is not our last foray into the Fever. As long as there is no vomiting, though, I’m pretty happy. Or hospitalizations. Don’t like those either.

I also made a batch of seven-layer cookies. Now, if you know me, you will know that this is not a ploy to tell you about my skills in the kitchen because THOSE SKILLS DO NOT EXIST. I don’t ever cook. Ever. I mean, we will have lived in our house a year on the 28th, and I don’t know where basic kitchen tools are even located in my kitchen. I can get a plate/glass/spoon/bowl/fork/whatnot on the first try, thankyouverymuch, but that’s about it. Brad does pretty much all the cooking, and I love him forever.

So. For me, making a batch of seven-layer cookies is not really a “seasonal” activity so much as it is perhaps a “bi-lifetime” activity.

What is your favourite seasonal activity to do?

Eating. Seven-layer cookies, mostly. And Leslie’s toffee. And also the Trail of Lights at Zilker. (No, not EATING it, numbnuts.) And wearing sweaters. And noting the first Christmas commercial on television. Annnnd… Ithinkthat’sit.

To watch?

Well, I suppose it would have to be watching my kids do stuff. Like trick-or-treating… decorating our Nonsecular Tree (KIDDING, people!)… Getting excited about the Trail of Lights (Kieran was talking about it tonight)…

If we lived in Vermont (sighhh), it would definitely be something like this:

What is your favorite sport?

First rule of sport talk is don’t talk about sport talk. (I made this joke in a student focus group last week for work – not about sports, something else – and the kids didn’t get it. Actually, it was more that they stared at me completely blankly. And then I realized that that movie came out about 10 years ago. WHEN THEY WERE EIGHT.)

I pretty much loathe sports. Except possibly ice skating and synchronized swimming and gymnastics. Pretty much the hit sports of the Olympics are okay with me. But that’s it. I’m really more an I-will-do-anything-but-watch-sports-including-composing-long-work-emails-at-a-sporting-event-so-long-as-I-don’t-have-to-watch-this-what-the-fuck-are-they-doing-anyway type of person.

< /yourdailyrayofsunshine >

I’m at Kieran’s OT appointment. There is a crazy lady in here talking to the billing people. Unfortunately, she mentioned she moved here from Vermont, and may have just completely revised my idea of Vermont in one fell swoop.

On the way over, I was listening to the satellite radio “New Wave” station (erroneously named, as it’s really mostly 1980s pop). Kieran was not amused with my yelling “James Brown!” to Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love.” But, hey, this song is my singular reason for enjoying Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” (a song in which she sampled Tom Tom Club fantastically). Suck on that, grump.

(And just so I don’t sound like a douchebag, I admit that I had to look all this stuff up. I am not a musical prodigy, as much as I would like to be. P.S. I also learned that Tom Tom Club has a website. They still tour and stuff. And amazingly, it does not appear that they do so on Rascal scooters.)

WTF. This woman just walked in with her daughter, and I want to smack her in the face. Seriously. The kid is like 10 years old, and she’s talking to her like she’s 2. “Are your footsies hot? … Ooooh, I haven’t had a good hug today! … Is Baby Doll staying here or going back with you? … I might go get a drink while you’re back there, okay?”

Oh. I’m sorry. Have we not met? I’m Kieran’s mom, ShutTheFuckUp.

Brad and I took the kids to Vermont after the holidays this year. We took them last year, too, when we were considering moving there. Last year, Anneke called it “Yermont” as in “your mont.” Kieran hated Yermont. He railed against all things Yermont because he knew somehow that we were considering moving. His little anxious radar was turned up to 11.

This year was a different story. Kieran actually *suggested* we consider moving there. This was basically him the entire time:



and



and



With a single room, we all slept a lot in an effort to keep Griffon rested. He still takes two naps a day, and we needed him to be his normal sweet self and not the screaming monster that is possible when he misses naps. Beyond the sleeping, we just had fun. We did stuff with the kids… went to ECHO, the Vermont Teddy Bear factory and Lake Champlain Chocolates, walked around Church Street, endured an impossibly cold New Year’s Eve watching fireworks on a windy rooftop in downtown Burlington, and played in the snow in Montpelier.


(sorry for the idiot cord)



Anneke was really the only unhappy one. She can’t seem to take the cold or the wind or the snow so well.


But she’s real cute.

Vermont is nothing short of magical. Sounds stupid, but it’s true. I heart Yermont.