I'm upholding a tradition now.
Holy crap, it seems to be that time again.
I remember looking at her wee Winston Churchill-looking face and thinking "man, when you turn 5 and go off to kindergarten, I'll be 30."
That seemed like such a long way away! And now, behold - I'm 30, and she's 5, and getting ready to start kindergarten in the fall, and now it's hitting me that she really isn't my wee squishy baby anymore. I mean, she hasn't been a baby in ages, she's all long gangly limbs and reading books* and doing simple math** and wanting to be a scientist when she grows up**, but there's something about being in school that really cements it.
*Seriously.
**Also seriously. Apparently they teach fractions to preschoolers now?!?
***HOW AWESOME IS MY CHILD.
And, yikes, it has been a year since I've written anything here. So, my life:
Work: The job I got back in late 2011 continues to be awesome. I get paid a good salary (holy socks, what are these magical things called bonuses and raises and 401(k) matching), my boss is the nicest guy in the world, my coworkers are wonderful. Seriously, the worst thing I can think of about this job is having to wear pantyhose on a nearly-daily basis.
Home: Joe and I bought a house last year, which was an interesting process. My parents, bless them, recieved an insurance payout after my sister died, and they knew we were looking at houses, and offered up some of the settlement as a down payment. As they said, our elopement saved them from dishing out $20K on a wedding, the least they could do is help us get settled.
We found a cheap house in a good neighborhood, and it was just what we were looking for in size and layout (3 bedrooms, two stories, full basement, 1/3 acre yard, and built-in bookshelves). It was cheap for a reason - it was built in 1928, and there is no air conditioning, idiosyncratic wiring, a garden shed that looks like it was hit by a meteorite*, and it is a spectacularly ugly shade of mustard yellow. Oh, and it hadn't been occupied for two years, so there was a lot of work to do by way of subduing the hedges** and evicting the bats, bugs, and mice***.
We are slowly making improvements, though (we are no longer That House on our street), and - well, it's one hell of an improvement over apartment living. I do not miss sharing walls with people. And non-coin-operated laundry is the most magical thing on earth. No more "eww, the cat puked on the bed and we have no quarters" moments.
*We call it the Terror Shed. You walk in, there's a huge hole in the floor - and a corresponding hole in the ceiling. It's just biding time until we can pay to have it demolished.
**Seriously, our yard in spring looks like something out of The Secret Garden. Apparently Archibald Craven was the last owner of this house.
***The cats helped out with the mice, although it took their pampered selves a few days to figure out what to do. Once they had the idea, they dispatched the mice with great enthusiasm.
Fandom: Is kind of non-existent right now. I'm still watching Doctor Who, but with far less involvement. Is it just me, or when a new showrunner takes over, do we get one really good season, with a few clunkers but mostly good episodes, and a solid overarching storyline, and an emotionally satisfying finale - and then every season after is mostly cheap drama and overambitious, gotta-be-bigger-louder-flashier plotting with a few real gems?
Aside from that, I'm just kinda disconnected from fandom life. I don't watch much TV (we axed the cable and watch everything on Netflix and Amazon Instant nowadays), we rarely get out to movies that are rated above G, and there hasn't been a book series to really catch my interest.
Dolls: One of the nicest perks of the new job is being able to actually buy the doll stuff I want, and thus my collection has grown exponentially since I started back in 2009 - that's going from one American Girl to eight, plus five Pullips, three Monster High, and a few random Disney dolls. AG and Pullip are my main collecting focus right now.
So, yeah. It's been a good year. Now I'll all squeeful because the event preview list for GenCon is out, and I am all WHY IS IT NOT AUGUST YET (and then OH YEAH BECAUSE I HAVE SEWING TO DO).
If you've made it through all this and want to actually find me on other platforms:
Twitter (drop me a note if you want to follow, so I know to accept you)
Pinterest
Flickr (mostly doll photos)
Dolls and Nachos (the doll blog + crafty crap)
I remember looking at her wee Winston Churchill-looking face and thinking "man, when you turn 5 and go off to kindergarten, I'll be 30."
That seemed like such a long way away! And now, behold - I'm 30, and she's 5, and getting ready to start kindergarten in the fall, and now it's hitting me that she really isn't my wee squishy baby anymore. I mean, she hasn't been a baby in ages, she's all long gangly limbs and reading books* and doing simple math** and wanting to be a scientist when she grows up**, but there's something about being in school that really cements it.
*Seriously.
**Also seriously. Apparently they teach fractions to preschoolers now?!?
***HOW AWESOME IS MY CHILD.
And, yikes, it has been a year since I've written anything here. So, my life:
Work: The job I got back in late 2011 continues to be awesome. I get paid a good salary (holy socks, what are these magical things called bonuses and raises and 401(k) matching), my boss is the nicest guy in the world, my coworkers are wonderful. Seriously, the worst thing I can think of about this job is having to wear pantyhose on a nearly-daily basis.
Home: Joe and I bought a house last year, which was an interesting process. My parents, bless them, recieved an insurance payout after my sister died, and they knew we were looking at houses, and offered up some of the settlement as a down payment. As they said, our elopement saved them from dishing out $20K on a wedding, the least they could do is help us get settled.
We found a cheap house in a good neighborhood, and it was just what we were looking for in size and layout (3 bedrooms, two stories, full basement, 1/3 acre yard, and built-in bookshelves). It was cheap for a reason - it was built in 1928, and there is no air conditioning, idiosyncratic wiring, a garden shed that looks like it was hit by a meteorite*, and it is a spectacularly ugly shade of mustard yellow. Oh, and it hadn't been occupied for two years, so there was a lot of work to do by way of subduing the hedges** and evicting the bats, bugs, and mice***.
We are slowly making improvements, though (we are no longer That House on our street), and - well, it's one hell of an improvement over apartment living. I do not miss sharing walls with people. And non-coin-operated laundry is the most magical thing on earth. No more "eww, the cat puked on the bed and we have no quarters" moments.
*We call it the Terror Shed. You walk in, there's a huge hole in the floor - and a corresponding hole in the ceiling. It's just biding time until we can pay to have it demolished.
**Seriously, our yard in spring looks like something out of The Secret Garden. Apparently Archibald Craven was the last owner of this house.
***The cats helped out with the mice, although it took their pampered selves a few days to figure out what to do. Once they had the idea, they dispatched the mice with great enthusiasm.
Fandom: Is kind of non-existent right now. I'm still watching Doctor Who, but with far less involvement. Is it just me, or when a new showrunner takes over, do we get one really good season, with a few clunkers but mostly good episodes, and a solid overarching storyline, and an emotionally satisfying finale - and then every season after is mostly cheap drama and overambitious, gotta-be-bigger-louder-flashier plotting with a few real gems?
Aside from that, I'm just kinda disconnected from fandom life. I don't watch much TV (we axed the cable and watch everything on Netflix and Amazon Instant nowadays), we rarely get out to movies that are rated above G, and there hasn't been a book series to really catch my interest.
Dolls: One of the nicest perks of the new job is being able to actually buy the doll stuff I want, and thus my collection has grown exponentially since I started back in 2009 - that's going from one American Girl to eight, plus five Pullips, three Monster High, and a few random Disney dolls. AG and Pullip are my main collecting focus right now.
So, yeah. It's been a good year. Now I'll all squeeful because the event preview list for GenCon is out, and I am all WHY IS IT NOT AUGUST YET (and then OH YEAH BECAUSE I HAVE SEWING TO DO).
If you've made it through all this and want to actually find me on other platforms:
Twitter (drop me a note if you want to follow, so I know to accept you)
Flickr (mostly doll photos)
Dolls and Nachos (the doll blog + crafty crap)