Coincidentally...

Oh, my, it's been a long time. I guess you can blame it on Facebook. Or just Life in General. ;-)

Today, I'm wondering about coincidences. The last few days have had some odd happenings that seem to be happening in an odd order.

Exhibit A: Friday. There are not normally a lot of people in my office, but Friday, vacations aligned and I was the only one there. I was pretty nose-to-the-grindstone until after lunch, then I got fidgety and decided to pack it in and head for home. As I left, I waited in the hall and watched the door to our suite close all the way. That's not part of my normal routine, but I remember waiting and watching the door.

This morning, the security guard from upstairs tells me that the cleaning people couldn't lock our office door Friday evening. They told the management company, who came in on Saturday and replaced the lock.

So, what made me pay attention to the door closing Friday night? General creeped-out-ed-ness at being the only one in the office? Extra feelings of responsibility? A keen interest in the half-full candy bowl?

Exhibit B: Saturday. Nice weekend, squirrely kids, we end up doing some painting projects in the garage. In order to have space for said painting projects, I need to back my car out into the driveway. Where it has remained until today, because the painting projects are in various stages of done-ness.

Exhibit B, Part 2: Monday. Work day. Crazy work day, I might add. And I've got enough to keep me busy for a few weeks, so I brought my work computer home, intending to play catch up this evening.

This evening, there's a large crack sound in the garage. Turns out, the spring on the door has broken. Ooh, not good. Pat tries to lift the garage door - can't. Ooh, really not good. But, again, in the whole "lucky coincidence" department, my car is parked in the driveway, and I have my work computer at home, so Pat can use my car while I work from home and wait for the people to come fix the garage door.

Did I know something in bringing my work computer home this evening? What about the car in the driveway? Does that have some special meaning? Or is it all just a series of lucky breaks? Yeah, lucky breaks. And not the bone kind!

Was That _My_ WalMart?

I'm home today, trying to reach a delicate balance in my packing. Enough stuff, but not too much. Fewer suitcases, but not too heavy. One of my secrets - vacuum bags! (Not the kind that go in your vacuum cleaner, but the kind that you seal and press out the air.)

I've used these for my work trips for several years. Especially in the days of carry-ons and inspections by hand, I liked having my dirty clothes somewhat contained. When my hair product packaging prevented me from carrying on my suitcase, I continued to use the vacuum bags, to better use the available space in my suitcase. Yes, things come out wrinkled, but part of my first-night-in-the-hotel ritual is to iron everything for the trip, so it works out.

So, in this week's pack-stravaganza, I ran out of vacuum bags. Not sure how that happened, as I've had occasion to pack for the whole family for a week-long trip before. But, I've also slept since then, so there's no telling if I bagged things differently, or found a new place to stash my bags (and then forgot about it). I also have one bag with a tear along the seam, so I justified it was time for some new bags. I've taken the day off from work, so I figured I could shop after I dropped the kids off at school.

Ok, it's confession time: I'm not a WalMart shopper. The cluttered aisles, the sheer volume of things available at the store, the nutty parking lot arrangement; I just don't like it. However, there are things I like to buy at WalMart: kids hangers, some crafty stuff, etc. I've discovered the only time I can tolerate WalMart is first thing in the morning, when no one's there. (And yes, it's a 24-hour store, but there's usually no one there until after 10 am.) So, on this morning, I stopped by WalMart in search of my vacuum bags.

I walked into the store and sensed something was up. There were more bodies in the store, but they were employees, or maybe even Managment or Corporate Management. The regular employees were very heads-down, getting their stuff done, but watching this cluster of men in button-down shirts out of the corners of their eyes. I rounded the corner toward the pharmacy section, and discovered a clean, wide expanse of linoleum...all the in-aisle displays were gone. Hey! Maybe these guys in the shirts should come by more often! But, I sensed flux, not total change. Sure, the aisles were clear, but I know WalMart...this is not a permanent change. The clutter will be back, urging me to pick up the value pack of two deodorants or hand lotion.

I tracked down my vacuum bags and browsed the store, looking for other items on my list. Sure enough, there were several wide open spaces around the store - all the aisles, but within some of the merchandise areas as well. Interesting...

(While I was checking out, the "remodel team" was paged over the intercom, which suggests to me that the clean aisles were truly temporary - just for the convenience of the remodel team.) Sigh.

Turns out, the vacuum bags I bought are too big. So, I'll be touring WalMart again this afternoon. I'd report on what has changed since this morning, but, as I'm not totally memorized the floor layout, I'm not sure I'll notice!

Having Cake and Eating It, Too!

Edited: The After Photo!

We're starting the week of birthday celebration at our house tomorrow. Since the family is flung far and wide, we usually end up celebrating birthdays once locally, and again with the out-of-towners. Sometimes the out-of-town party is closer in proximity to the actual birthday, other times it's delayed by several weeks. But, we always get a chance to party! ;-)

The first order of business for any birthday party is, of course, The Cake. I have been making and decorating birthday cakes around the house since the girls were new - I took the Wilton Cake Decorating class just to hone my skills. (Only got through Level 1. I am not certified for fondant, and just barely made it through Roses.) I have a toolbox full of cake tools - decorating tips, icing tints - and a nice stash of shaped pans - metal and silicone. And I'm not afraid to use 'em.

Some cakes have been awesome: the Homestar Runner series (The Cheat & Trogdor), The Monkey Cake (tweak the frosting with a fork to make it look like fur!), the flower cupcakes...Others have been less than stellar accomplishments: the Barney Cake that almost read "Happy #2!", last year's pink and brown bowling ball fiasco (first attempt with the spherical cake pan and an off-site party. Transportation fail!). Then, there's the year of the Mickey Cake and the Almost Ugly cupcakes (a legend among the Sisterly Drama stories around my sister's office - I blame my pregnant alter ego, Hormona.) But, this year's cake has great potential to be Really Good.

Kate chose the color scheme, based on a butterfly cake set in the Wilton cake book from a few years ago. The cake's from a box, but the icing is from scratch (buttercream: mmmmm!). The Wilton version is all fondant, but this cake is the first time I've successfully been able to use the "smooth the buttercream with wax paper" trick to make it look like fondant. And, the lettering around the edge of the cake (suggested by my husband) turned out straight (albeit a little slanted) and legible. Yay!

Tomorrow's the big fun - I will turn the icing bag over to the girls to handle the top of the cake. Come back and see the after photos. ;-)

The Quest for the DAR

A couple years ago, I was traveling to the east coast for work, and scheduled some time to visit my grandmother in Baltimore. I believe I was walking out the door to head to the airport when she mentioned the Daughters of the American Revolution group. She'd done the research, and we qualified as decendants of a Revolutionary War soldier. She didn't think she had time to join and "do all that paperwork," but it might be something I could do. Hmm...

This information hung out in the back of my mind for a few years. When my daughter was in 2nd grade, I helped chaperone a field trip with her class, and we visited an historic home in our area that is maintained by the DAR. That peaked my interest again, and I started conversation with the local DAR chapter to see what I had to do to join the group. (Maybe it includes initials I can include after my name. "Alison Caufield, 6th generation DAR" - probably won't get me any pull except with the second graders.)

Now, just browsing the "how to become a member" information on the web site is a bit daunting - they talk about proving the lineage, through birth, death and marriage certificates, tombstones, military documents. I imagined this process as embarking on something along the lines of the "National Treasure" movie - traveling far and wide to track down clues and pieces of the puzzle. But without having to break into the White House. ;-) Luckily, my grandmother has documented the family lineage, and I got my hands on it. So began the adventure.

Turns out, a lot of the "way historical" work has been done, and you don't have to re-do it for each applicant. The DAR has a list of eligible soldiers/service members, and when you apply, you can connect to lineage that someone else may have already done. So, most of what I have to do is track down certificates and documentation from my generation backwards. There's my project for the spring!

Turns out, I can also trace my ancestry back to the sister of George Rogers Clark. My husband would like to see if we can use this to our advantage, and possibly of "take over" some cities in our area that are named after him. We can all dream, right?

She's Gone Multi Syllabic!

I guess I first noticed Kim's new words while we were home with all the snow and ice. I don't remember the first multi-syllabic word she threw at me that week, but the second was this:

"Mom, you have had plenty of opportunities to finish the bedding for my baby doll. When will you have that done?"

Another example from tonight:

"Mom, I'm embarrassed that I don't know how to fix things." (Said during a fit of tears after we'd found some damaged baby doll furniture. Broken furniture is in the glue-drying stage as we speak, and should be good as new tomorrow.)

I'm sure she hears these words all the time, but it surprises me to hear her use them. Then again, she is a First Grader, and that, as we all know, is the Big Time.

So, where I once would have scrambled for a notebook or scrap of paper on which to write these little quotes (to save and embarrass her with later in life!), I now have The Blog, where I can keep these gems forever and always. Yay, Blog! ;-)

Movies I Will Watch on Cable a Thousand Times

Coming off a week of being house-bound due to snow and ice, I'm contemplating the various movies I've stumbled across on cable. No matter where they are in the storyline when I find them, I'll always stop and watch them through to the end.

Now, the interesting thing is that I didn't see most of these movies in the theatre or on DVD. So, I've never seen a version that's not been edited for time and content.

Sister Act, I and II - The big singing numbers at the end always get me.

Drumline - again, I think this one's all about the drum numbers.

Bring It On, Bring It On Again, and I think there's a third one - Dumb cheerleader drama. Yup, sign me up.

Shall We Dance, Save the Last Dance - One of these is the dance version of Drumline, and the other is Antonio Banderas giving dance lessons to high schoolers in detention. You'll understand why I can't distinguish them at the moment. (There's also a Richard Gere Learns To Dance movie. I'd put that one on the list if I could figure out the title. ;-)

Legally Blonde, Clueless - girl power!

Steel Magnolias - swoon

The Devil Wears Prada - this movie I actually saw on DVD first, but discovered in on cable a couple weekends ago. New to the rotation. Sweet!

School of Rock - "and the legend of the rent was way hard core!"

Bridget Jones Diary and its sequel - another swoon, because there's no way my husband would sit through this movie with me.

Air Force One - see, that's one that DH would join me to watch.

Any Tom Clancy movie (Clear and Present Danger, etc.) - mostly because of Harrison Ford, but there's the action-adventure aspect, too.

Stripes - talk about a blast from the past. This one's left over from my college days, I think, when cable was new and fresh, and the cable networks were desperate. Or, it could be Bill Murray's cadences. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

I've still got two more days at home, and being that I'm feeling kinda puny, I see more channel surfing in my future. We'll see if I find anything to add to this list.

Snow! (well, ice, actually)

I was a bit sarcastic Monday night when I updated my status on Facebook. You'll forgive me, but the weather forecasters here go a little overboard. Turns out, they were more right than wrong -between late Monday and early Wednesday, we got snow, then ice, then more snow. It's not often that we get ice 'round these parts, but it is not something you want to mess with.

Tuesday, when the novelty of the snow day was still fresh, the girls and I did some shoveling on the driveway, and then ventured out to sled on the big hill behind Gramma and Grandpa's house.

Wednesday, after the ice arrived, we all hung out at the house, amusing ourselves with various electronics (WOW online for DH, Harry Potter audio book for the DD's, and work email for me). All was good until about 11:30, when we lost power. Yeeks! The girls got out the Crayola clay and made some sculputres, and after a couple hours we all bundled up and had naps. When the power came back on about 4, I discovered a) our neighbors had all taken advantage of not having any power, and spent the blackout shoveling their driveways, and b) our birch tree out front was laden with ice and doubled over. Sigh.

We made another valiant stab at shoveling the driveway, but about 1/3 of the way through the project, the ice got the best of me and my young assistant, and we headed back in.

Today, we are still snowed in and home from school. Work was piling up on both DH and myself, but, as his office is just around the corner, I got the short straw and had to stay home to work. Luckily, we have nieces not too far away, and willing in-laws who we called upon to host the kids for a bit. More playing in the snow, more hot chocolate, more vegging out with a blanket and a movie.

As for Friday, we already know school is cancelled (and Monday's forecast calls for more snow!). We're all a little stir crazy, but we have a birthday in the household this weekend, so we will hopefully find something wildly creative to keep us entertained.