100% Apple Juice

it is a good thing that Space Monkey was born last week, because this week is super super busy already. Well, ok part of the reason it is so busy is because Space Monkey was born. I get leave Biebz's house to meet Space Monkey in about an hour, right before he goes to his first doctor appointment, and I will hang out in the house while Stellina naps, so that she knows that no, we're not done with naps now just because there's a new baby. My goodness, multiple children. Then tomorrow after I hang out with Bear in the morning, I will pick Stellina up from school and get her lunched and napped, so that again she knows that there is still naptime in her life, and then I will go back to the BieberBear's house for the afternoon.

Then! I have Davey Bug, Jr. on Tuesday evening AND Wednesday evening, and the Bear from 9 to 5 on Wednesday, and though I don't have Big & Tiny on Thursday, I do have a different family for which I am subbing for the afternoon. Friday I don't know yet! Man though it is like I have a real full-time job. except it's not real, and not full-time.

LP'oh11 is going well, so far. I guess there is a thing with Lent where you get Sundays off ? so I am choosing one day a week to take off. Last week it was Friday, this week it looks like I will take Tuesday off, because a three-family day is exercise enough. but that means I have to today, even though I don't want to because my allergies(/sickness? I'm hoping I didn't pick up Big's nasty cold) are making me MISERABLE. I would like to replace the front half of my head, please. Anyway there has been lots of ballet and bicycle so far. Saturday I was going to go to my very first hip-hop class, but instead I got my exercise for that day by running around the house at 6am furiously looking for my keys, and then tearing south on my bicycle to get to Stellina's house so they could leave for the hospital. I'm glad I hurried! He arrived 20 minutes after they got to the hospital.

Yesterday I napped too long (booo) so I didn't get to do as much as I would have liked at home, but I did scrub my pots and pans, and do dishes, and finish my laundry, finally. Still did not vacuum or sweep or mop. I have grand plans for that, though. Grand plans which I am dreading.

I am so, so tired, but I am doing the things and being alive. Bear and I went to get donuts today and walked past BLOOMED DAFFODILS. and it looks like the beginning of peak bloom for the cherry blossoms is only 15 days from now, which is so soon. Winter was so, so long and I'm suddenly afraid I'm going to blink and miss spring.

Whatever the Mess You Are

Yesterday I did not get quite as many things done from my list as I would have liked! This is what I accomplished :

+ put shoes away! this only took me three days! wooo

+ check Mint.com, which is still suffering from lack of communication with Bank of America, which is making me very very sad. A week without my Mint.com account is leaving me with frantic energy that is generally targeted toward obsessive budgeting and financial planning, and presently seems to be channeling toward making to-do lists every second possible. Not a bad thing, but it's making the lists seem to never end.

+ make awesome playlists for quiet focus time and energy focus time. This included buying too much/never enough trashy pop music on iTunes yesterday, and also rediscovering how much really awesome classical music I have.

+ look up dance class schedules for LP'oh11. it turns out there is also ballet at my neighborhood studio on Saturday and Sunday!

+ catch up on Teen Mom 2 and 9ine. I am currently obsessed with teen pregnancy and parenting. I could not possibly begin to explain why. TM2 has this trainwreck aspect with some of the moms, but some of the stories are seem so incredibly genuine that I often find myself being really moved by the end of the episode. Also, trashy TV! So great.

+ Buy plane tickets to home for May. This is one of the reasons I wish that Mint would resume communication with Bank of America, so I can figure out how that $877.60 is going to affect my monthly budgets. Booooo. Yay for a trip home!

So now I have to rearrange the to-do list and probably start a new one, because this crazy budgeting energy needs to go somewhere.

Yesterday I stopped at 7Eleven on the way back from the bank and left with three Cadbury creme eggs! SPRING.

Flamingos in Siberia

Here is a really excellent story about flamingos in Siberia: locals mystified.

One time Baby Biebz and I were sitting in the kitchen playing with Tupperware, and I was bored, so I got out my phone and opened my music player, and played that stupid terrible fantastic Train song, Hey Soul Sister, which, as I suspected might happen, Biebz loooved. Yes I have that song on my phone, it just happens to be a really great song to wake up to in the morning. Shut up. Anyway, I did the same thing the next time we did Tupperware time, because it's hilarious to see Biebzbear dancing.

So now, every time the little dude sees my phone, he starts dancing, which I figure is a cue that he wants to hear that stupid song. And then when I play it, he immediately runs to the kitchen and brings me Tupperware. Have I classically conditioned him!? I think when he wakes up from his nap this afternoon, I will try playing a different song on the phone, and see if he does the Tupperware thing. I have some pretty excellent Neko Case on my phone, it's just not as conducive to adorable babydancing as the stupid excellent Train song.

Speaking of my phone and Baby Bieber Bear, I took some pretty excellent photographs last night of him chowing down on delicious black beans from the tasty Salvadoran place at Eastern Market. They're pretty much the only grown-up food he will eat, besides muffins. Anyway, he was funny with food all over his face. Alas, I believe in internet-anonymity for children who are not mine, and honestly if I had children I would believe in internet-anonymity for them as well, so I will not post these excellent photographs! SUCKS TO BE YOU, INTERNET.

Yesterday I didn't do any of the things that I said I would do except take my vitamins! I did that. I did not put shoes away or make my bed, because I got distracted by the internet and went to bed an hour early, which was pretty great. Today I will try harder! because today is a different day than yesterday.

I have a combination of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" and Jamie Foxx's "Blame It feat. T-Pain" stuck in my head. The former because of a friend's G-Chat status, the latter because I am in the process of downloading trashy pop music for motivation. I do not think these two would make a very good mash-up.

No Space Monkey yet! soon, soon, a Space Monkey will come.

How Can It Be

I have a terrible terrible Methodist hymn stuck in my head. Today church went on forever, I guess Methodists aren't used to communion so it takes a really long time?? anyway it got to be like 11:50 and the pastor was like "You know what? Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" (which I almost just spelled "swerve") and we skipped the last page of the bulletin.

It's the little things, you know?

the King's Speech was excellent, I am very glad that Mr. Firth got his little golden statue for his role.

outside is storming and windy and police sirens, and on my iTunes is a sweet track from the King's Speech soundtrack that I got for free from Fandango for buying my advance movie tickets through them? I spent only $9 on two movie tickets instead of $24.50 AND got a free dramatized arrangement of the second movement of Beethoven's seventh?? I am a fan of this situation. Also, it feels like a trap, somehow.

The extended forecast on Accuweather.com shows me that the weather for the beginning of Lenten Project Oh-Eleven looks good! Right now I am going to put the shoes away into my closet and take my vitamins and make my bed, and those will be my small projects for today.

It's List Wednesday!

I am bored, and don't want to work on things that I need to work on, so I decided to finally put down my DC Bucket List - stuff that I haven't done yet in DC and really need to do before I move away. I don't know when that is, but it is at minimum a year, so just to be safe, I want to start making sure I can take care of business and do everything.

So here is my list of shit that I haven't done yet in DC but want to do / places I haven't been but need to, in no particular order.

PLACES:

1) Roosevelt Island

2) National Arboretum

3) Hirschhorn Gallery

4) FDR Memorial

5) Air & Space Museum at Dulles

6) Frederick Douglass House

7) Pentagon Memorial

8) the museum in Katzen at AU

THINGS TO DO:

1) Sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial

2) Caps game

3) DC United game

4) Watch the drag race in Dupont

5) Screen on the Green

6) Roller derby (uh... watch, not participate, as much as I love Whip It)

7) train to Baltimore for the day (I know that's not DC, but, it starts at Union Station!)

8) a sport on the Mall! frisbee, bocce, softball, croquet, etc. doesn't matter which one.

9) go up the Washington Monument

10) Embassy open houses, EU and others

11) Paddle boats in the Tidal Basin (except this is so romantic I might barf)

What am I missing? It doesn't need to be all national shit, it can be like "hey you totally need to go to Sticky Rice on H Street, NE! and have omakase, and a carafe of sake. Then, go to the Biergarten Haus and drink whiskey while rooting for the Celtics, as your roommate shuns you in his ugly-ass Laker hat."

Well, I did that last night, so, think of something else.

OK well we also have a list of Awesome Shit that I Have Already Done in DC, which will be the next post, for ease of editing.

How 'bout them Uruguayans?