Psychotomy

So a while ago I was out with K for his evening sabbatical. I usually just take him up our side of the street in the evening for a short walk instead of crossing to the wooded path. I happened to glance across the street and a deer standing at the edge of the wood. It stood there for a while, and K watched it, and it suddenly bounded back into the woods.

Well, heck, no WONDER he barks at those woods so often when we’re walking! I figured he was hearing squirrels or something!

As we were headed home, the deer came back out, followed by 2 or three more. They crossed the street (Funny thing: they were crossing a corner, and instead of going diagonal, like i was anticipating, they actually crossed one street, turned 90-degrees, and crossed the second one!!!) and bounded into the woods at the end of our street.

I guess maybe there’s deer in the woods :o That’s cool

Posted in: k-line, Wildlife by attriel /
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So, DK’s had an amber necklace since he was a few weeks old. We had to replace it this spring (?) when the original snapped from his playing with it, but not unexpected

One of kiir’s parenting forums got a group-discount from the place we bought his current one, so she decided to pick up a few, for DK and for the next baby. Since DK always had his, we can’t say for sure whether they actually help with his teething pains, but he did scream more during the week we were getting it replaced. So maybe.

And they supposedly help with headaches, so Kiir got a couple for herself. Then I swiped one of those, since she wasn’t wearing both at once anyway. And since I’ve been having headaches nearly daily for the last few weeks, ranging from painful to near-debilitating (and twice in the last month or so I stayed home with migraines, and probably should another couple).

I’m pleased to say that, since we put them on friday night and acclimated saturday, I’ve not had any serious headaches. Normally my headaches radiate from the front or middle of my skull and travel back and down to encompass my whole head. For the last few days I’ve had the sidereal pain in the back of my head, but not the focal pain in the front, so it’s just a bit of a nuisance rather than a debilitating problem.

It’s possible that I just haven’t had a bad headache all week, but that would make it coincidentally the first week I’ve gone headache free in MONTHS. And if it works, EXCELLENT! I’ll start wearing them like a rap star wears chains, yo!

Posted in: fitness by attriel /
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DK hasn’t been getting to bed until nearly 11pm lately, at which point I tend to check email and then go to bed.

Today I’m letting him watch some word world vids, since if I try to play on the console or even with the legos, he walks off and starts climbing on kiir, so I’m trying to let her have something of a break. Especially since I forgot to tell her I was coming home a bit late tonight :/

But between the late bedtime and the india prep … kindof busy and not getting around to posting much lately :/

Posted in: DK, general by attriel /
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Yesterday was NOT a good day for my commute :/

Morning commute: Normally catch the train @7:45, get to the office ~8:30 give or take. Yesterday? Train came about right, then it quit being the express and made all the local stops (no one got on or off AFAICT … probably because the train that hits those is an hour later, so why stand around for an hour?) Some delays, got in ~9.

Afternoon commute: Train leaves @4:15, usually get off ~5. Yesterday? Left right enough, then stopped for 20 minutes just outside Union Station … bah! oh well. Then we stopped again in like 5 minutes, for another half hour. Then we were going slow enough that I think one of the conductors passed us on foot to look at something … Finally got off the train ~6:15. OI!

And of course, yesterday I hadn’t taken in my crypto work, because I think I made an error in an earlier step, meaning I have to start over from that step. But first I have to manually check everything to see where that mistake is (or IF). And my book ran out during that first 20 minute delay in the afternoon. Last night kindof sucked :/

Kiir had put in baked potatoes for dinner, so at least DK didn’t have to wait while something cooked.

Posted in: general by attriel /
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So, one of my “hallmarks” is a tendency to worry and fret about things I really can’t control. For instance, I gave myself a mild ulcer (or ulceration or something) when I was 15 because I was worried about some test scores. I passed (more than), but for the couple of weeks between taking the tests and getting the results, I was actually going through pepto alarmingly fast for a teenager :/

Why bring this up? Well, the story had no point. But the concepts? That’s because I’ve already started worrying myself sick about the India trip. The flight (oh gods the flight), the relatives, what we’re going to do. Where we’re going to go.

I’ve been less than half a dozen times in my entire life. Some of that is from before I was old enough to remember, the last trip was after we were married. I remember some. Some of what I remember isn’t there anymore. I’d love to show him the ancestral home (for no reason but to show it to him since it really isn’t that exciting) but NO ONE lives there anymore. We may take a day trip out there to see it from the street, but I think the property was sold, too, which means there may not even BE a house :o That’s one of my two big memory places. The other is the sister we stay with every time, but even that house has changed a lot.

I worry about how he’s going to be, with all these “strange” people around! He gets shy in large groups, and with big Indian families … It’s almost all “large groups” … and when it isn’t? Well, then we have small houses and 3 people besides us and my folks makes it crowded :o

And on top of it, I’m worrying about whether I’m going to get sick AGAIN. I seem to get nauseaus or diarrhetic EVERY trip … so I’m currently making myself sick by worrying about whether I’m going to get sick … I hate my mind somedays.

Posted in: India by attriel /
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From the Unexpected but not Unfortunate news department:

DK has decided he wants to sleep in his bed now.

When I went to put him to bed last night, he tossed and turned, the climbed out of bed, took my hand and led me from our room to his room. Climbed into his bed and was out in 10 minutes or something.

Tonight (on the 4th attempt) he led me straight to his room. Then he spent 10-15 minutes more rolling and tossing and sitting on my face before suddenly being asleep. I swear, I thought he was just deciding which way to roll next and suddenly *snore* … go figure.

Mind, this could be … interesting? come india. Because it’s possible that (a) he wants to sleep separately. or, more problematic, (b) he wants to sleep in HIS bed …

(a) can be theoretically dealt with, I’ve been told in the past when we decided we weren’t going to try transitioning him until after the trip due to lack of separate beds in india. but (b)? yeah, that one … not taking his bed to india with us, uh-uh, no-way

Posted in: DK by attriel /
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No, seriously

My neck (and back) are screwed up from years of abuse. High school we had those big heavy bags, but i have never been particularly fond of wearing a backpack across both shoulders, and doing so when it weighs 30-40lbs was always more nuisance than I was interested in. So I had a duffel with all my books laid out in it, and I slung it over my right shoulder. Actually, on occasion, HUNG it on my shoulderblade.

All in all, high school was probably not good for my back.

Then I have crap for posture. I slouch. I actually slide so far down my chair at the office that my ass is on the edge and my shoulder blades are hung on the top edge, and i’m more just sorta wedged between my body parts. I need to tweak my desk some i think and figure out a better position … but I’ve never had great posture, so I’m not expecting miracles there.

And now with DK, I’ve got my head turned 75% of the time. Keeping an eye on him at the table. Watching him as we walk. I’m fairly confident that that’s what has been slaughtering my neck the last few months. And then sitting on the floor to play xbox or watch a vid with him, since my chair broke in the spring and I never did find a good replacement (and I’m not entirely convinced he’d let me sit in one anyway), that’s kindof abusing my lower back for me. Wheeee

Bath time is starting to be a nuisance. I’m sitting on the floor, parallel to the bath So my torso is turned (back), and my head is turned (neck). Then I’m leaning on the tub so I can keep one hand in the water to splash with him and what not. So my ribs are pressing into the tub wall (mmmm). All this is sitting in front of the air vent, which means it’s almost constant cold air (I swear, even when the air isn’t running, i get cold air on my back during bath time). THEN he uses me to climb in and out and in and out. So he’s applying new random and uncontrollable pressures to my body, in case something wasn’t pulling wrong. (incidentally, I go through 2-3 shirts a bath ; when they get wet enough, I change. see: air vent)

Lately he’s been sleeping such that I end up flat on my back. And I don’t have the right pillows for that to be good for my neck, either. I either need to get new pillows or try side sleeping ; I’ve never been a fan of back-sleeping anyway :/

oi. My neck hurts :o

Posted in: DK, fitness by attriel /
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So, all day at work it was running around trying to do all sorts of things. I got asked to do a security scan. this evening. luckily I was staying late since Friday is DK’s day at Dadi & dada’s … but then I had to get the password to the scanning machine, then to the app I’m supposed to scan, plus setting up the scan. Oh, then there was a pair of meetings about the DoS last week and whether we (the developers) had any more information (like packet captures and tcpdump logs and … wait, isn’t that what we asked security about last week???).

In between all of that, I tried to do my job some. Didn’t get very far, honestly, since I kept getting pulled away for something else. Eeeesh.

This weekend we’re going to be running around, I imagine, starting to collect bits for the India trip. Ordered a new suitcase yesterday, since we need at least a second large one (only one of our big ones still functions properly ; we’ve ended up throwing the others away AFAICR .. I should check and throw them away if we haven’t already). Oi.

Posted in: general, work by attriel /
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So DK’s nonnie was up recently. Well, sortof.

She came up and stayed with Drummer to get him stuff for his new place, and we were meeting them for dinner downtown Saturday evening. They called us and said they were just going to drive up to where we live (They live in NoVA, so we’d been figuring on central location) so pick something up here. So I figured we’d go to Duclaw’s, since when we took Drummer a couple months ago when he was interviewing he liked it. Problem was they didn’t do reservations after 6 on the weekends :/ And 7 people’s gonna be a wait. Dealt with that by we went up early to put our name on the wait list. Then got seated. And then kept waiting because where we’d picked was “soooo far away!” … Except it’s 10 minutes from our house. Not our fault that they’re coming another 45 minutes up TO our place. I mean, given the difference in roads etc, it was maybe 5 minutes further than driving to our house. Which is how much further it’d've been to come to our house then turn around to go to a restaurant.

I should have gone with IHOP in College Park. I like french toast. DK likes pancakes. The rest of you can choke on it and make your own decisions next time! :p

Anyway, Nonnie came home with us Saturday evening. Dinner was almost at bedtime, so by the time we got home it was PAST bedtime. Sunday morning Nonnie was busy cooking so we could all go down to Drummer’s for “Brunch”. DK ran around some there, played with their dogs and cats (he was surprisingly gentle with the cats since I don’t know that he’s seen cats other than at Drummer’s graduation) and had fun. Then we came home and Kiir and Nonnie went shopping and I took DK for an ice cream cone. OMG! The “kid’s cone” (which is the same sugar cone, just a smaller scoop) had like 2 scoops of icecream, it was HUGE! Bigger than what kiir gets when she gets the regular cone !!! And the boy? He ate 2/3′s of it! OI!

Anyway, he got to spend a … uh … hrrm. After shopping we went to get nonnie’s rental, then dinner where DK and I sat around for a while and he had his dinner on the table before kiir and nonnie got there (rental issues). Then I brought him home for a bath and kiir and Nonnie went shopping at target …

So Nonnie spent ~1hr with him saturday evening and another 1hr sunday evening, plus dinners and playing with him in the car. Brunch she was talking to Drummer and others, shopping DK didn’t really go with them, etc.

K really misses his walks with nonnie. And even DK didn’t get one this time because “walk time” was replaced with “brunch time.” :/

(ed note: I’m told it’s nonnie not nani, so i think i’ve fixed them all now)

Posted in: DK by attriel /
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A few weeks ago (2+?), kiir was exhausted one friday morning, so I took DK down to my parents for the day. That has now spiraled into a once a week outing for him, giving kiir a day of rest each week. plus the weekend when I try to take him for the most part.

The following week she decided she had a cold and was generally feeling meh. Last week DK developed a runny nose and spent a few days being a little ennervated. Not as energetic and kinetic as usual.

Sunday I apparently finally caught the cold from DK. This morning I got an email, it seems my mother caught his cold when he visited on Friday last week.

K ALSO has this cold. I swear, it feels like a flu or something, but it spreads like the freakin’ plague!

Posted in: DK, general by attriel /
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