randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

Gage’s focus has improved noticeably, once he’s used to the medicine in his body, I’m hoping he’ll be less aggressive.  I’m also working on getting him to keep his patch on longer.  He keeps taking it off before it’s time.  It’s supposed to be on until just after he gets off the bus — I time it that way.  He’s taking it off an hour or two early.  It’s not a huge deal, it’s one of those things that can be taken off earlier if necessary.

I just saw a commercial that had a girl sit down to dinner with a guy and just start prattling on and on about god knows what while the guy tried to get a word in edgewise.  Finally he shut her up by popping out a diamond ring.  It just made me laugh cause I immediately thought of the Ron White thing about how the DeBeers people needed to change their slogan once and for all to “Diamonds… that’ll shut her up.”

The scarf I was working on is finished.  Now I’m working on another blanket.  This one has small circles in a bright multicolored yarn, surrounded by black circles (ok, the circles are really more like hexagons) and then it’ll all be stitched together in a honeycomb pattern.  It’s going to be very pretty when it’s done.  Dunno what I want to make next, but I’ve got some time before I get to the next project.  This blanket will be for Gage.  The hat and scarf are for my god daughter for Christmas (I’d make Gage a set, but mom’s doing them for all her kids and grandkids).  I do want to do a blanket for my god daughter, but it doesn’t specifically have to be for Christmas.  There’s a lot of really pretty blanket patterns I’ve come across.  One with this cool rainbow look, where the colors are interwoven… I like that one a lot, just don’t know who I’d opt to make that one for.  Can’t do em all for me and Gage… what would I do with all those blankets?  Oh yes, taking a break from the circles the other night, I made a little crochet rat igloo for a friends pet rats.  It’s based on a hat pattern, I just added a bottom and left a hole for the boys to climb in and huddle up.   I hope they like it.

The blanket that I was crocheting is done.  It’s a marvel of mismatched colors.  We started with blue, then white, green, yellow, purple and pink.  Around the edges is a lovely multicolored yarn called monet.  There’s no rhyme nor reason to the color pattern, it’s just what I had or happened to get.  I like it though.  When I finished it, I wrapped it around me and went to Gage and said “I have a blanket!”  He looked at me (I shit you not) and threw me a very sarcastic “wow.”  It was funny as hell.  Since then, I’ve completed a hat and I’m about 2/3 of the way through a scarf.  When those are done, I’m doing another blanket — this one will actually have a color scheme and pattern to it, just fyi.

Dunno if I mentioned before that I had a dragon goblet to paint (we’ve switched from crochet to ceramics, by the way), but it’s finally finished.  I got it for my birthday, so it took long enough, but I have to say it was so worth the time.  It came out really pretty.  I also have a train I’m working on, it’s got 4 sections including the engine and caboose.  The back 3 sections are lidded, so I can put candy and stuff in them.  The whole train has a christmas theme to it.  I’m almost done with that, as well.  It’s coming out really nice.

So, Gage went fishing today.  In the fishtank.  After watching a few minutes he lifted the lid, reached in, and caught the goldfish.  Then he turned to me, held it up and said “fishy.”  The fish is fine.  Gage put him back and he’s swimming, eating and… er… drinking?  like normal.  It was funny as hell, but I did explain that we don’t take the fishies out of the water.

I seem to have poison ivy under my arm, and by that I mean actually in my armpit.  It SUCKS.  No clue how I got it, but to be honest, I get poison ivy every year without ever coming in contact with poison ivy.  Figure that one out.  A doctor that I went to when I was a kid said it was in my bloodstream.  No idea if that’s possible or how it happens, but that’s what the doctor says.  How lucky am I?  Just think, if you were me, you could have poison ivy in your armpit too.

gage is doing great in school so far.  the first 2 weeks have gone really well.  he’s right back into the swing of it all and doing good.  he’s talking more, i’m trying to get him to talk on the phone so he can talk to daddy every now and then.  so far no dice.  he runs from it when it’s on speaker and while he’ll listen for a minute to the regular handset, he puts it down and walk away without a word usually.  his two friends from last year are in his class again this year, which is nice.  they apparently hang out together during sensory room time and other activities.  their mom’s and i are going to try to do some play dates this year with the three of them, which should be fun.

we’re contemplating ritalin.  respiridal and ritalin were recommended to help with focus and aggression.  the issue was that he won’t take medicine.  whenever he’s sick, i have to slip tylenol, cough medicine, etc into his drink and hope he drinks it all.  he won’t swallow pills, won’t take liquids… but apparently, ritalin is available in a patch.  i’m thinking it’s worth a try.  the focus especially will help him learn more, might even help him to communicate even better.

work is ok.  i like the job and most of the people.  management sucks.  i suppose that a lot of people feel that way about their jobs.  i just get irritated by them when they schedule me on a day i request off.  ok, i realize they can’t honor every frivilous request off, so if i request off because i’m going to the beach… whatever, i’ll deal with it.  but if i request off because i don’t have anyone to watch my child… it means i don’t have anyone to watch my child.  newsflash: i’m not the kind of parent who’ll leave their child at home unattended for hours on end.  on top of that, i keep getting little digs about not working sundays.  ok, here’s the thing.  there are no issues with mom watching him saturday or sunday… but making it so she can’t get anything done away from home all weekend?  no.  that’s not working.  i get little comments about how it’s a problem that i can’t work both days of every weekend.  excuse me?  hire more people for weekends then.  i have no doubt they’re out there.  you’ve apparently been turning people away all summer who’ve asked if you’re hiring.  surely some of those are brides to be who are looking for extra weekend work to pay for their dream weddings or something — that’s what my sister did, actually.  sunday?  yeah, it’s a premium day.  they pay a dollar more an hour on sundays.  most people would prefer sunday to saturday anyway.  it gets better, i talked to someone the other day who’s worked at other stores, stores owned by the same family, the whole “everyone must work both days of every weekend” attitude is only maintained at the store i work for.  nice, huh?  at the other stores, sunday is voluntary… being a premium day and all.

what can i say, the little guy is awfully computer savvy.  he’s also a big fan.  he likes to play various games and visit starfall.com to play alphabet, spelling and other learning games.  it’s so cute.  he’s so good on the computer, he actually installed zoo tycoon on mom’s computer a couple of weeks ago.  no, i’m serious.  he popped the cd into the drive and went through the install process.  he even logs her computer off when he’s done — doesn’t always remember to close the last program he was using, but he logs off.

so that’s part of why i haven’t been posting so much lately.  whenever i get on the computer, it gets hijacked.  i’ve even tried setting him up on mom’s computer and then using mine to get online.  no dice.  gage has “mom’s on the computer” radar or something.  he takes it away, closes whatever i was doing and opens his programs.  so that leaves after he’s gone to bed and before he gets up most days, since i usually work while he’s at school.  i’m working on getting into a routine of going online to check email and/or blog after he goes to bed.  the only issue is that i’m usually too tired to really get much of intelligence out so late.  of course, that could lead to some highly amusing blog posts.

in other news…

awhile back, i attempted to crochet a blanket.  i was discouraged early on, so it became a scarf.  a scarf that gage has used the past 2 winters.  well… last month, mom started to crochet an afghan.  a queen sized afghan.  she finished 2 weeks ago, it’s gorgeous, to be honest.  all these lovely shades of green and brown.  very earth-toned, i ordered one for my birthday, lol.  anyhoo… watching her the first few hours got me interested in giving it another shot.  i’m on the 6th skein and have 1 more to go (for the border) on my first ever crocheted blanket.  it’s certainly not perfect, but it’s pretty cool to have gotten so far.  i’m even planning on at least 2 more, and i’m gonna try my hand at a hat and scarf for my god daughter.

have i rambled enough for you?