Jan. 31: Month in review

January 2014 is almost over. I’m kinda glad.

I’m also glad that today is Friday, because we all need a little Ponch now and then, right?

You’re welcome, Fancy Lori™. I know you like the Ponch pic. ;)

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

• New Year’s Day was celebrated in high style here at the House of Manullang. Three of the four of us were sick and napped throughout the entire day. Wheeeee. We’re the funnest.
• Jenn K’s birthday! We went to a wine bar, where I tasted a wine I actually like. I took a picture of the label so I can look for it in stores—so far, no luck. Figures. Time to place a special order, and I don’t even know how or where to do that because I’m so wine-stupid. After the wine bar we checked out a new local place, Valley Growlers. Big thumbs up for their fab selections! I think Jenn K had a good birthday, but none of us really remembers for sure, including her.
• I went to a baby shower for Erin, my niece. So fun to celebrate a new baby, even though he made me a great-aunt and that makes me old. More on Baby below.
• There was a celebration in our family when the Seahawks won the NFC championship, and there will be more celebration this weekend when they compete in the Super Bowl. As I am neither a Seahawks fan nor a Seahawks hater, I was not a celebrator nor a throw-things-at-the-wall-er (Loveliest Lori, I’m looking at you…). It sure is nice to have such happy boys in the house though. I also like seeing happy Seahawks-adjacent Facebook posts from happy Kim F’n, happy Melodie, happy Jordan family, happy every Manullang/Nienhuis, and happy neighbors. Happy is good.

I saw things with my eyes:

• Downton Abbey and Sherlock have started up again on PBS, and that makes for some happy Sunday nights here. The If-Downton-Abbey-Took-Place-Entirely-On-Facebook summaries that appear the next day at this site are priceless.
• I watched, for the first time, Mommie Dearest. Wow, I say, both for Joan Crawford’s awfulness and Faye Dunaway’s ridiculous over-acting. Still, it was oddly entertaining. One of the best things about Amazon Instant Video is having access to lots of movies (mostly trash) that I’ve never gotten around to watching.
• Last year I watched (and kinda loved) the documentary Grey Gardens, and this month I finally saw the Jessica Lange-Drew Barrymore movie version of it. Both were fascinating in that train-wreck/I-can’t-look-away way.
• Who needs to wait for the DVD release of Frozen, like a sucka? It’s online! Bootleg video, anyone?
• Armistead Maupin’s final tale from his Tales of the City series was published last week, and he was at Powell’s the other night for a reading and signing. He was as entertaining as always—I love that man. I’m thinking about re-reading the first eight books before I start the new one, just to experience the whole series in one great big delicious bite.
• I read Amy Tan’s latest novel, The Valley of Amazement. It contained a bit more detail about life as a courtesan than I really needed to know, but was beautifully written, as her books always are.
• I’m not entirely sold on e-books; I like holding actual books in my hands, turning pages, the eyestrain, all that. However, if a book is interesting enough, I’ll attempt to read it on my iPad. I just finished When You were Older, by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The story is set in the months following 9/11; I thought the author did a good job capturing the emotions of that tense time. (Someday I hope NOT to associate certain books with whether or not I read them on my Kindle app, but this was the second I’ve read start-to-finish.)

This month’s good and bad:

• NEW BABY NEW BABY NEW BABY NEW BABY!!! Erin & Kevin’s son was born four weeks early, but he’s doing well. I met him when he was two days old, and OMG, I forgot how lovely it is to hold someone else’s newborn! What a little sweetheart. Picture proof:

Baby Max (with Erin’s piggies in the background)

I love this pic of a very tired Erin and her sweet boy
(Totally stole it off their blog, but with permission)

• Debi visited! We need to see each other more than once a year. Boo.
• I opened an Etsy store and am going to sell my gemstone jewelry creations. I’ve been beading like a madwoman—it’s a very fun creative outlet. I’ll post the store info here when it’s all ready for shopping and sharing with your friends. I feel like I’ve been asking a lot of favors lately, so I apologize in advance for yet another.
• There aren’t enough creative new ways to use four-letter words that convey our frustration with the results of my PET scan. The cancer is back. I have a biopsy next week, and will meet with the oncologist soon after to decide on our next course of action. I’ll do my best NOT to turn Stuff Jen Says back into an all-cancer-all-the-time blog, but will also try to share news as it happens.
• And while I’m on the topic, I’d like some credit for not using more of those four-letter words on my blog. They sure come out of my mouth more than they end up here. Somebody praise me for my restraint RIGHT NOW.

I likes to share the silly stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time to enjoy some February. You should do it too. Laterz.

Apr. 19: Stuff I learned from a dirty magazine

OK, maybe Cracked isn’t a dirty magazine so much as it’s frequently naughty. Either way, it’s the last place I ever expect to learn anything that’s true, much less interesting. I have Cracked in my RSS feed because occasionally—very occasionally—there are some fascinating and/or amusing articles worth reading. Recently, there have been these little fact nuggets:

• Mt. Everest has 3G coverage. Being on that little hike is no longer a good excuse for not taking your turn on Words with Friends, buster.
• Someone’s invented a new and improved snot-sucker for you to get all the gunk out of your kid’s nose. Best of all, it’s not even a tiny bit disgusting!
• Antarctica has a Spoolhenge. Don’t believe it? Google it.

• There have been some odd entries into the dictionary in recent years, but it’s hard to believe there have been words added that are completely, totally, made-up and RIDICULOUS: grrrl, threequel, screenager (whu?), bouncebackability.
• Michael J. Fox’s middle initial is actually “A.”
• Talk Like a Pirate Day was started by guys from Oregon.

OK, so they’re not all gems. Still, I learned somethin’.

Jul. 19: I met Alex! Again!

Once upon a time, coming up on almost 14 years ago, I met a boy who was adorable and sweet. He was brand new and belonged to my friend Kim F’n. I saw him again a few months later when I got married and he came to my wedding, where he probably cried a little and stole some of my bridal thunder. Then I didn’t see him again for a long time, until Jack was born and Kim brought her boys to the hospital to meet him. And then it was a long time again.

But today I got to see him!

In fact, we even texted beforehand, just to get to re-know each other a little. And I told him a secret that he wasn’t supposed to tell his mom, but I know he totally told her anyway because she would be mean if he kept a secret from her and he knows that. He’s a good boy.

Oh, and I put on a little lipstick in anticipation of his and Kim’s arrival at my house this afternoon:

Meet Alex!

(That’s me in the lipstick. Alex is not wearing lipstick. I would hate for you to get us confused.)

We had a lovely visit and I’m glad to say Alex is just as charming today as he was the day he was born, possibly even more so. Of course, we would expect nothing less of Kim’s offspring, now, would we?

Kim was pretty cool today too. AS USUAL. Kim is always rockin’ awesome, even when she yells at me on Facebook and tries to make me feel bad. I love her even though I’m suspicious she has chickens roaming her house.

But perhaps most important of all, I must explain that the reason my eyes look the way they do in the picture above is because Kim said, “Hang on, I’m gonna take your picture. Now, look directly into the sun for five minutes and then I’ll press the button.”

She is sooo paying for my eye repair. Also, I’m suddenly out of lipstick. Weird, huh?

Apr. 22: A human pillow

Today’s awesome thing is #520 When a baby falls asleep on you.

You’re a human pillow.

Feel that tiny heart beating on your chest, that strawberry-sized hand gripping your finger, and those baby powder breaths softly whispering in and out…

When you were a little baby you fell asleep on people all the time, too. Now that you’re all grown up you’re helping another life on its way.

And just think: One day way off in the distance this softly sleeping snuggler will be doing the exact same thing.

AWESOME!

Some of my favorite pictures of our kids are of them sleeping on us—or someone, anyway. Here are the ones I could find (these were all taken before we got a digital camera, so they were all printed and scanned and that’s why they’re cropped all weird/bad and I apologize you have to see such awfulness but the pictures are still cute, right?):

 Scout, baby Katie and me – February 2000

 Katie and “Auntie” Debi Nelson – March 2000

 OK, this photo isn’t of anyone in our family, but I love it anyway.
This is Jason Neil, holding his brand new nephew, River – May 2000

 Jack and me, when he was just a few hours old – November 2001

 “Auntie” Debi again, this time with Jack.
He’s such a little cuddly bundle!
And isn’t Debi’s hair super-cute?  November 2001

Mar. 18: Nothing

I’m still feeling drained and I’m quite sure my brain has stopped working correctly. Like, I’m forgetting words—last night I was rubbing my noggin and couldn’t remember “stubbly.” My typically high typing speed is as high as usual, but if you count the errors, I think I’m at a negative number of words per minute. It’s that sort of thing ‘round here, all the time nowadays. Gah.

There’s nothing much to say, so I found a meme to answer this morning. Good thing I save these to post when I have nothing else, right? I mean, God forbid I only post when I have something meaningful to share! There’s no apparent theme to this meme, obviously… just a bunch of random questions about myself and my attitude toward some legal and political issues. You can stop reading now if you want to. Or you can answer these questions yourself in a comment or your own blog. Here we go…

---

What were you doing ten years ago?
Honestly? I was losing my mind. I had a month-old infant and my postpartum depression was at its peak. Tough time. I adored that little one, but I wanted to give her to the mailman some days.

Five snacks you would enjoy in a perfect, non weight-gaining world:

1. Double-Stuf Oreos
2. Milky Way bars
3. Lemon Hostess Fruit Pies
4. Hot Tamales
5. Smarties (the American ones)

Five things you would do if you were a billionaire:

1. Go on a really, really long vacation all over the world, preferably with friends joining us along the way
2. Buy a new, big house with at least as many bathrooms as Loveliest Lori’s
3. Cure cancer
4. Buy a jet since I hate long car rides, and a pilot since I don’t know how to fly a jet
5. Get lots of unnecessary plastic surgery

Three of your worst habits:

1. Procrastination
2. Impatience
3. Taking on too much responsibility

Five jobs you’ve had:

1. Administrative assistant
2. Reader for accounting professor
3. Tanning bed manager
4. Software trainer
5. Database programmer

Five places you’ve lived:

1. Medford, Oregon
2. Beaverton, Oregon
3. Portland, Oregon
4. College Place, Washington
5. Clackamas/Happy Valley, Oregon

Five things you did yesterday:

1. Went to physical therapy, where I did NOT punch my therapist in the neck, no matter what she tries to tell you through her broken windpipe
2. Had a romantic lunch with my husband at Taco Bell
3. Assigned special ringtones to most of the contacts in my phone while I waited for Sunshine at Peet’s
4. Met Sunshine for coffee at Peet’s
5. Napped

Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already?
I’m not sure why it isn’t legal, quite frankly. I’m really pretty “meh” about this.

Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized?
Definitely. Who does it hurt? NO ONE. Whose lives does it change for the worse? NO ONE’S. Enough already with the “let’s protect marriage” bullshirt—what are we protecting it from, anyway?

Should the alcohol age be lowered to 18?
I don’t think so, although I doubt it would make much difference. Eighteen-year-olds find a way to drink if they really want to anyway.

Should the war in Iraq be called off?
It never should have begun in the first place. My heart breaks over how many people have died in that war.

Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree?
No! Dying with dignity is a right we should all have. It’s ridiculous that people have to suffer when they don’t want to—we euthanize pets to end their suffering; I certainly would not want to live if my quality of life was gone. I don’t think any physician should be forced to assist in a suicide, but if they are willing, they should be able to do it legally.

Do you believe in spanking your children?
I don’t spank my children.

Do you worry that others will judge you from reading some of your answers?
I want to not worry, but I also want to not offend anyone I care about.

Aug. 13: Welcome, Blake!

This announcement is a bit delayed because I wanted to give it the attention it deserved. Good news for the Medici family! Their healthy little boy was born July 14, 2008. Meet Blake Oliver Medici:



Mark and Annalee went through so much to get this little guy. I received his beautiful birth announcement in the mail yesterday (click to read)—if you know their story, it will make you cry:



Want to know more about the Medici family? Visit Olivia’s Wish. We offer our thrilled congratulations to Mark, Annalee, and Eva, and a big welcome to our world, Baby Blake!

July 12: Another reason I never want to move

The 2008 Fourth of July party on our street was fun. This evening we had a pizza-s’mores-Sambuca party and it was even better and this is why:



(‘Scuse the poor photo quality; this was taken not at all illicitly but with my very crappy non-iPhone.) The view up the baby daddy’s shorts almost draws your eye away from Baby’s First Brewski, huh? Right after the picture was taken Baby stuck his hand in his diaper and yelled for Baby’s Second Brewski. And these neighbors, whose shorts and child shall remain anonymous, should probably expect a visit from DHS any day.

We will miss them.

July 10: Welcome, Baby Chloe

Chloe Rose Rothstein was born June 27, 2008 and weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces.



Congratulations to Mathew, Sheila, and new big brother Aiden. She’s just beautiful! Sheila, does she look like Aiden? I LOVE her name.

Feb. 27: Sing it, Howdy Doody!

Kim (Felkley) Nelson and I once had a thing for Rick Astley. It was about 20 years ago, I think—that's when he was popular for that minute, right?—and it's really quite embarrassing to admit this now. But wasn't Never Gonna Give You Up the catchiest little tune? And remember how his voice sounded all big and black but in fact he looked like a cross between Ron Howard and that guy from Simply Red? And that he was, surprisingly, kind of a good dancer? C'mon, admit it... you cranked the radio when you heard him. You probably still do, ya big liar.

Fine, you don't have to agree with me.

But you know you want to.

I saw this movie and it brought back happy memories of shameful fandom.



That is all.