Mar. 29: A few thousand words

I think all of us are just now feeling mostly healthy again. Over the past few weeks Vic had the flu, I had a bad cold that turned into laryngitis, and the kids both had 2-week colds. We've successfully infected everyone we've come in contact with, and our work is done.

Not a lot to say here, but I did update several pages on the web site. Here are changes you might want to check out:

• Katie and Jack's most recent portraits
• Cooper Harrison Bissell
• A couple photos from the Lassen Family's Disney cruise
• The latest photos of that darling Presley
• A picture of Abby and Katie dressed as princesses

I just heard that Jerry Falwell is critically ill. Boy, that's a darn shame. And yes, I know I'm going straight to hell for even thinking such a terrible thing. But he thinks he's God and I know he's the Anti-Christ, so either way, the guy ain't a real human being. I can think of many farm animals or body parts he might be though...

Because I love you all so very, very much, I'll share with you my joke for the day:

How is an elephant like a tomato?
Neither one can ride a bike.

Somehow I forgot to include one of my biggest pet peeves in my last entry, so here it is. It is not Nordstrom's, it's Nordstrom. It is not Meier & Frank's, it's Meier & Frank. It is not Fred Meyer's, it's Fred Meyer. It is not J.C. Penney's, it's J.C. Penney. No one says Costco's, or Safeway's, or Target's, or Eddie Bauer's, so why do people insist on tacking an "s" onto the end of all those other store names? I don't get it. Something else I don't understand is why people say The Wal-Mart. We don't say The Target, or The Safeway. But instead of irritating me, hearing The Wal-Mart mostly just makes me snort. I have to remember that The Wal-Mart is from the land of The Piggly-Wiggly, also known as the part of the country where family trees have no branches.

My my, I'm sounding quite snobbish today. I'd apologize, but I don't wanna.

Burgerville started serving their fresh strawberry milkshakes on Saturday. If you haven't had one before, you really should. They're the best. Vic and I just couldn't wait to have our first one of the season, so on the way home from Walla Walla the other day we stopped in The Dalles, wherein lies the east-most Burgerville. We're trying to figure out what part of our regular diet will need to be swapped out so we can have several shakes a week. We should probably try to figure out what bills we'll stop paying to afford them too.

One more recommendation: "The Incredibles" on DVD. Love it, love it, love it.

More next week or whenever I get around to it. Lovies!

Mar. 8: Restraining Orders, or "get out of my dreams and also out of my car"

You know, it's very easy to criticize. Fun, too.

Today, for your reading pleasure, I'm going to share some of the things that really bug me. Because it would be impossible for me to rate these things by degrees of annoying-ness, they're in no particular order. You'll notice that many of the things that bug me are writing- and grammar-related. My sister's list is identical in that way; blame our perfection-obsessed parents.

My Airing of Grievances
with apologies in this non-Festivus season

• Incorrect usage of your and you're, it's and its, their and they're and there, to and too. A typo is one thing. If you really don't know the difference, though... did you pay no attention in grade school English class??? Sheesh.
• Watching my mom prepare her coffee. First, she waters it down, and then destroys it further by adding powdered creamer, even when there's the perfectly good liquid kind in the fridge! And then she DRINKS it!
• Over-using exclamation points!!! If I do it, it's because it's necessary. No one else has a good excuse.
• People that don't signal when changing lanes; I want to know that you know where you're going. People that try to merge on the freeway at 40mph. People that go the speed limit in the fast lane; first, it's there for passing, not for driving, and even if you think you're forcing everyone to obey the law, you're really just a traffic hazard and the source for much road rage. Someday when someone shoots at you it will be because you deserve it.
• Inconsiderate neighbors (not just mine). You know who you are. Actually, you probably don't, but if you did you wouldn't change. You're just that way, aren't you?
• That more people don't listen to my brilliant ideas. I have many.
• People using apostrophes where they don't belong, as in, "Lot's of people have brilliant idea's, but not as many as my friend's and I do." Also incorrectly using plurals, like "skys" or "sky's" instead of "skies." Have you heard the good news about spell-checkers?
• Not using spell-checkers.
• People that don't take responsibility for their actions. "Ouchie, I spilled coffee on my nether regions because I put it in my lap even though I knew it was super hot. Now McDonalds must PAY!" Because of you, food packaging now says things like, "Warning: Product will be hot after heating."
• Houses painted in hideous colors in neighborhoods of houses painted in non-hideous colors.
• Return envelopes that say, "Tampering with this envelope or its contents will result in legal action." I don't know how serious the threat is, but it interferes with my habit of returning crap mail to senders just to show them how annoying it is to receive crap mail. A Sharpie used to be enough to fix identifying info on the outside of envelopes, but now I'm too a-scared!
• Web sites with ridiculous shipping rates. They suck. Also, poorly designed shopping cart systems on store web sites. Ya gonna have a web presence? Make it work.
• Reruns in prime-time.
• Bad tippers. Like it or not, in this country, it's customary. Don't embarrass your dining companions by being cheap.
• That annoying shortcut language that's become popular and accepted thanks to chat rooms and messaging. You know, using "u" instead of "you," "2" instead of "to" or "too," "b4" instead of "before." The abbreviations don't bother me--LOL, BRB, IMHO, etc. It's the weird Prince-like spelling that gives me the shivers.
• That Crispix is so expensive. Other cereals are expensive too, but Crispix is my favorite. Seems every time it's on sale the store has, like, four boxes in stock. Stooopid store.
• Expiration dates.
• The dash lights in my car. Too much red! It looks like a freakin' cockpit at night. As much as I love Volkswagens, it's always something with them. At least everything is still working in the Passat, unlike my Jetta, which had odd little electrical problems from the start.
• The fact that if not for Hitler, Volkswagen might not even exist. I just found out, thanks to Yahoo!'s question of the day, that that German Ethel Merman ordered development of what eventually became the Beetle. I blame my goofy dash lights on him.
• Putting two spaces between sentences or between the state and zip or after a colon. The "two spaces" rule went out with typewriters and fixed-width fonts. Stop it.

That's all for today, kids. Maybe tomorrow I will share a few of my favorite things, like raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens.

Or not.

--Jen-Jen

Mar. 3: Pope-y peed on my sofa

My step-sister Cindy got married the other day. It was fun and celebratory, as weddings should be, but everyone there was nice and mostly normal; this was disappointing to me and Erin. Who could we gossip about? We were actually exchanging recipes at one point. I did, however, get a good pic that makes my mother look like she misbehaved much more than she actually did. Blackmail via blog!

Here's another pic, one of my mom and Len at Cindy's wedding.

Vic's and my eighth wedding anniversary was on Wednesday last week. We celebrated by me getting sick early that day and not improving much as the day went on. I moved our Morton's reservation to Friday night and spent the evening watching my ever-helpful husband assemble our new bookcases. On Thursday we moved the kids' toys, etc. to their new playroom and tried to clear out what had been in there before. We worked hard and got a lot done but there's still an ungodly amount left to do. Friday was more of the same, 'cept it ended with a fabulous dinner at Morton's. Over the weekend we were back to cleaning, organizing, and simplifying, and finally found a good stopping place so we could welcome Katie and Jack back home to show them their new playroom. Slowly, things have begun to come together. After a trip to Ikea I've planned for next week I should have the tools I need to finish the organizing part. We really are trying to get rid of stuff as we go along, and it's a lot more difficult than I expected. I don't know why we hang on to some of the things we do, but we're both packrat-y.

Me and my ever-handsome husband, fourteen years after we first met and about three years before we had a garageful of crap.

Why, oh why, won't they just let that poor pope dude die??? The guy has nine toes in the grave. He's gotta be miserable. I admit, I don't exactly understand the "holiness" part of the pope (or "Pope-y," as my ever-respectful husband calls him), but PLEEZE, just appoint another one and let this guy go. Sheesh.

I have few good things to say about the Adventist church, but one is that no one person is more holy or closer to God than the next. 'Course, lots of them think they are, and that they have the right to criticize others... Oh, don't get me started. That's a whole 'nother blog.

I'm a little worried Debi might never come back from Scotland. Her trip has been extended at least a few weeks. For me, though, the worst part is that she has inconvenient Internet access and we can't have our daily e-mail conversations. Poor me. What about my needs???

Seems as though Martin might be my only friend, as he's the one regular comment-leaver on this page. I mean "regular," as in "consistent" or "frequent," not any other kind of regular, though that may also apply to him, but I don't really know and I'm not going to ask. Anyway, shame on all of the rest of you! (If he'd e-mail me some new pictures I could probably update his page... hint hint...)

For a certain someone or two that might be dying to post a comment but something's holding you back: remember, you can post anonymously and without registering. Just an idear.

I got a butt-load of free software when I bought my tax program today and I gotta get it set up. I wonder how many hard drives this round of installations will kill.

With a love that will echo through the ages--

Jen

Feb. 19: Everyone's a critic

Busy week. Between working--both at home and at the hospital--transporting children, rearranging rooms in our house, and coddling two still semi-sick kids, I'm exhausted. Vic probably is too, though I'm guessing. Our paths haven't crossed much in the last few days. I hate that. Next week is our anniversary (#8!), we're both taking a few days off work, and Katie and Jack will be at Grandma and Grandpa's.

I've made a few changes to the site, mostly to the cascading style sheet. If there's anything that looks really "off," please let me know. I didn't take the time to check every page.

Tried a new restaurant on Wednesday: Vitis Enoteca. Not your standard Italian fare but absolutely delicious. My salad was watercress, prosciutto, and pear--wonderful! The pizza I chose for my entree was prosciutto, potato, fresh mozzarella, and pesto on a thin crust. I had a fabulous dessert; a poached pear cored and filled with mascarpone, then drizzled with caramel. Ed's walnut popovers were tasty, and one of the main reasons I can hardly wait to eat there again. We also had antipasti, and Ed and Stefan shared some of their dishes with me too, so I feel well-qualified to highly recommend this place, especially if you enjoy wine. Dana, the owner/chef, is friendly and obviously very skilled. Vitis Enoteca is just over 405 from the Pearl. Go. NOW!

Olivia is being released from the hospital on Monday! Her body shows all signs of reproducing the cells from the transplant, so things are looking good. There's still a long way to go for them, and they'll stay at Duke for at least another few months. The silent auction and benefit dinner that was held in Enumclaw this month was a HUGE success! Read more detail in the journal Mark and Annalee have been writing on her web site (www.oliviaswish.com/), and please keep Olivia and her family in your hearts.

I just shake my head over why gay marriage is such a controversial issue. Besides the fact that it should be a religious issue, not a political one, it's simply unfair. Allowing gay couples to marry has NOT ONE EFFECT on me or my marriage. It changes nothing about my life. It takes nothing away from me. How could I be against it? love is love is love has some important and eye-opening info. If you've never given this issue much thought, please do.

Oh but wait, I'm not off my soapbox yet. I hate bad drivers, tomatoes, clowns, loud TV, and when people don't smash big hairy spiders. And I'm not too fond of poodles.

There, I'm done.

Katie, Jack, and Jonathan posed for some fun pictures the other day. Check them out. I'm sure there'll be more to come, because today Katie got four more outfits in the mail from Appie, and as soon as Jonathan sees them...

Vic and I had a decent Valentine's Day. He gave me a bouquet of flowers (gorgeous!) and I gave him a Starbucks gift card (yawners!). Darlene offered to watch Katie and Jack so Vic and I could go out for dinner that evening, which was such a treat. It was so last-minute, though, that we had no reservations and were too hungry to wait an hour for a table anywhere. We ended up at a quite desolate Burgerville. No matter, it was still nice to have a quiet meal together away from home and the hospital cafeteria. Besides, V-Day just isn't as big a deal for us because our anniversary is nine days later. Seems odd to make a huge thing of it when we'll be celebrating again so soon.

We're in the middle of our room transitions project in the house. What a lot of not very fun work. We've decided to keep the front room as a family room and subtly add some of our office furniture and stuff. If it doesn't work we'll do the bookcase divider thing. However, the upstairs room is still being converted to a playroom for Katie and Jack, and we've got tons yet to do in there. Our motivation is the lofty dream of toys and all the rest of the kids' stuff being on ONE floor. Having a place for everything. Being able to truly straighten/clean to make the house presentable.

IN SUMMARY,

Vitis Enoteca:

Olivia's Duke University medical team:

Opponents of gay marriage:

Kids giving me belly laughs:

Valentine's Day:
(I still love the holiday even if we don't celebrate much)

Mile-long to do lists:

People who visit manullang.com:

Feb. 10: I Need More Cowbell

New pictures from Katie's big day yesterday are on her Fifth Birthday page.

I was on my way out the door this morning when Katie and Jack both said they weren't feeling good. Since they'd been coughing for a couple days (but showed no other signs of illness) I thought maybe they were finally truly sick. I called Kristine to say I wouldn't be bringing them over, and the hospital folks to say I wouldn't be coming in to work, and within a half hour my "ailing" children were asking if they could play outside, or at McDonalds, or with neighbor kids. I said, "But I thought you were sick," to which my brilliant daughter replied, "I was, but I feel better now."

I tried to keep them busy at home but they weren't too interested in any of the super-fun activities I suggested: laying down, sitting quietly, resting, napping, dozing, being quiet so Mommy could do those things, etc. Who said kids are easy to please?

A fun web site to check out: PseudoDictionary. Click one of the letters on the light green bar along the top, or use the search box to find new and exciting words. Or, if you don't have time, just check out this goodie: Wanna go out or stay in? (Betcha never knew how to spell that one, hm?

Know what tastes yummy? Shasta Tiki Punch. Mmmmmmm...

Know what'll make you bounce off the walls? Shasta Tiki Punch and birthday cake. It's like drinking a Squishee made entirely of syrup. ("Let's go crazy Broadway-style!")

Jen

Feb. 7: Mid- Katie's Birthday Season

Well, I'm just mad. Some tiny little man has taken away all my fun. The Voss Family.

Mom and Len were here this past weekend. Mom and I got some rare shopping time, and Vic and I had a no-kids afternoon that we greatly enjoyed too. Mom made Katie a gorgeous princess dress for her birthday, complete with sparkly shoes and fun accessories (photo here). She loved prancing around and showing it off (um... to clarify: Katie pranced, my mom did not, though she would probably not turn down an opportunity if presented). A lot of Katie's birthday gifts fit into a dress-up theme: Darlene made her a bride ensemble, Appie is sending a very cool Disney princess costume trunk, her friend Eliza gave her beautiful wings, a tiara, and a magic wand, and we got her a fairy princess outfit and a chef uniform. She's also getting a 3-panel room divider with a mirror, hooks, and organizer boxes for keeping all her dress-up things in one place. Well, my plan is for it all to stay organized...

Katie's birthday party was yesterday--read all about it here. More celebrations are to come this next week. Wednesday is her actual birthday, and as if Daddy having the day off isn't special enough, she also is quite proud to get to choose where the four of us will have lunch. I'm betting/hoping it'll be "Passagetti" Factory--that's her favorite, and we think it's more than pretty okay too.

Valentine candy corn just isn't the same as the stuff at Halloween. Bleah.

We're about to make another major change in our house. Since it may not work for the long-term, we're trying to do it in a very temporary way so we can change it right back if we need to. We're thinking about moving the office to the front room downstairs and then making the upstairs room into the kids' playroom. We're so tired of the constant mess of toys up anddownstairs, and hope this will relieve some of that. To separate the two areas of the front room, we're looking at putting up a wall of bookcases. If it works and we like the arrangement, we'll probably make things more permanent and put in French doors to the office. If this move is successful you can be sure to find before-and-after photos on manullang.com.

Debi seems to have made it to Scotland in one piece. She said she's having fun, but that was before she'd tried driving. Yikes. I haven't heard much else and am anxiously awaiting more details.

Not that writing about Debi reminded me of this, but I watched "Mean Girls" last week. I think Tina Fey is hilarious, and this movie was pretty funny in parts, but it didn't have the charm of, say, "Clueless." I give it 2.5 stars out of 5.

And another movie theme that did not make me think of Debi... I watched one of last year's HBO films, "Normal," with Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Lange. Interesting. This guy decides, after 25 years of marriage, that he wants a sex-change operation. What makes it interesting is that his wife--after going through a predictable reaction to his announcement--actually accepts it and they continue to live together. I thought the movie said a lot about love: we find it where we find it.

I wanted to get Katie's party pictures posted, so it's just a quick update for now. I'll post the other pics and write again later this week.

J.

Feb. 2: Heil Myself... Heil to Me...

Know what? I'm so darn smart I can barely stand myself.

Problem is, today my noggin just gave up. It's full. The "No Vacancy" light's blinking, and if I could think of any other metaphors I would. They say beer kills brain cells, and drugs kill brain cells, and TV kills brain cells. I know for a fact that thinking too much kills brain cells too. And it ain't as much fun as that other stuff neither.

Anyhoo, I can tell I've exhausted all intelligence because I can't think of anything to write and also because I said "anyhoo." But has that ever stopped me before? I think you know the answer to that one.

Today is Sean's birthday. It's hard to believe my nephew is already 15! Just kidding, I know he's actually 18. Yikes-a-hootie, I 'member before he was born. It's actually just as hard to believe he's 18 as it is that my sister has an 18-year-old kid! Geez, she must be really old, like FORTY.

And speaking of important birthdays, there's one coming up in our house too. Yessiree, Katie will be 5 years old next Wednesday. Her party--this year, classmates only--is Sunday afternoon. She can't stop talking about it. I can't stop stressing about it. It'll be fun, I'm sure, because our parties always are (I hear--I don't attend them all). One of the plans is for the kids to play "Hullabaloo," a kid game from those brainiacs at Cranium. If you haven't played it, you should--it's really fun, kind of a combo of Twister and I don't know what. Just trust me.

My little friend Olivia is doing very well post-transplant. Read Mark and Annalee's journal entries at Olivia's Wish. Warning: Jan. 30 will make you cry.

Well, it seems my blog has finally seen some action! This is quite exciting, though undoubtedly only to me. I liked that "Anonymous" made a worthwhile contribution as she always does, and was not surprised that Martin's entry was mostly just making fun of things I say. If he continues this pattern I might have to make use of that little garbage can icon underneath the comments... but not yet, I'm just so thrilled to know someone is actually checking in to manullang.com!

And Lori, the motherboard episode got me too--that was the turning point, when I went from sorta liking the show to really liking the show.

So now that you kids have checked in, it's only a matter of time until Kathy contributes, isn't it???

My friends Kristine and Michael just crack me right up. I want to share a couple of their recent e-mails with you, my Jenketeers (The Onion reference... I promise, it'll never happen again):

Yummy Chinese Food!

And y'know how your monitor can get so grimy? Here's a little help getting it polished up: Mr. Clean

In the ancient words of the ever-eloquent Taylor Lassen, "No more words."

J.

Jan. 20: SATC on the brain

A couple years after "Sex and the City" started there was a whole bunch of hype about it. I've been a Sarah Jessica Parker semi-fan since her "Square Pegs" days, so when Season One of SATC was released on DVD, I rented it. At first, I honestly could not understand the hype. Except for the shock value, there was nothing very interesting about the show. The premise itself was shallow at best, and the writing seemed awkward. The acting wasn't much better. However, the characters were amusing. I rented Season Two.

In my opinion, almost everything about the show improved after the first season. I started to like it better and I started to care what happened to their characters. As with any TV show, you get to know the primary characters and you can't help but feel they're friends of some sort. So as each new season was released on DVD, I was eager to watch. It became such a fun show, full of surprises, humor, and unexpectedly touching moments. The second half of Season Six (the final one) was released a few weeks ago. I already knew how the series ended--everyone does, unless you were living under a rock last year--but I still watched with the hope that Carrie and Big would finally end up together.

Let me quickly admit something embarrassing: even though I've seen "The Sound of Music" a million times, during the dance at the ball I still hope the captain and the governess will eventually realize they're in love. I know, I'm a dork.

Anyway, last night I reserved some TV-and-quiet time to watch the finale, and I cried my big fat eyes out. During the show's run the girls had their individual lives and their lives together, and they were, for the most part, kept separate. But in the last few episodes there was a lot of overlapping, and it seemed so much more like real life. I loved that.

One of my favorite moments was when Miranda said to Big, "Go get our girl." It made me suddenly wistful. I missed my girlfriends. I started to reminisce to myself about my single days, when my girlfriends and I would stay up all night chatting in the dorm, or during our angst-ridden post-grad lives, when we'd talk and talk about anything and everything important to us. But my reminiscing didn't last long... our lives were really nothing like "Sex and the City." No one would ever consider writing a TV show, or a book, or even a newspaper column based on us. Yes, we're that boring. And actually, I don't think I have a problem with that.

Um, I don't know where I'm going with this. I think my original point was that:

1. The SATC finale was better than I thought it'd be
2. I cried big ol' alligator tears like a big ol' Charlotte
3. Now that the show is over I'm surprised how much I miss it
4. I can't decide if I was happier about the way their friendships grew over six years, or how each girls' story ended (a little too predictably, maybe, but happy happy happy)
   

If you've never seen "Sex and the City," let me say this: I don't recommend it for the faint of heart. Or my mom. :) It's raunchy, even filthy at times. The characters are flawed and not always likeable. But if you're still curious like I was, give it a couple seasons' chance before you give up on them.

Oh, here's my plea for comments! Which one are you?

• Carrie
• Miranda
• Samantha
• Charlotte

Discuss.

Jan. 17: New page format

Okay, I'm trying out this new blog software to see if it'll integrate well with the web site. If it's clumsy I won't continue using it, so please let me know what you think--you'll see there's a place to add comments below each entry.

Besides that, I have little to report. The ice storm is over and the city's mostly back to normal.

Jen

Jan. 15: Complaints and other nonsense

I hate technology.

My laptop's hard drive crashed last weekend. I'd been getting the BSOD so I quickly backed up most of my data, but a few VERY important files I didn't get a chance to back up are now completely inaccessible. Well, if I was willing to pay $700-$2300 to have my hard drive disassembled in a clean room then I might be able to get them. Let me tell ya, if Outlook runs your life and you haven't backed it up lately, DO IT RIGHT NOW! That's one of my new resolutions. Make it one of yours too. Have I told you lately that I do not love technology?

My friend Debi has the coolest job. Well, I don't know if the work itself is so cool, but where she gets to do it is pretty fabulous. Next month she heads off to Scotland for several weeks of "work." You just know she's going to be doing way more than that though. Sheesh. All I know is if you want a kilt or pictures of Nessie, you better tell her soon. (Insert your favorite Groundskeeper Willie quote here.)

I watched "Napoleon Dynamite" last week. I thought it was pretty dumb, although I did laugh out loud a few times. But since then, any time I've talked about it with someone else (mostly Alisa!) our guts ache from laughing. So I'm guessing it's just one of those movies that's way funnier to talk about than to actually watch.

If you've been to our house in the past six months or so you've seen how perfectly organized our office is kept. I spent most of one day this week getting all of it re-organized and--sit down for this--I CAN SEE THE FLOOR. I can also see the desktop. And I can open the closet doors on BOTH sides. I know, I know, you can't even picture it. It's a shock to me too.

Today Portland had its first real storm of the season. Two little ones in our house were awfully disappointed to wake up to sheets of ice outside instead of fluffy snow. Okay, two big people were bummed over it too... we got spoiled last winter with two pretty decent snowfalls.

I've made a few more changes to the web site. The Shop with Jen page has been updated. I combined the Fun Stuff and Time-wasters pages, removed the dead links and added some new ones. I also updated my Jen's List page and added some pics from the preschool party last week. Hey, this is my second update of 2005... I'm already doing better than I did in 2004!