Wanted:

Two unpatriotic women from the Toronto area who would like to join me and 42 other women on a bus trip to Buffalo. We leave this Friday at 5 pm and will not return until late Sunday evening. The cost is $140 for hotel and transportation, and we are bunking 4 to a room. There are two spots left, so if you are not a psychopathic killer who will rip our hearts out and eat them just for pleasure, let me know if you are interested.

Great Moments in Parenting...

It is not ideal when your three year old walks into the room with her nightie hiked up to her chest, explaining that you shouldn't worry about all the poo on the floor as she has been wiping it up and will continue to do so while you are nursing the baby.

Cleaning the Coop

The good news is that Pumpkin's school is cleaner than most of your homes. The bad news is that I know this from being part of the cleaning crew. Pumpkin's school is a co-op, and for many co-oppers, this means that you have to pull off a duty day every once in a while. I wish that was what I had to do. Yesterday was the third of three major clean-ups for the school, and everyone has to participate in one of them. I also had to endure a few individual cleaning days over the course of the year, as everyone has had to, but none quite as thorough as the major clean. They made us clean EVERYTHING. I'm not just talking about table tops and toys. We pulled everything out of the school onto the lawn, cleaned and disinfected all of it, while others cleaned and disinfected every interior surface imaginable. We even had to clean the mail-slot-style cubbies where we pick up our children's art work every day. I have many spots in my house where I stuff mail, flyers, etc., and I can honestly say that I've never thought to wash and disinfect any one of them. I'm just proud of myself if I ever get around to sorting all that crap. As for my job at the school, I was thrown into the basement to sort out the toys, tossing out the useless ones, and cleaning up the keepers. Because it is a co-op, there have been a lot of crappy toy donations over the years, which left me with a lot of junk to sort through. The two dads who worked along with me left me to decide what got tossed. My husband would have avoided that task too. Is it a guy thing? Hubby hates making small decisions and freezes when faced with annoying tasks like this. Even last night when I was feeling ill with cold and flu symptoms, I asked him to go out and bring home whatever for dinner, and he still couldn't do it without calling home to get me to be more specific. What I wanted was to be exempt from having to make a decision. He didn't get that. At least I didn't have to cook.

As for the drag of the co-op factor, whatamIgonnado? It's a great school, and I will probably be sending Pumpkin there again next year on the days when she isn't in JK. Maybe I should take a cue from some of the other mothers and send in a substitute me on the cleaning days. Anyone looking to make a buck?

Free Write

If I had followed the path of my "old" life, Pumpkin would be hunting for chocolate eggs right now instead of watching Disney movies. I'm not talking about a change in religions - I've always been Jewish, although it wasn't exactly prevalent in my earlier years. I grew up in a more or less Godless fashion, and I kinda liked it. My mom converted when she married my dad, but she kept the commercial Christian holidays alive, so we feasted on crappy, hollow, chocolate Easter treats. I've got the Jewish facade thing going on now seeing as I married someone whose family sorta does Judaism properly, thus no Easter Bunny. I did promise Pumpkin that I'd buy her Hungry Hungry Hippos for Passover, although I'm running out of time on that one. Maybe I'll build up some hype for that treat for the last of the eight day holiday. We're not actually keeping Passover, so it'll seem outta the blue for her, but whatever. I guess I'm feeling Easter egg hunt envy for everyone who updated facebook today with details of hidden eggs and excited children. We did have our two Seder meals, but the buck stops there for us. I'm not bunging myself up with matzoh for eight days, not at least until a time when my daughters start Hebrew school and need me to walk the walk with them. Hypocrite much? I am what I am. Actually, there was a time when I talked about converting to Christianity. I was 13 and going out with a guy from my friend's church's youth group. I mentioned to my mom, quite flippantly, that I might convert for him. I don't remember my mom's reaction, but she called my dad to let him know, and I recall him being upset about this and having a word with me. Dudes, when a 13 year old makes a statement like this, clearly without knowing what's involved, let it go! It will pass! Will I be able to recognize the circumstances that do not require intervention? Like the time when I was 17 and my boyfriend at the time explained to my mom that when he gets married, he planned to continue to live with his parents, along with the wife and kids. My mom questioned me about my willingness to do this, suggesting that I bail. As a 17 year old who had yet to even have sex, I really didn't care what this guy's plans were. Even I recognized at the time that this would not be my problem. It turned out not to be any one's problem. He has since come out of the closet and probably does not live with his parents. Incidentally, I was still a 17 year old virgin by the end of that relationship. Go figure. Oh, and then there was this trailer trashy guy who worked in a cemetery doing, uhhmmm, "landscaping". It was just one of those things, yannow? My mom freaked out on me a lot during those days. Anyhow, although I probably wouldn't like to see either of my daughters going out with a grave digger of questionable origin, I would like to hope I will be able to keep my anxiety under wraps, knowing that she'll snap out of it at the end of cottage season, or at least until the guy reveals his grand master plan of getting rich selling Amway. Nothing wrong with selling Amway. It just might be a good idea to have a plan B. My mom is probably smirking now, saying, "Just you wait....".

My Passover Culinary Expertise

Hellooooo!  Sorry I've been neglecting this space, but I've really enjoyed my break.  I think I might still be on a break, but I'm having a down-moment and I don't want to clean anymore today, and since dinner is already defrosting nicely, I figured I'd pop in.  So where were we?  Oh yeah, veterinarians and cooking.  Just for an update on Lucky, she is ok.  The growth on her foot was benign, and we pitched the lamp-shade thingy around her neck after one day when we realized that she wasn't going to rip off her bandages.  Our walls thank us for that one.  Recovery has been slow, but now with the right drugs, she should be back to her usual, looney self in no time.  Sometimes I think I deserve a degree of sorts in pharmacology with all the drugs I administer on a daily basis.  Every morning it's anti-seizure and liver-related meds to Taz; antibiotics, anti inflammatory, eye-drops, and the occasional estrogen pill for Lucky.  Every evening it's pretty much the same.  Don't I at least deserve a white coat and platform that makes me taller than everyone by a couple of inches?

I haven't put together any meals worth posting about since the Firecracker Chicken, but I have made progress in one culinary area.  If you recall my Passover post from last year, I set out to host a seder with my sister-in-law, but she ended up ordering up all the food, arranging for hired help, and taking care of getting the dining room at my FIL's house set up.  Ultimately, I did nothing.  Well this year, things are different.  This year, I took care of ordering the food!  Impressed?  Oh wait, it doesn't end there...  I'm actually going to prepare one of the dishes with my bare hands!  One whole dish!  I feel as though I've been catapulted into a whole different realm of Seder hosting, despite having 90% of the food catered.  Who knows?  Maybe next year I'll even make a second dish!  I'm outta control now!  Anyhow, if I don't make it back here to post in the next day or two, Happy Passover and/or Easter.  Lookin' forward to that Charlton Heston movie !