I don't even know what to call these posts anymore.

It seems whenever I go more than 48 hours without blogging, I end up with a mind full of non-connected "content" I'd like to write about. Those posts I usually tag as "random," and they tend to be long and sort of weird. It's become a bit of a tradition, I think. I would hate to break that tradition and disappoint my legions of loyal readers (and by "legions," I mean three).

So here goes:

When last you heard from Karla May, I was spending the first night with my tiny little house guest, Princess Apricot and preparing for a road trip to Dallas.

Princess Apricot is doing well. I still can't get over her immense cuteness. People keep saying, "Are you going to get a hamster?" My answer is consistently, "HELL no." And I mean it. I'll babysit this little thing from time to time, but I can't imagine having one around all the time. It would make me too sad. Anything that lives in a cage bums me out. I can't wait to put her in her little hamster ball and let her go nuts tomorrow when I clean her cage.

Dallas was a blast, except for the actual road trip up there. What should've been about a 3 1/2 hour drive to the north east suburbs of Dall-ass ended up taking 6.5 hours. With a toddler in the car. And my mom. First, it was first-Friday-of-Spring-Break traffic, which just meant that the number of idiots on the road was significantly increased. Second, we hit a traffic jam in lovely Temple, Texas and sat still on the highway for over an hour. Meanwhile, The Geej declares, "I've got to poo poo!" which sent me lunging from the front seat to the back of my mom's Mazda Tribute to get a pull-up. I stripped The Geej down and put her pull-up on her and said, "Okay. You can poop." Talk about a confusing message to give to your newly potty trained kiddo. Bless her heart. She didn't WANT to go in her pants, so she started crying. In the end, she did pee in her pull up, but saved the bomb for the next opportunity we had to hit a gas station bathroom. Good girl.

After we got through that flustercluck (which apparently was just caused by some construction that caused traffic to go from 3 lanes to 2), we rocked along pretty well. We'd hoped to get to my aunt and uncle's by supper time, and when it became apparent that that wasn't going to happen, we called them and told them to proceed without us. Meanwhile, we dined at a truckstop Grandy's in Waxahachie. Yep. It rocked.

We made our way through Dallas, no problem. Then, 9 miles from my aunt's house, traffic stopped again. Totally still on Central Expressway. They were routing all 4 lanes from Central AND the two lanes that were merging on to Central from George Bush Presidential Freeway on to the frontage road because of an accident that had completely shut down the highway. Once we actually passed the scene of the accident, I saw a guy who had the words "Plano Chaplain" on the back of his black jacket, and knew someone had died. The next day in the paper we discovered that a 17 year old had gotten into an arguement with his father while they were dining at a restaurant on the frontage road. He'd run out and crossed the highway, miraculously making it unscathed. When he realized he'd dropped his cellphone, and ran BACK into traffic to retrieve it, he wasn't so lucky. He was struck by two cars and killed. This happened at roughly 9pm. The highway was closed until 2am.

The next day was my friend Lisa's baby shower, at another friend of mine's (Deanne's) house in Dallas proper--an about 25 mile drive from my aunt's house in the burbs. The Geej got dressed up in a dress and came with me. We got there at exactly 11:30, and I was surprised that everyone was already there, seated and eating. We had a nice time, and left in time for Geej to go have some lunch and a good nap. It wasn't until we got home yesterday, and I saw the invitation hanging on my fridge that I realized the shower had actually started at 10:30. What an asshole I am. Showed up an hour late and didn't even apologize.

Saturday afternoon was lovely. We all walked to the neighborhood park to play. On the way, however, The Geej was running a wee bit faster than she probably should have, and she fell on her knees...then her hands...then her face. She looks like she was in a bar fight: big bruise on her forehead, bridge of the nose skinned, big bloody scab between her left nostril and upper lip (see below), back of the left hand and both knees skinned. She cried like mad for about 3 minutes and scared the hell out of me, but she dusted it off and still wanted to swing. That's my girl.

Saturday night, we had a big family meal with my mom, aunt, uncle, Geej, my cousin Stacey, her daughter Meghan, and husband Roy. My aunt is an insanely good cook, and it was just really nice to hang out together.

Sunday's trip home was much smoother than the ride up. No traffic jams. Only a little bit of rain at the end of the drive. The Geej was an angel. All in all, it was a really good time.

Last night it rained like crazy, and although we really, really needed it, it kept me up for the better part of the night. To say I'm looking forward to snoozing tonight is a big understatement.

It's spring break, and Geej's school is closed, so Dah and I are doing the childcare mambo. She had Geej today, and I get her back tomorrow (after I go to the new IKEA for the first time...YAY!!). I'm taking tomorrow and Wednesday off to Geej-tend, the Dah steps back in on Thursday and Friday. I've said it before: Thank GOD for her. I have no idea what I'd do if she weren't here to help me out.

The other big news I have is that I FINALLY got a new digital camera. I went from my shitty 3.2 megapixel dinosaur to a 10 megapixel badass of a camera. It has so many bells and whistles, I don't know if I'll ever figure out everything it's capable of. Also, I went from a 64mb memory card to a 1GB card. (Thanks, Jaye!) Dammmmmmmmmn. The whole experience has been like going from a '87 Sentra to a brand new Lexus. Hot, people. I'm going to be posting pictures and videos like mad...if I can ever figure out the video posting thingamajig.

Finally, I found out that that bastard Uncle Sam is giving a nice refund this year. Thank God. I've got so many little house projects that have been totally dependent on whether or not this refund happened.

Plus, I really want to get this: 1973 Mercedes. Cherry condition. That's right bitches--Mama's getting a convertible.