I am SUCH a lazy blogger.

Hey there, y'all. Just sitting here blogging while watching the evening news and hearing all about the Swine Flu and the rain that's supposedly coming this weekend. Oh, and Doug is making me play fetch with him. I'm about 27% more boring than usual, and for that, I apologize. There IS stuff going on in my life, but it's so utterly mundane that I dare not even torture you with a bullet-pointed list. I'm hoping that my blog muse and a modicum of interesting-ness returns soon of else I'm just going to have to start making shit up, and don't think I won't do it people...

Because I'm a dork.

Here is a photo of my kittehs enjoying their morning sunbeam.

Say it with me now people: Awwwwwwww...

And here they are tormenting our leopard gecko while she tries to chow down on a few meal worms. They are FASCINATED with her and come and watch "The Gecko Show" every time we feed her.

And here's Doug celebrating 4/20 the other day. DUDE! How totally baked is he?!

Insomnoblogging

Please note: I started this post at 5:47 a.m.

Oh, the circles under my eyes. How they darken. For about 2 weeks now, this is my nightly scenario (exept on weekends):

1. Go to bed at a decent hour (somewhere btwn. 10:45 and midnight).
2. Fall asleep immediately.
3. Sleep like a baby. Until about 3:30am.
4. Wake up to pee.
5. Stumble back to bed about half asleep.
6. Get back in bed and am, suddenly, WIDE FREAKIN' AWAKE!
7. Cats think, "Yay! Mommy's up! She must want to play and/or love on me, so I'll go walk all over her purring at an insane volume."
8. Cats get locked out of bedroom
9. Get back in bed.
10. Mind starts racing...work...work...work...work...work...money...work...family...work...
11. Notice that every muscle in my body is clenched, including my jaw.
12. Wonder, "What the HELL?! I'm tired! Relax and go back to sleep, jackass."
13. Consciously force myself to unclench muscles. Try to clear mind. Breathe deeply.
14. Works for about three minutes then...
15. Mind is at it again, body is clenched again.
16. Think, "Maybe if I roll over on my side..."
17. Do so. Makes no difference.
18. Roll on to other side. Ditto.
19. End up on back again. Eyes wide open. Staring at ceiling, clenching jaw and every other muscle in body.
20. Once again, try to forcibly clear mind and relax body.
21. Wonder, "What time is it now?"
22. Repeat steps 10 through 21 until the sun comes up.
23. Drag self out of bed exhausted and grumpy and not ready to face the day in the least.

And I've tried all sorts of herbal teas, herbal supplements and OTC sleep remedies. But they're more focused on helping one GET to sleep, not stay asleep. And it used to be that at least I could count on getting a good, solid night's sleep on my nights that I go to the gym. Not anymore.

By about 3 in the afternoon, I am yawning non-stop, my brain is jello, and I've got a raging headache. But (as all you working mom's know), there's no mental or physical break in store for me until well after the kiddos are in bed.

My life has become lather-rinse-repeat.

No wonder I feel so raw and on-edge. All day yesterday, I felt like I was on the verge of tears. Like at any moment, I might just become a sobbing snotty mess. And it's not because I'm unhappy. It's because my nerves are shot and I'M FUCKING EXHAUSTED.

Oh, and did I mention, I am utterly slammed at work? Because I am. That's one reason I've been neglecting ye olde blogge. I haven't even had time to lunch-time blog, which is really bumming me out.

So in an effort to stave off plunging into an abyss of profound sleep-deprived psychosis and depression, here's a random list of things that are making me very happy at the moment:

• The Geej is SO on the verge of reading, it's amazing. I love watching her get excited with each step she gets closer to being able to read on her own. She can also write the words: love, Dah, Mommy, and her first and last names.
• Smoked Gouda.
• The weather (although we've already hit in the 90s a couple of times, and I'm not quite ready for that).
• I've got an appointment to get my hairs did this weekend.
• We got bunk beds for BH's boys, so their room is slowly starting to come together.
• Got my tax refund. WHOOT!!
• Fresh strawberries. They're like CANDY. I'm addicted.
• Some great new (at least to me) music I've downloaded recently.
• The feeling I get after a good workout at the gym.
• The YouTube video of someone tickling a slow Loris.
• The fact that when I got home on Tuesday evening after working late, BH had vacuumed the house, planted a honeysuckle vine for me, and was making dinner whilst sporting the most hilarious moustache ever. I cracked up every time I looked at him and kept saying, "Dude, you've got a MOUSTACHE!!"
• Tamari almonds from Whole Foods.
• Thinking about my friend Julie getting married next week (despite the fact that I won't be able to be there...and boy could I use some Cancun and Julie right about now...)

So you see, it's not all gloom and doom around here. It's just that I'm too tired to get very psyched about any of it.

Big cat in a little house.

Doug is getting big. But he still likes to cram himself into small bags, boxes, or whatever happens to be lying around. It's all fair game. Take this little "Old MacDonald's Farm" barn thingie (which officially belongs to The Geej).

He started out like this:

And then it morphed into this:

And the whole thing sort of reminds me of this:

The Wisdom of The Geej (a.k.a. Things that make you go hmmm...)

"Mommy. Do you know what mashed potatoes are made of? Carrots!!"

"I don't want to fall off the playscape because I'll get my face all scrumpled up."

"Maximus is going to visit his grandfather in a place that's near Italy, in Italy."

"H-U-N-T-S. That spells ketchup. Did you know I could read?"

"I'm allergic to rice." [Me: No you're not. You just don't LIKE rice.] "That's right. I'm allergic."

"Miss Kim says we can take a field trip to San Antonio if all of us can 'just get it together.' I hope I can get it together!!"

"When you and Dah came to Russia to get me in the baby store, were there other babies there?"

It's not a "lava lamp," it's a "volcano light."

So sayeth The Geej.

Random. Bullet-pointed. Done while eating lunch at my desk. Yadda Yadda.

• Went to see Jerry Seinfeld do stand-up with Blake and my mom on Friday night. Mom bought us the tickets, and I was like, "Um...okay." But actually? We had a good time, and Mr. Seinfeld was very funny.
• The show was at the remodeled Bass Concert Hall on the U.T. campus. I wasn't really all that impressed by the remodel.
• Saturday, Mom, The Geej and I drove up to Dallas (Allen, actually) to visit family for the weekend. My aunt and uncle (who Geej calls "Nanny and Papa") live there, and they had all four of their kids (my cousins) in town with their progeny to celebrate my cousin Jeffrey's son's second birthday. You still with me?
• We stayed at a nearby hotel, which the Geej thought was just too cool. I love that 4 yr. olds can be so impressed with a Hilton Garden Inn.
• Hung out with the family Saturday afternoon and evening, and that included a dip in the (heated) pool for the kiddos.
• It was my first time to meet my cousins' sons because one of them lives in New Jersey, and the other in Geneva, Switzerland.
• The babies--Lucas, 2 and Joshua, 6 mos.--were ADORABLE.
• Geej thought she'd died and gone to heaven b/c she got to help feed, bathe, dress, and put down the babies. REAL LIVE BABIES!!
• Sunday was the actual birthday party at Nanny and Papa's.
• Holy HELL, it was windy. And had dropped about 40 degrees.
• Had to make an emergency trip to Target to get sweaters, long-sleeved shirts and the like.
• After the main festivities, Geej and I snuck away to go visit my friend Lisa and her cutie-pie Henry who is almost 2 yrs. old.
• This time, Geej got to push Henry in the stroller. Once again, she was in heaven.
• OMG y'all, I'm going to be a grandmother WAY before I want to be.
• We stayed in Dallas Sunday night as well.
• Drove back on Monday after introducing The Geej to the wonders of IHOP.

• Back at work yesterday playing catch-up.
• Had an extra-long, extra good workout last night (after being away from the gym for way too long).
• Currently eating some DIVINE fresh strawberries whilst blogging.

Here are some photos I've been meaning to share with you:

Joshua and his dad (my cousin), Chris. Yes, I nibbled on his rolls. Repeatedly. (The baby's, not Chris's. What kind of a family do you think we are?!)

The Geej "helping" Joshua go down for his nap. Apparently she felt it was necessary to crawl all the way into the port-a-crib with him.

The Geej with Barry Manilow. Yeah, I know. WTF?

Jaye and I went to eat at Hoover's a week or so ago, and got seated near this table of 7 cowboys (6 of whom were wearing hats) from Vernon, Texas. How do I know they were from Vernon? Well, it said so on their shirts!! I mean, I'm a native Texan, and even I'm sort of astounded by this scene.

The Geej confusing the kitties (and me) by hanging out in the dirty laundry hamper.

Frito Pile!! (It's what you call "Frito Pie" when you don't have the little bags of Fritos to split along the side and serve it in.)

Why No Lunch Bloggee?

Y'all it's been a helluva week so far, and it's only freakin' Wednesday. I've had to more-or-less work through lunch so I've had zero time to sneak in more than a wisp of a lunchtime blog entry. Tomorrow promises more of the same.

So some quick reverse updates (most recent to least), bullet-point style before I begin to snooze:

• Had a great workout tonight: treadmill, rowing machine and front press.
• Learned a lot about tea today at work.
• Went to the dentist this morning for a checkup and discovered that I need a crown on one of my molars. A very expensive crown. Yay.
• Took BH out to dinner and to see Neko Case last night at Stubb's as a belated b-day present.
• Show was good, weather was perfect. My shoes hurt so badly, that on our way home I left one on Red River and left another one near the intersection of Brodie and Wm. Cannon. So THAT'S how those random shoes end up on the side of the road!!
• Ate dinner before the show at the recently relocated El Sol y La Luna. Don't recommend it.
• Had a very tweaked-out and stressful day at work, punctuated by all sorts of odd goings on.
• Like the COMPLETELY fucked up young man with his 10-speed on his shoulder who came up and started banging on my car window, yelling at me and flipping me off at the intersection of 6th/Lamar during evening rush hour (until one of those "I'm biking from Texas to Alaska to fight cancer!" fundraising dudes intervened. I gave the intervener $2 for his cause, and for his chivalry.
• And the tall redheaded young man who was practicing his Swiss goatherd-style yodeling in parking garage at my work at the top of his lungs (the garage has great acoustics, dontcha know).
• And the fact that the whole day got started off on the wrong foot when The Geej had a meltdown getting into the car to go to school (which she never EVER does) and then another one when we got to school (which she almost never does).
• Had a really good workout Monday night after being away from the gym for a week (due to scheduling difficulties). I was surprised how much I missed my workouts! You have NO idea how un-like me that is.
• I worked at home on Monday and got a lot accomplished. I'd like to do that once a week or at least a couple of regular times a month, but my boss, he isn't a fan, so I don't want to push it.
• Blake's boys were here for four days. It was fun having them here, but it only emphasized to me how much we could use a bigger house. At least one additional bedroom and living area.

So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. I mean, of course, there's more--and pictures--but I've got no brain cells left this evening. Hopefully I'll be back to some more regular blogging soon.