Regret Is A Waste Of Time?

There are few things in life that I regret. Unfortunately this morning I did something I regret fully. I have never been visited by a Jehovah's witness. I have longed for their company pretty much my entire life. Each time I return home and find their informative brochures I kick myself for leaving the house. This morning I finally had my chance to expand my knowledge base and I blew it. I Blew IT!!
Anyone has known me for more than 5 minutes is acutely aware of my inability to function in the mornings without coffee. Well, they woke me up and as I stumbled to the door, tripping over my barking dogs and my own feet I was already irritated at having to be awake. I opened the door as far as the chain would allow and mumbled some greeting. Of course her first statement was
" Are you a bible reader?"
First of all this is a complicated question to ask me even when I am fully conscience and ready for debate. It just irritated me more since I was neither. I closed the door and before I even got back in bed I realized what I had done.The chance that I missed. I ran back to the front door and opened it in hopes I could still catch them dejected and walking away, but no. They were gone. Gone like my hopes and dreams of becoming a Solid Gold dancer.
So now I write this sad and regretful for letting the one thing that may have amused me fully slip through my fingers.
Sad.

Miha and I picked the perfect day to go canoing. A little muggy, but otherwise mild. The water was little low, so we ended up getting stuck. Which worked out fine the first time, here in the pic. We just took a break and had a snack. This jam was easy to get out of, the next one wasn't. The current picked up and we found ourselves jammed up on the rcoks. Luckily I didn't have to get out and get myself all wet, there was a nice gentlman at the bank who waded in and pushed us on. There was a part of me that was kind of irritated that he didn't just leave us alone and let us do it ourselves, but I was in no mood to spoil the mood. No need to let out my inner feminist when I can do just as well with my inner girly girl.
At any rate..it was nice.
We returned from Cedar Point last nite and I am exhausted. It rained. We didn't get there until noon and I kept getting sick after every ride. Which I only rode two. I might have gotten sick on more rides, but they were closed due to the weather.Although we did look pretty schnazzy in our matching green ponchos and Tony won a giant stuffed dog. Which almost ended up staying at Cedar Point because we took the car instead of the Suburban.
I am exhusted. Xander is too. He slept until 11 and so did I.

Days without binky........1.5

Tony caught this 22lb salmon on his fishing charter over the last couple of days. He was quite proud of himself for out-fishing the rest of the guys. 6 total salmon. Now I just need to stock up on lemon and we're all set.

My Mommy Thinks I'm Smart.

I sent my Sigma 70-300 zoom lens back to the maufacturer a few weeks ago. I was so frustrated and disappointed that I only used the lens 3 times and then it quit working. It wouldn't focus on any setting. I was bummed.
Well, to my surprise my lens was sent back to me with two notes on the invoice.
1. All functions checked and working properly.
2. Don't use macro filter.

I had left the adapter for my wide angle attachment on the lens. Why in the name of mental retardation did I do that?

I don't know.

On the plus side. Now I know why my wide angle attachment wasn't working either!

eeewwww...I'm getting old.

It is my immune system's MO to never react in a normal manner. I remember as a child and teenager coming into contact with poison ivy by sitting in it and leaning on it. My friends swore I was going to be in agony for weeks. It never happened.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology ".... About 85 percent of all people will develop an allergic reaction when adequately exposed to poison ivy. This sensitivity varies from person to person. People who reach adulthood without becoming sensitive have only a 50 percent chance of developing an allergy to poison ivy. However, only about 15 percent of people seem to be resistant."
I feel so lucky to be a part of that rare 50 percent. Lucky for me my reaction has been extremely minimal compared to the images that I have seen online. Such as this lovely gallery.
Now I am so excited for my once non-exsisitent allergies to take hold. I have already begun to be allergic to things that never bothered me before, and I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to pollen or dust or Tony or something!!?? My eyes water, my nose sneezes and runs......I am officially getting old.
Now not only is my body beginning to fail, but my failing body is the most exciting thing I have to speak of.

ok. now it not only itches but creates an odd tingly sensation when the benadryl wears off. it's bizarre. all the hairs on my arms stand up and the tingly itchyness is maddening!!!!!!

update,because i know you want to know:
A trip to the ER and a 3 day dose of prednisone is what I needed to begin the healing of my poison ivy. It began as a mild case and exploded into something so nasty as to compare with the aforementioned gallery. The prednisone helped, but by no means eliminated the itching and oozing. Today is the 12th day of this ordeal and only now is the rash showing signs of retreating. The itch is pretty much gone, but it still flares up several times a day which is heaven in comparison to how much it itched earlier. FYI, scratching is heavenly although not recommended. I managed to control myself for an entire week, but on day 8 I gave in and scratched the mother of all itches. The good news is it looks like there will be minimal scarring. A huge bonus considering it spread to pretty much my entire body except my head.

Domestic Bliss.

As most of you know we purchased a new sofa several weeks ago. It is made of leather and micro fiber. I feel the need to tell everyone that if you can possibly buy any piece of furniture that is covered in microfiber....do it. At this point I wish I was covered in microfiber. It's fabulous. So far the new sofa has gotten coffee spilled on it, strawberries, blueberries, chocolate, orange juice, pasta sauce, and plenty of baby drool and dog slobber. I cleaned up all of these substances with a damp rag and there is no trace of them. Not one tiny speck!! Even better, the dog hair comes off with a lint roller or tape. It doesn't get embedded into the fibers! I can't believe this fabric...it's otherworldly. Speaking of otherworldly household furnishings and appliances. My Oreck XL is also beyond fabulous.

My Grandmother gave this to us as a gift. I should have known it was great if she thought so much of hers that she had to give us one, but I couldn't help doubting it because of the fact that I have two dogs, a toddler and a Tony. I was pleasantly proven wrong. This vaccum is insane. I can see, thanks to the headlight, that it picks up everything! It doesn't just suck up what's directly underneath it and blow the rest around. Oh no...it gets it all. The bags are filtered so I no longer get that dog smell that my old vaccums use to reek of. No more dust, no more dog hair, not more baby socks. It's great!!!!

Lastly I will praise Olefin. Once again at the suggestion of my Grandmother I bought a rug that is treated with Olefin. I was a bit nervous to see how it would hold up under the fabulous four. It looks brand new and we bought it last Christmas. Any other rug would be nasty and stained and faded and disgusting. I took this one to the car wash when spring hit and hosed it down. I swear to you...it's good as new.
Let's recap;
Microfiber=awesome.
Oreck vaccums=uber awesome.
Olefin treated carpets=to awesome for words.


p.s
This morning Xander picked out his own clothes! And, he didn't want to put on a diaper. I think it's time for potty training!!

Unbelievable as it may seem the past weekend, our trip to Lollapalooza, went off without a hitch. We left on time..a little after 6 saturday morning. We arrived early enough that we made two trips back to the parking structure to grab what we forgot and then to leave something we should have left in the truck to begin with. It wasn't horrifically hot, nor where there hoards of people. It was just right any way you look at it.

Matt Costa was awesome as usual. As we were walking to the entrance gate I heard the bass line playing OH DEAR and I freaked out for one second until I realized they were not playing, but simply doing sound check. Then I stopped dragging Tony down the street questioning "are you sure it's only 10:45???"

I was quite impressed with the band Sybris. The lead singer's voice reminds me of Byork, but the band rocks. Wolfmother and Dresden Dolls were great. Although Tony was less than impressed and almost offended when they did a cover of a Black Sabbath song. I have no idea which one, but it must have been dear to Tony's heart. I almost missed out on Sonic Youth because I wanted to see Knarls Barkley play.....well.....some bands just shouldn't play live venues. Thankfully we made it to the other side of Grant Park in time to see a good 45 minutes of Sonic Youth.

All around good time. I almost wish we had brought Xander. There was Kidapalooza and plenty to keep him entertained, but I'm sure we would have been worn out super quick if we had decided to bring him along. I think he had more fun with Granny and Poppy. He earned a new nickname over the weekend that I thought was kinda funny. Alexander Broke-It Zervogiannis.

I still can't believe things went so smoothly. No fights. No major disasters. No lost baggage or driving around the city for HOURS looking for parking.No driving around for two more hours looking for a hotel that we've driven past 300 TIMES, but no one believes me because I'm a girl that can read Greek better than the two "greek" men that are navigating and that makes them mad so we end up staying at some crap hole hotel that doesn't even have blankets!!!!!

Oh, that's right!! I drove. AND packed our bags and reserved the hotel and the tickets. Excuse me if I'm still a little bitter.

Moving on.......We had a good trip, enjoyed the music and crashed at 10:30 like old people are suppose to do. It was good.

Battling With My Babies Pooch.

Last nite Miha, Jo and I thought it a good idea to go out in the middle of nowhere and take photos in a bunch of old barns. Ok....so it was actually my idea, but I don't remember twisting anyones arm either?
It was fun, but exhausting. I wanted to play with my camera and attempt to get some nite shots of the old silos and equipment, but we spent to much time taking goofy pictures of eachother! I learned four very important things on our little excursion;
1. Horse poop decomposes very slowly.
2. Sheet metal sounds like creepy voices when blowing in the wind..at nite.
3. Miha and Jo are such beautiful and photogenic ladies.
4. I am a fat cow who still looks like she's six months pregnant.

This fourth lesson has been particularly disturbing to me. I have always had a little "pooch". I was always kind of fond of her and even named her Natasha. We always got along well. She reminded me that I was a healthy adult female ripe for breeding and I kept her happy with lots of cake and other things I will never again admit to eating. Of course when I gained almost 80 pounds while growing Xander I expected to look like the side of a barn, but now? I've lost all of my pregnancy weight except for around 15-20..ok fine 30 lbs. I had no idea how ginormous my "baby pooch" really is. Until I saw the pictures from last nite.

GOOD GRIEF!! I can't believe Natasha would betray me like this?! We have such history together and I thought we had such a connection? Fine then, if that's the way she wants it.

It's ON!!