[Christine Nectar...]

Kittenb, love the dress, and LOVE the monkeys idea! I can only imagine what a hit they must be with your party guests!

Pixie, good luck when you go to that interview! We just got kiddo’s first report card (junior kindergarten) and all the comments were positive, but everyday the only thing she says about school is “it was boring”. So I’m very curious what the teacher will have to tell us when we go for our interview next week. It’s great that all of minipixie’s parental types are advocating for her! You’ve got to trust that you know your kid. Hopefully it will have some positive outcomes!

Kvetch: A had to pick kiddo up from daycare yesterday cause she was sick AGAIN – spent hours driving back and forth through the snow to get her to the doctor’s. it seems to be the same flu virus still. Yikes! Hoping that we will at least be able to have the family birthday celebration as planned this weekend, since all her other b-day events got quashed.

Kvetch: I’m wiped. Despite having time off at Christmas, and a couple of “recovery” days last week when I was sick, I can’t WAIT for my time off in March.

Anti-kvetch: I have 5 weeks vacation to book for next fiscal year! 4 weeks+1 carryover from time I didn’t use while on contract. Now if only I could afford to travel somewhere during those 5 weeks…but hey, I’ll take what I can get!


(((kvetchies)))

[kittenb]

Yes, polly, I crochet themed monkeys. I used to just buy gifts but the year that I made the monkeys, people really, really loved them.

I found a picture of one of the dresses I bought. I think I will wear this for my Oscar party.

I am planning on spending my day at my school's library. I seem to work better there. The class I am in right now is Abnormal Psych and it is hard. I don't know that I am working as hard as I should be so no harm in putting in some more time, you know?

Pixie - does that make things better/worse/no change?

rose - your avatar makes me happier everytime I see it.

Hi gradgal!

{{{star, bunnyb, all kvetchies!!!}}}

[pixiedust]

Well, school is cancelled again tomorrow because of road conditions, so the meetting will be postponed until next week.

[pollystyrene]

As a peace maker, I am going to suprise him with a Joker-themed Oscar monkey. I crochet monkeys and decorate them in the themes of the Best Pictures for my party. By the way, all Busties are invited to my Oscar Party on Feb 22nd. Please send me your emails and I will send you the Evite.

<record screech> Wha? You crochet monkeys? Themed monkeys? How did I not know this? I'll PM you with my email address; I probably won't be able to stay until the end of the Oscars (having to get up at 5:30am on Mondays really puts a damper on my Sunday night social life) but I'll be there! And not only for the monkeys. I promise.

Pixie, good luck with working out this craziness. Sounds like the teacher LeBoy's nephew had. I think it's much better this year now that he's not in her class.

Sorry about the headache, bunny.

[roseviolet]

Pixie, that is ridiculous!!!! I totally cannot believe that MP would separate herself from the rest of the class like that. But even if she did, the teacher should DEFINITELY have contacted you because that is NOT normal behavior. And she knows it.

Grrrrrrr. GRRRRRRR!!!

See what Stephen Colbert is doing over in my avatar there? That's the look I wanna give that teacher.

[stargazer]

LMAO! I think I have that covered, Bunny!
The catalyst to this meeting was Mr. Dust taking her to school last week and finding out that her desk had been moved completely away from all the other kids facing a wall. And we never got any notification from the teacher that she had even gotten in trouble! Now the teacher is claiming Mini p CHOSE to sit there. .

pixie, oh, this part upset me SO much. using shame and humiliation is really going to motivate a child in the classroom setting. poor minipixie. we are rooting for some justice in this situation. i'll kick some ass for you if need be.


*~*~*vibes for minipixie*~*~*

*~*~*money vibes for bunnyb*~*~*

gradgal, thanks so much. any progress you make is progress. i've learned that writing and completing a dissertation takes alot of self discipline. good luck with your work!

(((kvetchies)))

[gradgal]

Pixie, what a difficult situation to be in with your daughter's school! This situation sounds as though it is being fueled by a quite inflexible teacher. Hopefully the psychologist who does the school's testing for giftedness will be able to be objective and give at least equal weighting to both your opinion and that of your daughter's teacher. In fact, an observational assessment almost sounds ideal so that an outside set of eyes can come in to see how the teacher and classroom is working/not working for your daughter. That might give you the ammo to get a classroom change. Unfortunately, admittance to gifted programs, at least here in Canada, seems only to be about test scores rather than anything else (i.e. did you meet the criteria or not). I'm hoping that all goes well for your sake and the sake of your daughter.

Bunnyb, I too wish that my partner and myself had more people to play these fun games with. I played Guitar Hero at a friend's house on one occasion and it was so much fun. I loved it! That being said, I think that I have a slightly addictive personality and it probably wouldn't be that good if I had a videogame system in the house. Everything else in my life might go to hell!

Star, congrats on almost being done with your dissertation! Definitely an achievement to be commended and celebrated. I have been working on my dissertation for a while now as well but still have about 7 months left. I try not to think about it that way and break it down into short tasks though, taking it one day at a time. Stories like yours of actually finishing this darn stuff inspire me to keep going.

Hi to all other busties (((everyone)))

[pixiedust]

LMAO! I think I have that covered, Bunny!

Rose- The testing for gifted classes isn't until sometime this spring. I am afraid this teachers vendetta may keep Mini p from being accepted into the program. It really does seem to me that she's bored and therefore easily distracted. The teacher claims she "isn't getting" the curriculum, but as soon as she gets home, she sits right down and does it without help. The catalyst to this meeting was Mr. Dust taking her to school last week and finding out that her desk had been moved completely away from all the other kids facing a wall. And we never got any notification from the teacher that she had even gotten in trouble! Now the teacher is claiming Mini p CHOSE to sit there. Yeah right! I'm not buying that. Neither is Mr. Dust.
And yes the show is the one I have been involved with before. There are already issues with your former boss and the fact that it isn't actually written yet..and lets see it's only like 6 or 7 weeks away. Umm..yeah, I may have to back away slowly. I was asked to come back, but I am not lending my name to a huge flop.

Kvetch: we are uncertain as if there will even be school tomorrow and the meeting with the teacher/principal. Mr. pixie has to miss his first class in order to go, so we don't know if he needs to go get busy work ready for his students or not.

antikvetch: we never lost power this time, and the roads aren't really all that bad if you drive reasonably. But our city doesn't clear neighborhood streets and all our schools are in neighborhoods.

[bunnyb]

hee, rose, I was using "headache" figuratively - as in the fact that I can't get my pill here (as my own doctor won't write a repeat prescription) is causing me a headache.

Thanks for the Rock Band / Guitar Hero rundown. It's the World Tour edition the family have and they love it. From what I understand, Guitar Hero is the one that is huge here with people having Guitar Hero parties and nights at pubs and stuff. Either way, I wish I could play and/or have friends to play with!

Thanks too for the money vibes - dollars, pounds, yen, I don't care, as long as it's money!

break a leg, pixie! (ooh, is that in really bad taste? I meant for the play!)

[roseviolet]

Kitten, those dresses sound fabulous! So does your Oscar party. I wish I was in your area so I could go.

Pixie, I forgot to comment on the show. I take it this is with the same group you've worked with in the past, right? It'll be interesting to see what that Ex is up to. Did he ever manage to finally tell his mother that he's been divorced for a decade?
~!*!~!*!~ fabulous performance vibes for Pixie ~!*!~!*!~

DM, I don't know anybody who has a Zune. I thought that problem was supposed to be fixed! What a pain!

~$~$~$~ money vibes for Bunny ~$~$~$~
Pardon me for not using the pound symbol, but I'm don't know the key combination for it on an American keyboard. Bah! Sorry to hear about your headaches. Has this been a problem for you in the past?
Here's a basic rundown on the game options.
Rock Band: up to 4 people can play at a time - drums, guitar, bass, & singing. Here in the states, the box set comes with a guitar, drum set, & microphone (you can buy a bass separately). I imagine it's the same there.
Guitar Hero: uses just the guitar
Guitar Hero World Tour: this is very similar to Rock Band - just made by the same company that makes Guitar Hero. I checked out the box & it seems to even have a lot of the same songs as Rock Band. I haven't played it so I don't know if it's better or worse than Rock Band, but Sheff says that according to sales numbers, Rock Band has sold twice as well as Guitar Hero World Tour.

Polly, I haven't seen any Liz Phair songs yet. They're still releasing new songs for the game, though, so there's still hope!

Speaking of video games, things seem to be going okay at Sheff's office. He doesn't seem to have any bugs left in his code, so he's just spending his day helping other people. As a bonus, he's gotten home at a pretty normal hour every night lately! Woo! The only irritating thing right now is that they're waiting to get the final nod from Microsoft & Sony on the latest build of the game (the game we be available for XBox 360 and PS3). The game is supposed to hit the shelves the first week of March, so here's n
hoping the final approval comes within a week.

[bunnyb]

I want to go to an Oscar party - waaaaah! it sounds like so much fun, kitten.

I need to catch up with the Oscar contenders though; we're quite behind.

Congrats to LeBoy! It must be great to be in print... I started to write something new at the weekend but I'm not sure if it will go anywhere.

So, is there much of a difference between Guitar Hero and Rock Band (I take it the latter uses more instruments/controllers?) I want Guitar Hero for the boy's xbox but the boy doesn't do jumping around/looking stupid (his words). My family have a wii and bunnymama bought Guitar Hero for my step-dad for Christmas; I was really looking forward to spending Christmas Day playing it but when he unwrapped it, the game wasn't in the box! Silly store. They have it now but I was already back in London by that time .

Could I ask for some job/money vibes please? We're really struggling just now and the boy is very stressed/pressured supporting us both.

I also have a birth control headache. My doctor at home (who I really like) won't provide me with a prescription for my pill without checking my blood pressure so I need to go find a doctor in this city and probably won't get that done in time so I'll be going cold turkey for a while.

(((mandi))) and (((yuefie))) and their recovery.

((((everybody))))

[kittenb]

Congrats on the good news polly and leboy!

Star - I was pretty happy with the nominations. We saw The Wrestler this weekend and the movie has really stayed with me, although the Defamer gossip that Micky Rourke and Evan Rachel Wood are hooking up has me a little skeeved out (she plays his daughter!!!). The only down side about the noms is that now the boy and I are locked into a no solution fight about whether or not The Dark Knight should have nominated. I didn't like that movie. He loved it. As a peace maker, I am going to suprise him with a Joker-themed Oscar monkey. I crochet monkeys and decorate them in the themes of the Best Pictures for my party. By the way, all Busties are invited to my Oscar Party on Feb 22nd. Please send me your emails and I will send you the Evite.

I bought a little happy for myself yesterday. I attended an Interview Skills for Interns thing and I left disheartened and worried. So I went looking for an interview outfit. Didn't find one. Instead, I got two clearence rack dresses at Anne Taylors. One is a purple dress that looks like Joan from Mad Men would wear it. It has elbow length sleeves with a small ruffle at the elbow. It goes straight to the knee with a wide round neck. I figure, I have the "Joan" body (minus about 5" of hight) so I might as well rock the fashions. The other dress is an orange frilly sun dress that shows a lot of skin but will be perfect for really hot days. The purple dress was $10!!! The orange was $15. Anne Taylor does some great clearence. The I went to Lane Bryant and got some novelty undies, including the ones I am wearing that have conversation candy hearts on them. I felt much better after the shopping.

Have a great day everyone!

[pollystyrene]

Oh, I forgot! There is some news! LeBoy got another story published! A short story in some literary magazine called Candlelight. Don't know anything about it, but he only recently submitted it and they usually don't get back to you very quickly. Woohoo!

[designermedusa]

((polly and leboy)) Good luck on the wedding stuff. We did a small wedding (when I say small I mean 7 people) because there was no way I could handle all the financial stresses of a big wedding.

((star)) Yay for almost being done with your dissertation, boo to internship stress.

rose, I’m sure Mr. DM and I would get obsessed with Rock Band if we were to buy it.

Happy birthday to Christine’s kiddo.

kittenb, I saw King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters, I thought it was really funny. The one guy who was the reigning champion was a bit delusional though.

((pixie)) Good luck on the show, and the meeting with mini-pixie’s school.

((ccgirl)) Hope the cramps went away.

sassy, yay for being in a promotional video.

((amilita’s mr and his father))

bunnyb, hope the boy had a nice birthday.

((yuefie and ziggy))

((mando))

Not much going on with me. Does anyone have a Zune? A few weeks ago there was a big issue with the Zunes because of leap year. Well Mr. DM’s Zune stopped working 2 weeks ago, and he is waiting for Microsoft to fix it. Today Twin DM’s Zune stopped charging. So far mine still works, but we all have the 30 gig model which I think it discontinued, so I wonder if all of them have a problem. We’ve only had the Zunes for a little over a year, so they should still be working fine.

[pollystyrene]

Prophecy has Rock Band, and when LeBoy and I get together with them and some other friends, we play it sometimes. I have not participated yet (it's enough fun watching them), though yesterday I did ask LeBoy if he knew if there were any Liz Phair songs on it (Exile in Guyville, not that sellout crap she's trying to pass off as music lately) because I'd get up and sing that. I'll have to get some Magner's first, though!

oops, didn't mean to hit "post" so soon.

Happy Birthday to the nectarinelette!

~*~*~*vibes for the pixies~*~*~*

LeBoy talked to his mom last night about getting together to talk about the wedding stuff. We've been thinking about getting married at their house, but from their conversation last night, it sounds like his mom is having second thoughts, just because of the logistics involved. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it will give us a little more freedom (his parents live waaaay out from the city and I was looking forward to having some pictures taken in the city. Also, LeSIL reminded me that if we have it at their house, LeMIL will never let me forget what they did for us. Ugh.) On the other hand, we were probably going to save a crap load of money! Now we need to look for something that's cheap, nice, good location, will let us bring our own food and alcohol. Yikes.

He also made sure they were aware that my parents will not be able to contribute any significant amount of money. Time, talent and efforts, yes, but not much in the way of finances. I did not want to sit down with them to talk about stuff and have that moment of, "so, how much are your parents chipping in?"

Not much else going on. LeBoy has Friday off, so we're trying to think of something fun to do.

(((hugs to all)))

[stargazer]

*~*~*vibes for mini pixie & pixie family*~*~*

(((pixie))) good for you for being an advocate for your child. let us know how things turn out.

(((Christine))) i'm glad you are feeling better.

(((kittenb))) knowing you are into all things Oscar, what did you think of the nominees?

antikvetch: dissertation will be done at the end of this week.

kvetch: been kinda tense since saturday which has manifested in lovely knots on my shoulder. it is slowly going away though. i think it is related to worries about internship since i am going through this AGAIN. *shakes head*

antikvetch: OH! i almost forgot to thanks for the money vibes in the past. dummy me forgot that i got another disbursement of aid money this semester. thanks! i paid off my credit card. yippee! such a relief.

(((kvetchies)))

[roseviolet]

Happy 5th birthday to Christine's kiddo!!! Glad to hear you're all feeling better.

((((((((((((( more love than I can possibly express to MiniPixie ))))))))))))))))))))))
Sorry to hear you're having problems with her teacher. Do you think MiniPixie is bored in class? Or is she just chatty or what? Is there any way she can be tested as gifted or is she too young for that? MiniPixie has always been so smart. I wouldn't be surprised if she were more focused in an environment that challenged her a bit more.

Kitten, just make sure the boy gets Rock Band 2. There are some glitches in the first version of the game that makes it very user un-friendly. Glad you liked Doctor Who! I'm a bit worried about what's going to happen to the show now. I hope it continues to be fun!

I saw on the news that all the ice & snow is going to be pushed just north of us, so we're just getting rain right now. Is it weird that I feel disappointed?

[Christine Nectar...]

Thank you to those who sent healthy vibes, they seem to have helped! We’re all mostly recovered.

Kiddo is 5 today! I can’t believe it! Extra exclamation points!!!!! I baked mini-cupcakes last night (delicious, btw) to send with her to daycare, and we’re taking her to the Old Spaghetti Factory tonight.

Hope you enjoy your new furbaby Amilita! I’d love to see that pic.
Pixie, you’ll have to let us know how the show goes. and i too, am always on the lookout for friends i can use for their rockbandness!
Sassy, I also like the dress.

I’m feeling so upbeat today, and crossing my fingers that I will be able to get out of work early.

Love to all the kvetchies!

[kittenb]

Rock Band really is the gateway drug for non-gamers. So I suppose that Roseviolet should change her name to Dr. Feelgood? This week, The Geek bought himself a 32 or 36" high def TV. He bought a Play Station 2 months ago but has left it at my house as he is afraid it will kill his motivation to do anything but play PS2 if he had it at his home. I am pretty sure that now that he has the big fancy TV, he will be getting Rock Band soon. Well, I hope he will. I love that game.

{{{pixie and minipixie}}}

{{{candycane_girl}}} I hope you are feeling better today. My period hit on the same day I got a cold. The perfect storm of feeling icky.

Great dress sassy!

Congrats on the new puppy amalita!

I am doing pretty good today. I've a had a cold for days so I took a sick day yesterday but I feel ready to rejoin life now. I watched the rest of Doctor Who w/Donna OMG Roseviolet! I cried so hard at the end. I understand why he had to wipe Donna's memory but it was so sad. And then I watched King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters. Has anyone else seen that? I think what most suprised me was how supportive the wife was in this obsession.

BTW, my governor is loosing his mind, I think.

[pixiedust]

Hi...my name is Pixie. I'm a RockBand pusher! LMAO

It is addicting though! We've had a lot of people come over and play it since New Years. We used to rarely have company come over. Mr. Pixie has even started downloading new songs now that it is finally available for the wii.

Anti kvetch: I'm going to be in a show for the first time in like 4 years

kvetch: an ex is directing the show and it has a big potential flop in it's current state

antikvetch: I got to leave at 1 today, and i don't have to work at all tomorrow...but Kvetch: we are in teh middle of yet another major ice storm. You should have heard the news this morning, they were practically claiming the apocalypse was coming!

If anyone has any spare vibes me and minipixie can sure use them. We are have sever issues with her teacher who seems to really dislike her and is determined to convince me that she needs to be on ridalyn...don't even get me started....so Me, Mr. Pixie, Mr. Dust, and the new Mrs. Dust have an appointment Thursday morning with the teacher and the Asst Principal. It's the first time since way before teh divorce that Mr. Dust and I are in complete and total agreement on anything. I swear for a while I thought hell had actually frozen over! But anyway, I'm hoping we can convince the administration to switch classes because I have totally lost faith in this teacher.

Congrats on the new addition Amilita! I saw her pic on crackbook...such a cutie!

((kvetchies))