Miscellaneous

In the exciting world of Menagerie-land, here's what's going on:

• I took Friday off, then worked the weekend - bright and sunny topics: restraining orders and sex abuse.  Sex and death, death and sex.  Gotta love human nature...or not.
• Peach is getting very impatient with her limited mobility, and is learning to pull up. She can't crawl yet -- she still rocks, but sometimes moves a hand up -- but rolls around and scoots (backwards).  She still prefers standing up, although she's a long, long way from having the balance to stand unsupported.
• It's nice to have her (mostly) well - back to being a very sweet, sunny kid.  Although by 'mostly' I mean "she's well but we're fighting atopic dermatitis (OK, eczema) on her cheeks and a persistent runny nose." But she's cheerful and all the lotion applications have made my hands nice and soft.
• Trick of the day: a Cheerio started to go down the wrong way, and when I went up to pat her on the back (which I know is not the right response, but it was my lizard brain reacting), she spewed partially digested "Chicken with Apples" on my arm.  But it smelled appley, so all was not lost. 
• I have gone from "minimally qualified" to "among the best qualified" to "scheduled for a job interview" at the federal agency I've applied to.  Fingers crossed!!!
• The great de-clutter of the house continues.  I took a big step and weeded out a bunch of refrigerator magnets and moved all of the rest to the side of the refrigerator, leaving the front completely clear.  This sounds goofy, I know, but it was a huge step for me.  For years, every gift within the family came with magnets - it was just what we did.   Seriously - weeding out the closet?  Easy.  Weeding out magnets?  Surprisingly hard, even though they're just visual chaos - who sees them after the first few times?  I don't.  Anyway, the stark refrigerator was very hard for Matthew to get used to - he's still a bit wary of it.  I also got most of the appliances off my counter, which has made cooking vastly more enjoyable! I have lots of counter space, and it's nice to finally get to use it.
• The rest of the house is coming along nicely, although my plan to weed down to only two bookcases is stalled at four big bookcases and two small ones.  And to think this is significantly down from before!  I keep saying, "But I might need it for reference someday...."  I am trying to remember that just because they aren't on my shelf doesn't mean I can't, say, get them at the library. 
• We are trying to pay more attention to Norris, who has been woefully neglected in the past months.  I have gone so far as to schedule an Outlook (well, Entourage) item in my calendar to remind me to get on the floor and play with him at least once a day.  Yes, I feel guilty.
• I started a blog for Peach posts only (I think you can probably guess which one it is in the blogroll).  It's on our own server, and I'm using Wordpress.  I will probably end up moving this blog to our own server, too, once we get the DNS issues sorted out. 
• My natural bedtime has shifted from 12 AM to 9:30 PM, so that means I'm already an hour past my bedtime.  G'night.