I had to. February 22, 2007 ~ 12:06 am
Posted by Julie in : Coupledom, Rick, The Girls , comments closedMost days I would swear to you that I am dating one of the best looking men on the planet. Other days, I try to take a nice photo of him and he does this:
The normal looking guy on the left is his brother Jeffrey.
Interestingly enough, Rick’s brother Bill made the same face while he was concentrating on the father-daughter dance, a mambo:
If it weren’t for Jeffrey, I would swear it runs in the family.
Occasionally Rick can have a picture taken where he doesn’t look like a spazz:
(That would be the Youngest on his lap. There was a doozy of her making a horrible face, but the lighting was crap, so it didn’t turn out.)
The Oldest also poses. This is what I call her “I am a serious person pondering ideas far beyond the scope of your tiny mind” pose:
I did manage to take one pretty damn good picture of all the girl cousins, though. The one on the left is Rick’s sister Becky’s daughter, then the Oldest, then the bride (Bill’s daughter), then the Youngest.
Alas, there were no photos taken of me. That’s the good thing about being the one with the camera in your hands.
Stumped December 14, 2006 ~ 4:50 pm
Posted by Julie in : The Girls , comments closedI’m stumped on what to get the Youngest this year. She’s 11, which is a little too old for kid toys, but not quite old enough for teenage stuff. She’s doubly difficult to buy for because she’s got everything a kid could want (literally). She’s athletic but also a tad girly. Books are out because I’ve bought many many many of them over the years, but I don’t know how many she actually reads. For this impossible to buy for kid, I turn to the internet for help. What would you get an 11 year old like this?
Christmas Texting December 13, 2006 ~ 12:44 pm
Posted by Julie in : Rick, The Girls , comments closedThe Oldest and I are getting a joint gift for Rick this year…well, actually more of a tag-team gift. I text messaged her the other night to tell her that I had picked up my part of it, and she texted me back that she was looking for her part of it at that exact moment. Then we had the following exchange:
Julie: I can’t wait to see his face when he opens our presents!
Oldest: Oh, god. there is no comparison to his facial expression the time we got him a cat for his birthday.
[Sidenote: I had heard this story before. Shortly after Rick and his Ex divorced, the kids (read, the Ex, since the kids were little) gave him a cat for his birthday. Since Rick didn't want a cat, and in fact had absolutely no desire to ever own a cat, the cat lasted precisely one week before it was shipped back to wherever the hell it came from. Lesson learned: don't buy Rick a pet. Back to the conversation.]
Julie: No, see, he will be HAPPY to open these gifts!
Oldest: R u kidding?! he didn’t know the meaning of happiness until he saw that cat.
Julie: Riiiiiight.
Good thing we’re only getting him fish for Christmas. 
(And if I have told you what I’m really getting Rick for Christmas, do not mention it here or I will bust a can of Yule Whoopass on your ass - he reads this, ya know.)
Bilateral Cock-up Splints November 27, 2006 ~ 1:11 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Assorted Ailments, Rick, The Girls, Urban Family , comments closedThat is my new favorite term, and it also happens to be what Dr. Edbert prescribed for my (wait for it) carpal tunnel syndrome. We caught the CTS very early, and Dr. Edbert thinks that wearing the splints every night for two months will get rid of it. Pity the cat and Rick, as I toss and turn a lot and at least one of them is going to get creamed by a splint during that two months. As it turned out, I didn’t have to have the much-feared EMG. Instead, Dr. Edbert hooked me up to some electrodes and then took a taser-like thing to my arm to measure how long it took the nerves to fire (it’s actually called an NCS). I now feel remarkably like the time I electrocuted myself trying to get a broken bulb out of a lamp with a potato, and this makes me very glad I took three Advil before I went to see the doctor.
Highlights from this weekend:
Seeing Lori lick Maxwell Caulfield’s head.
Meeting Rick’s Ex’s family. They were surprisingly nice and are Steeler fans. I am now their Terrible Towel hook-up.
Watching Rick teach Thabs backgammon, and then watching Thabs kick Rick’s ass at it. Apparently this did not happen (see comments). My perspective was understandably skewed, as I was watching the game from the kitchen, where I was helping to make the meal.
Seeing my knitwear on national television: the Youngest and her devil hat were on camera very briefly at the beginning of the Macy’s Parade.
Bowling with the kids Friday night. It was the Youngest’s first time without gutter guards, and she and her sister both did very well.
Learning that the Oldest has seen Rocky Horror. Which led to several choruses of “Sweet Transvestite.”
Playing air hockey for the first time in years. And even with carpal tunnel? I’m still pretty damned good at it.
Hope all of your Thanksgivings were just as good. Even if they didn’t involve cock-up splints.
cheer up, emo kid September 19, 2006 ~ 3:40 pm
Posted by Julie in : The Girls , comments closedRick and the girls have been playing around with Garage Band on his computer, composing songs. Some are good, some are bad, and most are vaguely reminiscent of a really early version of Moby’s “Play” album, with the same sounds looped over and over and over and over again ad nauseum.
They were playing some of the songs for me this weekend when I was over, and the Oldest’s song suprised me. Unlike her father and younger sister’s songs, it was not all about the rhythm section and sounded pretty ballad like. In the beginning. And then in the middle it started to go in a distinct electronic/metal direction. I told her that the change-up was really unexpected.
And then she reminded me that she’s 14 by saying:Â “That’s because I’m emo.”
As emo as you can be if your favorite musician is Jamie Cullum, at least.
Twisted August 21, 2006 ~ 4:42 pm
Posted by Julie in : Rick, Shorty, The Girls , comments closedApparently, the Youngest learned how to do this at circus camp. Her father told me this last week, and in a colossal case of “Julie has no internal censors to tell her when to shut up,” we had the following conversation:
Julie: Wow, she’s going to make some man very happy someday.
Rick: Yeah, she makes me laugh.
Julie: That’s not what I meant. I meant in the way you’re happy that I’m flexible.
silence
Julie: This is not the sort of conversation I should be having with her father, is it?
Hello, Pot? This is Kettle… March 22, 2006 ~ 10:58 pm
Posted by Julie in : Coupledom, Rick, The Girls , comments closed
Sleepy Joey
Rick and I got into a wrestling match on Sunday. We do this occasionally because I am much smaller than him but have to prove that I could take him down if I wanted to. (We will ignore the fact that he outweighs me, is much stronger than me, and generally pins me down like a fly in about three minutes. It would probably be less than one minute if I would just give up, but I can’t do that.) It doesn’t lead to sex, it generally only leads to pain and Indian Rope Burns.
So anyway, we were wrestling during the March Madness viewing, and the girls were downstairs watching TV. For a brief second I was successfully holding Rick off by pulling his thumbs backwards and was imitating him in my most annoying whiny voice: “Stop that! Stop it!” Of course I couldn’t let it go at that, so I kept on: “Aw, poor little boy! Do you want me to call the waaaahmbulance for you? Would you like some french cries with your waaaaahmburger?” He had just broken free of the thumb-lock and was proceeding to kick my ass when the Oldest’s voice floated up the stairs:
“You guys are so immature!”
Psychic Hotline March 20, 2006 ~ 10:40 am
Posted by Julie in : Rick, The Girls , comments closedYesterday Rick took the girls and I out for brunch, and for some reason we got on the subject of psychics. The girls were telling me about the psychic their mother had seen and what the psychic said about them, and I told them that I had seen two psychics shortly before I started dating their father. They of course wanted to know what the psychics said.
“They said I was going to meet the man I was supposed to be with through work.” Two weeks after visits with said psychics, I cast Rick in a reading. What else did the psychics say, the girls wanted to know.
“They said that he and I would have three kids.” The Oldest and the Youngest looked at each other, and I could see the wheels turning. The Youngest burst out with it first.
“Yay! I want a baby brother!”
Meals are never boring with us.
Spring break March 17, 2006 ~ 10:17 am
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness, Random Insanity, The Girls , comments closed
Off the Bow Bridge ~ Central Park
The girls start spring break this afternoon. They’re off for two weeks, the first of which is spent with Rick (and partially me), the second of which will be spent with their mom in Hawaii. I am jealous of this on two counts. One, why don’t adults get spring break? We could certainly use two weeks off. And don’t tell me use vacation time, because it’s not the same. Kids get all sorts of time off without having to use vacation time. Two, I want to go to Hawaii. I’ve never been there. I know, I shouldn’t be bitching, I do get to go to the Mall of America next month (and the girls are jealous), but the MoA is not a tropical paradise, rain and mudslides included or no.
So, with spring break looming over us and the infinite possibilities for hearing “I’m bored” as a result, I’ve come up with a project for the girls. Scrapbooking. Now, I can’t take credit for this. My mom bought the scrapbooks and stuff to decorate them for the girls as Easter presents. However, I bought more stuff and told Rick to get the girls to pick photos for the scrapbooks so that we can start it this weekend. That should kick the “I’m bored”s in the head, at least for one afternoon. And I have suddenly come up with inspiration for a scrapbook of my own, one of all my knitting projects. I’ve got scrap yarn leftover from most of the projects that I can decorate the pages with, so I think it will be cool.
On a completely non-craft related tangent, I had a Starbucks coupon for a free drink (I love it when the baristas are slow and give me coupons!), which I used this morning to get a grande skim caramel macchiato. I just wrote to Lori and said “I think these things have more caffeine than soda,” to which she replied, “They have a shot of espresso, dweeb!”. Yeah. No wonder I’m shaking like a leaf. Good thing I’m not on the bomb squad or a neurosurgeon.
Sweet Nothings March 6, 2006 ~ 10:25 pm
Posted by Julie in : Rick, The Girls , comments closed
Central Park
I get strange compliments all the time. My favorite up until this weekend was the time my friend Lori told me that I wasn’t “beautiful. You’re unique-looking.” To me, “unique” sounds a lot like “ugly,” but she has always assured me this is not the case. I still don’t know how I feel about being “unique-looking,” but it makes me laugh every time I think about it.
This weekend I got two strange compliments inside of two days, and I loved them both. Yesterday when the Youngest was at my house, she made me a poem out of the letters of my name. I especially like what she came up with for “U”:
Jubilant
Un-ugly
Loveing
Incredible
Exelent
The spelling of course, was hers. In fact, there is a little square drawn onto the page that says “Approved by The Oldest Stamp (but not the spelling).”
Apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, because the day before yesterday, her father told me: “You’ve taken such good care of me this week, honey. I can’t wait till you get sick!” After a second’s thought, he said “I mean so that I can take care of you.” Uh huh. Good thing I enjoy those backhanded compliments.
